Andy Halliday seems nervous to face Celtic this weekend as he previewed Motherwell’s clash with the league leaders.
The former Middlesbrough and Livingston midfielder will pull on the Steelmen jersey on Sunday and look to have a go at Brendan Rodgers’ side.
As has so often been the case in recent seasons, Celtic away at Fir Park has always brought entertainment for 90 minutes and, if history is anything to go by, a barrel load of goals.
Halliday, though, has watched Celts destroy teams this season so far with their fast-paced and attacking football and he knows just how difficult it will be.
That’s why it appears the 33-year-old has a touch of nerves before facing the champions this weekend as he expects a similar type of football match.
The ‘Well head into the Scottish Premiership tie off the back of a disappointing home defeat to Dundee last weekend when Lyall Cameron hit the winner to hand Tony Docherty’s troops all three points.
Celtic make the trip to face Motherwell on Sunday afternoon
And Halliday does not want negativity to creep in, especially when it’s Celtic who are the visiting opponents.
“It’s going to be a difficult challenge, of course,” Halliday said ahead of the weekend’s clash. “I’ve not been involved for Motherwell in a Celtic game but I feel they have always been competitive games.
“They have always been tight. Celtic have came out on top in a lot of them but there’s been a theme of a Stuart Kettlewell Motherwell being well in the games.
“We’ve only lost twice by more than one goal, and you look at the one at Fir Park last year when Celtic scored a couple of last minute goals.
“It’s going to a difficult task, they are a very good team.
“But I think we’ve shown we are a good team as well.
“As players, we over-criticised ourselves and it maybe affected us for three or four days.
“We’re always told to enjoy the night after wins and then get back to work the next day.
“It’s got to be the same with defeats. The best advice I ever got as a youngster was you can’t get too high or too low, you just need to dust yourselves down and go again.
Motherwell don’t have a strong record against Celtic
“It’s simple but it’s true.
“That performance on Saturday was unexpected and we’ll analyse where it came from.”
Celtic will also have extra confidence for the domestic fixture this weekend if they can do the business against Atalanta this evening.
Rodgers and his squad are in Italy preparing for the 5.45pm kick-off in Bergamo and hope to perform significantly better than they did against Borussia Dortmund on matchday two of the Champions League.
