Preview of Saturday's Trip to Parkhead....

Here we take a quick look at the task facing Dunfermline this coming Saturday......

Dunfermline Athletic this week travel into the champion's den. Parkhead is the destination as Dunfermline aim to become only the second team in Europe (after Ajax) to take anything from Celtic on their own patch this season!

So the statistics are not in our favour this week then! Celtic go into Saturday's game as overwhelming favourites and rightly so. But if it was as cut and dried as that, then Dunfermline would be as well not even turning up.

Dunfermline must look back to their first half performance against Celtic's blue cousins only two weeks ago. By getting stuck in from the off and not allowing the 'superstar' players to settle, damage can be achieved.

Dunfermline have been boosted this week by the news that Ian Ferguson, Marco Ruitenbeek and Lee Bullen have re-signed to the club. Marco will be looking to pull through a late fitness test before having the chance to regain his goalie gloves from Scott Y Thomson.

Having Youssef Rossi back last week turned out to be an unexpected bonus. The man has obvious class, and no matter what individuals may think of his ethics, Dunfermline need the best XI players they can get on the park. Especially against the Old Firm. Who is to say that Rossi may have prevented the 4 goal collapse against Rangers?

Dunfermline have a far better record at Parkhead than they do at Ibrox (which would not be difficult) Back to back wins there have been achieved and Dunfermline did win there as recently as 1997 when Hamish French and David Bingham combined to make Wim Jansen's home debut a miserable one.

Scott Thomson tussles with Henrik Larsson during December's tie at East End Park pic: © SNS

Celtic will be smarting after their league cup exit, hopefully they will have picked up a few niggling injuries after the 120 minutes they played on a dreadful Hampden pitch on Tuesday night. Dunfermline must concentrate from the off if they are to have any chance on Saturday. All too often, the golden rule of not letting in an early goal has been shattered leaving us with Mount Everest to climb, rather than 'just' K2.......

Here's to a good performance from the Pars on Saturday. Other clubs have come close to taking Celtic's 100% home record away (Motherwell, Livingston, even Hearts with their exciting brand of football........) Go for it on Saturday Pars, bring back any form of bonus on the route to a top 6 place.