WE DON’T FEAR YOU

Aberdeen’s McLean has heard enough praise about League Cup rivals Celtic

KENNY McLEAN is tired of hearing about Celtic’s dominance this season and intends to help Aberdeen give Brendan Rodgers’ unbeaten side a rude awakening this afternoon. Celtic have won 11 and drawn one of their 12 league games to open up a 10-point lead on the Dons and saunter into today’s Betfred Cup Final without conceding a goal. Two of those top-flight successes have come against Aberdeen, who twice last term defeated a Ronny Deila team that is now regarded as a shadow of the current vibrant Rodgers unit. Pittodrie midfielder McLean has heard enough about how much Celtic have improved under the new regime and last night stressed Aberdeen believe they can cause a shock at Hampden. McLean, who comes into the showpiece tie on the back of a double at Inverness last weekend, said: ‘There’s a lot of expectation on Celtic to go and clean up this year. ‘It has been well publicised that Celtic have strengthened under Brendan Rodgers, people speaking about them being unbeatable and all this. We’ve got our own ideas about that. And we’ll definitely be trying to change that on Sunday. So will other teams in other cups.

‘You look around the changing room and we’ve got the quality of player there that can hurt Celtic. We’ve done so in the past, last season.

‘The manager has a full, fit squad to pick from for the first time in a long while. It’s a great problem for him to have, especially with the quality we’ve got.

‘Everybody is speaking about how good Celtic are, but we know we have that quality that can break them down and get a positive result.

‘You look at the opposition, of course you do, but we’re going into the game high in confidence. We have a bit of momentum, we are playing well.

‘Of course we will be underdogs with a lot of people, but it doesn’t affect us. Everyone here 100 per cent believes we can get a result.’