Steve Clarke: Celtic ‘set the standard’ in Scottish football

Kilmarnock manager Steve Clarke. Pic: SNS/Bill Murray

Killie beat the league leaders 2-1 in September but Brendan Rodgers’ men responded with a 5-1 thrashing of the Ayrshire side when the two teams met at Parkhead in December.

Celtic lost 2-0 to classy Spanish outfit Valencia in the first-leg of their Europa League last-32 tie in Glasgow on Thursday night but the former West Brom boss will all but ignore that set-back for the Hoops as he looks for his first win in five matches.

Clarke said: “Celtic are in form - take out Thursday night’s game, it was a difficult game for them. I thought Valencia were very good.

“They will be looking to bounce back from that.

“They have shown consistently more or less since we went to Celtic Park in December and got turned over that they are the team that sets the standard in Scottish football and we have to aspire to get to as close to that standard as we can.

“We want to do better than we did the last time we played Celtic.

“On that day Celtic were very, very good and we didn’t reach the standards that we expect to reach. That was reflected in the scoreline and we look to address that on Sunday.

“If we reach our standard and play as we can play, and Celtic are a little bit below their best we can make it a difficult afternoon for them.”

Celtic had won seven out of seven domestic matches since the turn of the year, scoring 21 goals and conceding none until that run was brought to a halt by Valencia.

Clarke remains impressed with how well the Parkhead side have performed following the winter break.

He said: “They have been really good. They have played well, good pace in their team, good intensity and they always start the game very, very quick.

“So we know all that. We know a lot about Celtic, they know a lot about us.

“But if we can reach our standards I will be happy.”