Hands across the water: Kilmarnock's Irish links are forged for battle with Celtic

In the team which ventures from Ayrshire to the East End of Glasgow today, two natives of Northern Ireland, striker Josh Magennis and holding midfielder Sammy Clingan, have been revelations in their positions this season, with Mark Connolly, who hails from the town of Monaghan, just south of the border, arguably even more impressive at the back. More than that, though, barring some kind of Lazarus-like recovery from No 1 goalkeeper Craig Samson, the last line of defence will be Conor Brennan, a callow 20-year-old from Crossgar, County Down.

Patrolling the visiting goalmouth at that venue is a daunting enough assignment at the best of times, but you can multiply it by a factor of 10 when, including a solitary outing for Dungannon Swifts as a 16-year-old, it is only your fourth senior appearance.

Thankfully for his sake, Brennan does not appear the type to be spooked by his sudden fixation over the limelight. This is a confident young man who has had the gloves for his country's youth teams since Under-16 level, and is currently Northern Ireland's first choice at Under-21 level.

Perhaps a better reference point for what he wants to achieve in the game, though, resides in the form of his friend and confidant Kasper Schmeichel, with whom he trained during their three years together at Leicester City. Fully seven years older, Schmeichel, the son of Manchester United legend Peter, is now a Barclays Premier League regular and the undisputed Denmark No 1, and it is easy to forget that, when he was the same age, he too was playing first-team football in the Scottish top-flight, with Falkirk. Fellow Falkirk old boy Tim Krul, now of Newcastle United and the Netherlands, is another custodian whose talents were forged in Scotland.

"I was actually speaking to Kasper the other day and he was saying how he feels like he is at the peak of his career now, and is playing probably the best he has done," said Brennan. "He is Denmark's No 1 at the minute and has been for the last five or six months. He had a very good season in the Championship last season and while you can see the Premiership is a step up, from what I have seen he can definitely handle it. He was on-loan at Falkirk when he was younger, and to be playing in the Scottish top flight at such a young age is definitely a very good achievement.

"If I am lucky enough to get the game against Celtic then it would be the highlight of my career so far," he added. "This is only my fifth year in the game, but it would definitely be up there with the best experiences I have had."

Shiels guided Kilmarnock to a 2012 League Cup win against Celtic, then led the Ayrshire side to the first win in the East End of Glasgow in 55 years the following October. Brennan was his parting gift to the club, his last signing in the March before his acrimonious departure. Having kept tabs on the youngster's progress from his days patching a Northern Ireland youth squad together, a trial was fixed up within hours of the announcement of his imminent release from Leicester. As it turned out, Brennan's first experience of life as a Kilmarnock player was two-and-a-half hours' sleep in the Park Hotel adjacent to Rugby Park.

"I got told I wasn't going to get another contract at Leicester about February," he said. "I rang my agent that day and told him the news and within 24 hours I got a call back from him, saying 'can you go up and train with Kilmarnock tomorrow?'. It was 10 o'clock at night. I said 'tell me a bit about it' and he said Kenny was there, which I had forgotten, so I jumped in the car. I was only going for a couple of days so I didn't bring much - boots, shinpads and a few trackies. I threw them in and away I went. I think it took me something like six hours to get up the road. I got in about 4am but I was that excited, I didn't get much sleep."

The rest is history, but equally miraculous, some might say, is the fact that Kilmarnock arrive in Glasgow looking down on the SPFL Premiership champions in the table, an achievement only made more remarkable in the face of a simmering bonus row at the club.

Rumours that strike action could even be taken on the subject were being laughed off this week, but Brennan - who made his first-team bow off the bench after Samson injured his toe against Dundee United a fortnight ago - takes his role as potential guardian of the team's win bonuses seriously. They may need the luck of the Irish to achieve it, but becoming the latest Premiership side to scalp Celtic after their Europa League duties really would be priceless.

"In terms of the bonuses it's still ongoing, but as far as I am aware we are trying to get that sorted out as soon as we can," said Brennan. "But we are not thinking about that. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out Celtic aren't off to their best start in the league. I think it's definitely a good opportunity for us to go there. We are going to go there and try and take the three points."