McINNES WILL BORROW FROM CLARKE PLAYBOOK AS KILLIE GO ON DEFENSIVE

WHEN Kilmarnock finished third in the league three years ago under Steve Clarke, they did so by playing football that was effective but not always entertaining. Clarke didn’t try to play Celtic or Rangers at their own game, instead deploying his players in a manner that stifled and frustrated superior opponents. A raft of wins and draws vindicated that decision. Little surprise, then, that current boss Derek McInnes plans on following a similar blueprint. Newly promoted from the Championship, he knows there’s little merit in sending out an attack-minded selection for tomorrow’s lunchtime visit of Ange Postecoglou’s champions. Killie will try to stop Celtic in their tracks and punish them on the counter-attack or from a setplay. It was successful to a point for 50 minutes against Rangers at Ibrox last weekend and will have a better chance of succeeding at home on a plastic pitch. ‘If we go toe-to-toe with Celtic there will only be one winner,’ admitted forward Rory McKenzie, who featured in two previous home wins over the Parkhead club under Clarke. ‘We’ll be set up to stop them playing, make fouls, slow it down then try to play when we get the ball. We don’t want a free-flowing spectacle. There’s nothing wrong with that. We got results under Steve Clarke and never played out from the back. It was about being hard to play against and making it tough for them.’ Boss McInnes, who has allowed Lee Hodson to move on loan to Partick Thistle but could start Jordan Jones for his first league appearance of his second spell, admits it is a style of play that demands a lot from his players. ‘Celtic will dominate the ball for long spells and we have to be happy out of possession,’ said McInnes. ‘At the same time we don’t want the game to be stretched because Celtic have players who can exploit the extra space.’ This will be McInnes’ first face-to-face meeting with Postecoglou and he admits to being impressed with how the Australian coped with adversity when he first arrived at Celtic. ‘I’ve never met him, it’s just been a couple of texts back and forth,’ he added. ‘But like everyone else, there is a high regard with how he conducts himself. I liked the cut of his jib from the start and how he was. ‘He is someone who has been good for Celtic and Celtic looks good for him at this stage.’