John McGinn backs confident Hibs to leave Celtic with bloodied noses

BY ALAN TEMPLE – @CCP_Sport

HIBS star John McGinn is adamant the capital club are ready to give Celtic “a nosebleed” and end their remarkable unbeaten run.

Brendan Rodgers’ side have now gone domestic 57 matches without defeat, with their last reverse coming against St Johnstone on May 11, 2016.

The Easter Road outfit will be the next side to take a crack at the Hoops when they pitch up at Parkhead on Saturday.

And McGinn insists the Hibees are determined not to be overawed by the challenge despite going into the clash as overwhelming underdogs.

He said: “We are full of confidence and, if anything, we are disappointed not to be even higher up in the table because I think we have played really well recently.

“So we’ll look forward to playing Celtic and hopefully giving them a nosebleed.

“It will take belief. I think a lot of teams that play Celtic rightly respect them – but they take it too far. Whereas we are going to go there and have a real go at Celtic. We’ll be trying to win. Of course, we will respect Celtic too, but we need to have that belief in ourselves. The boys in the dressing room definitely do.

“It’s not going to be easy and Parkhead is a difficult place to go, but we want to be the team that finally breaks that record. We know we are capable of it so we will do our best to make it happen.”

A potentially blockbuster fortnight for McGinn will then see him report for international duty with Scotland after being named in Gordon Strachan’s squad to face Slovakia and Slovenia alongside club teammate Steven Whittaker.

Tough

McGinn won his fourth senior cap as a late substitute during last month’s 3-0 win in Lithuania and will hope to play a part as Scotland seek six points to secure an unlikely World Cup playoff berth in dramatic fashion.

He told Hibs TV: “The best thing you can do in football is represent your country and, with two really important games coming up, I’m delighted that Whits [Whitakker] and myself have been called up.

“It’s two really tough nations we are up against. Slovakia gave us a bit of a doing last time and Slovenia could end up being a massive game – so it’s something for all the boys to look forward to and hopefully we get two positive results.”