Power comfortable with underdog tag after years of punching up
BEING written off doesn’t faze Alan Power, he’s used to it.
The Kilmarnock captain believes he’s made a career out of proving people wrong. Emerge from Hampden victorious tomorrow and he’ll be accepting apologies until the end of his days.
There likely won’t be enough humble pie to go around if Killie can oust Celtic at Hampden to reach a first major final in over 10 years, so heavy are Ange Postecoglou’s team as favourites.
The midfielder would rather his side not be such massive underdogs, but you can bet your life they’ll be using it as motivation come 5.30pm on Saturday.
“I’ve been an underdog all my life, people doubting me and not thinking we can do it,” the Irishman said. “Hopefully, Celtic are thinking that exact same thing after beating us last week and we can spring a surprise on everybody.
“I think you have to use it as fuel. Nobody wants to be seen as an underdog in any walk of life, but that’s just the way it is, whether it’s a working man’s life, business, whatever it can be. Everybody strives to spring a little surprise and prove people wrong, don’t they?”
Regardless of what the odds say, this is an occasion to savour for Power and most of his team- mates; a career first at the national stadium they will be aware may never come round again.
“This will be right up there for me in my time at Killie,” he said. We’re hoping for a great occasion and a good atmosphere for the fans as well. I think most of the players are in the same boat as me, maybe apar t f rom Kyle
Lafferty, so everyone is looking forward to it.
“I think it’s a free hit. We know the odds are pretty much stacked against us, but it’s a cup semi- final and anything can happen on the day. We’re hoping to have the rub of the green, a bit of luck on our side and hopefully to nick a couple of goals ourselves.”
You feel whoever notches first will have a considerable say in Saturday’s outcome. Should Celtic inch their noses in front, it’s difficult to see a way back for Derek McInnes’s side.
They contained the Premiership champions manfully for 44 minutes of Saturday’s league meeting, only to switch off for a moment and be ruthlessly punished by Jota. Offering something at the other end will be paramount, and Power says Killie have been working hard on the training pitch to make that happen.
“Sometimes that’s the hardest thing, trying to impose yourself on Celtic, to give them something to think about,” Power said. “We’ve been working this week on how we think, a game plan towards that. It can give us a little bit of a breather, as well.
“Hopefully, we have a few tricks up our sleeve. If we nick a goal, we know how solid we can be. We’ll be looking for that first goal.
“For the first 44 minutes last weekend, we were pretty solid. So, we had a decent gameplan, but we were punished for a lapse in concentration.
“We know that can’t happen this week. We know how tough it is going to be, we are u nder no illusions about that, but it’s a free hit in the semi- final of a cup and we’ll give it our all and see how it goes.”