Celts scalp is Dicker’s motivation
IT’S only mid-November but no Premiership team has a realistic chance of stopping the Celtic juggernaut careering towards six-in-a-row.
Instead, the rest of their league rivals find themselves in competition to become the first team to inflict a domestic defeat on Brendan Rodgers’ men.
Kilmarnock may have lost 6-1 at Parkhead in September, but midfielder Gary Dicker believes Lee Clark’s side are more than capable of taking their scalp under the lights at Rugby Park tonight.
The 30-year-old admits, however, that the task would be so much easier if Celtic’s unbeaten players were already becoming distracted by the prospects of next week’s visit of Barcelona and the Betfred Cup final against Aberdeen.
‘Becoming the first team to beat Celtic would be a real coup — and their run has got to come to an end at some point,’ said Dicker.
‘Obviously, Celtic have gone up a gear to another level this season. They’re the best team in the division by a clear stretch.
‘But that’s what would make a win against them such a massive confidence booster for us and there’s no reason why it can’t happen.
‘Celtic have Barcelona in the Champions League next midweek and then they have the final against Aberdeen the following Sunday. Hopefully, they’ll take their eye off this one.
‘Yes, they are unbeaten, but we’re capable of hurting any team in this league because we have goalscorers in our team. Then again, so do Celtic!’
Dubliner Dicker knows all about Celtic and the Scottish scene. His brother and friends are coming over from Ireland to watch him play this evening, but will be sitting with the fans in the away end.
He rejects the notion that, to outsiders, Celtic’s dominance of the division devalues the Scottish Premiership.
‘Not really,’ he argued. ‘It’s hard for people down south to judge the standard up here because it’s a unique situation when you have two clubs, Celtic and Rangers, who are so much bigger than the rest. It’s much more of a level playing field down in England.
‘The top four up here are in their own little league, with Celtic out in front and the rest of us playing catch-up.
‘But I believe Kilmarnock can finish in the top six. It’s going to be tough but, if you don’t aim for something, you don’t get it.
‘It’s going to be a challenge because Celtic are the one team we’ve never really done well against since I came here in February.
‘But, so far this season, we’ve done well in the midweek games under the lights at Rugby Park.’
Dicker would rather forget Killie’s last match against Celtic at Parkhead in September.
The visitors took the lead with a stunning strike from 43 yards by Souleymane Coulibaly. But Rodgers’ side duly powered back with six goals. When Aberdeen beat Killie 4-0 in the next game, the knives were out for Clark and his men.
However, they bounced back by going on a run which included just one defeat in five, the black mark being a disappointing 3-0 reverse at Ibrox.
Dicker believes they’ve made a point to their many detractors and hopes they can again show their character tonight.
‘After you lose 10 goals in two games, you can either crumble or get over it,’ he shrugged.
‘People wrote us off. Nobody gave us a chance in our next five games. They looked at our fixtures and thought we wouldn’t even get a point. But we won two and drew two.
‘People can’t wait to jump all over you when you lose. You could win five in a row and not hear from anyone, then you lose two and everyone’s asking you what’s going wrong.
‘I learned at a young age that everyone likes to knock you down. A good thing about football is proving people wrong. And I feel like we’ve proved a few wrong recently.
‘The gaffer has done a good job here, but he probably doesn’t get the credit he deserves.
‘When he arrived last season, we looked dead and buried. The players and the management deserve a lot of credit.’