Steven Pressley says Dundee need ‘near-perfection’ and ‘luck’ to win at Celtic

Steven Pressley stressed that Dundee will require a combination of “near-perfection” and “luck” if they are to notch their first away win over Celtic since Martin O’Neill’s first season in charge of the Hoops.

The Dark Blues defeated the champions 2-0 in their most recent meeting at Dens Park in October in what proved to be Brendan Rodgers’ penultimate league game in charge.

But Pressley believes winning at Parkhead on Wednesday, in what is expected to be O’Neill’s final game in caretaker charge, will be even tougher given that they have not triumphed there since May 2001.

That 2-0 victory almost quarter of a century ago was secured by a double from the late Fabian Caballero just after the 73-year-old Northern Irishman had secured the first of his three league titles during his glittering five-year stint in charge of Celtic between 2000 and 2005.

“I said prior to the last Celtic game that we needed a near-perfect performance,” said Dark Blues boss Pressley. “Well, you need a near-perfect performance, plus you need an element of luck to go and win at Celtic Park.

“It’s been 25 years nearly since we’ve won there. And it’s 1988-89 since Dundee recorded two wins against Celtic in the one season. So I think when you begin to look at statistics, it shows the enormity of the task.

“But it’s not beyond us, we’ll certainly go there trying to win the game. Another interesting statistic is the last time Dundee won there, Martin O’Neill was the manager and Shaun Maloney (his current assistant) was on the bench (as a substitute), so you just never know.”