Hoops backlash warning from Aberdeen’s wide-bhoy Niall McGinn

THE former Celtic winger Niall McGinn has warned his Aberdeen team-mates that Celtic are now ready to turn their complete focus on the pursuit of a back-to-back treble and that could be bad news for the Dons and the rest of the chasing pack.

“They are out of Europe and they are going to concentrate on the league and the Scottish Cup,” McGinn stated.

“It could be a disadvantage for the rest of the teams like ourselves and Rangers, who are there or thereabouts. But it’s got the makings of an interesting couple of weeks which will dictate whether there are going to be other teams closer to that first place or not.

Will it be any different this season or will Celtic simple move up a gear and move away from the chasing pack? McGinn reckons that we’ll have to wait and see.

“I know from my own experience in Europe it can go one of two ways. It could be an off day for Celtic but with the resources they have they can freshen things up.

“Scott Sinclair came off the bench on Thursday night and he could play on Sunday.

“So, I don’t buy into the fact that they will be jet lagged and having to travel to Aberdeen.

“They could have an off-day or they could come out with all guns blazing, like they did earlier in the season.”

“I think it’s still early doors. Our target was reaching Cup Finals. With the season Celtic had last season, we were just concentrating on second spot.But we are coming into a very important period in the season.

“We just want to get back to winning ways and there’s no better time than tomorrow.

McGinn left Aberdeen after the Scottish Cup Final defeat but after a brief stint in South Korea he re-joined Derek McInnes’ side. He will have kept an eye on results while in Asian football and knows that the losing sequence to Celtic has continued for Aberdeen.

“I wasn’t here when we lost a couple of games but last season was a special season for them.

“We managed to beat them the season before that so we are capable of beating Celtic.

“But we want to do it more often. The longer you go without beating them the more frustrating it gets.

McGinn believes that had the Dos taken points off both Celtic and Rangers then the league table would be much more interesting than it is now this morning.

“The boys have been very consistent in other matches but we want to beat Celtic and we want to beat Rangers. If that happens it could be very interesting. Hopefully we do that on Sunday.

“We want to bounce back from last weekend.

“The whole performance all over the park against Hibernian was not good enough and we want to put it right.”