While their local rivals took a pasting at Parkhead a few days ago, Dundee defender Brian Easton reckons the Dark Blues can do the city proud when they face Celtic on Sunday.
The SPL champions ran riot in a 6-2 win over Dundee United at the weekend and will now host a Dundee side languishing 15 points adrift of safety at the foot of the table.
But, even though a game against Neil Lennon’s men represents a daunting prospect at any time, Easton firmly believes his side have a real chance of taking something from the fixture.
“Going to Parkhead at any time is going to be a really tough task,” he admitted.
“You’ve got players there who are all confident and playing for places for the Champions League games. You saw how they dealt with Dundee United, so we’re under no illusion about how hard it’s going to be.
“It’s one of these things. You go to Celtic and you don’t expect to get anything, but you are just hoping you can catch them on an off day.
“But from our point of view we’ve just got to make sure we’re disciplined and everyone is at their game. It’s a game where, if you get one player who is not at the races, you can be turned over.
“We need to make sure everybody’s ready for the game and hopefully we can compete and do well. You never know because you see teams going there and picking up results, so hopefully we can go and do that as well.”
Bouncing back from their 1-0 loss at Aberdeen is the first priority for Barry Smith’s men, and Easton admits Sunday’s game can’t come quick enough for the Dark Blues.
“We should have got something out of the Aberdeen game but it was a poor goal to lose,” he said. “It was from our corner and it happened in the Hearts game, the Ross County game and now the Aberdeen game.
“We’ve had a corner or a free-kick and they’ve hit us on the break. But I don’t think we’ve got any other choice other than to pick ourselves up and go again.
“We just need to take it game by game and keep winning we just need to forget about the how the league table looks.
“The comforting thing is that we’ve been playing well, apart from maybe the Ross County game and the Hearts game. Every other game in 2013 I think we’ve done pretty well.”
Most people have already written off Dundee’s chances of survival, and Easton believes that could possibly play into their hands in the coming weeks.
“You do see teams getting a wee bit complacent,” he added.
“They look at the table and maybe see Dundee down there and think they’ve got an easy game this week. But the teams who have played us in recent weeks, I’m sure they’ve left the games thinking, ‘How are they down there so far adrift?’.
“From our point of view we need to make sure we defend well and start scoring a few more goals. There’s still plenty to play for.
“I don’t think it’s going to be a problem from now until the end of the season to make sure the boys are all giving 100%.
“You’ve got contracts to play for, you’ve got to make sure you keep your place in the starting line-up, you’ve got the cup and you’ve got professional pride as well.
“Everyone wants to do well and, no matter what sort of game it is, you want to be winning.”