Miller says Premier newcomers can give champions a ‘fright’

0 Kenny Miller wants his players to express themselves. Livingston player/manager Kenny Miller has backed his top-flight newcomers to handle the intimidating Celtic Park atmosphere on the day the reigning champions unfurl the Premiership flag.

The Lions are the visitors on Saturday for the league curtain raiser and the majority of former Scotland and Rangers striker Miller’s team will play at the home of Brendan Rodgers’ side for the first time.

The West Lothian outfit will attempt to build on an encouraging Betfred Cup Group F victory and Miller insists he will make sure his players know exactly what they can expect to face this weekend.

He said: “You can try to give them as much information as possible and that’s something we’ll be doing because it will be a first for a lot of them going into that type of atmosphere and playing in front of that type of crowd on a day when they unfurl the flag as well.

“We’ve had a successful Betfred Cup campaign, not a lot of time to get prepared but we’ve got a good week to prepare and there is a lot of footage there to look at what we’re going to be facing.

“It’s a big, big reward for the work they’ve put in over the last two years and every single one of them deserves it.

“There is no getting away from the fact that you’re going to be under pressure for large spells of the game.

“It’s about us putting the structure in place that gives us the best possible chance to deal with that.

“I think the ground work has already been done with that and this team, it’s about fine-tuning a few things and dealing with the multiple threats that they have.”

Despite being well aware of Celtic’s attacking prowess, Miller hopes his players can give the champions a fright.

He added: “If you want to win a game, you need to use the ball well and score goals. We’ve got players in there that can go and express themselves and they will be given a platform to go and do it but it will be from a solid unit.

“We’ll need to be right on our game on and off the ball if we want to come away with anything.

“We’ll only come away from it having enjoyed it if they give everything they’ve got and put the hard yards in.”

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