DEAN Lyness has admitted that St Mirren will travel to Ibrox on Boxing Day confident of causing an upset against Rangers after their goalless draw with Celtic - despite being without a raft of key players again.
Lyness performed brilliantly in a rearranged cinch Premiership match against the Parkhead club at the SMiSA Stadium on Wednesday night even though it was his first appearance in three months.
The goalkeeper pulled off a series of outstanding saves as Ange Postecoglou’s side dominated the encounter – and his inspired display was matched by all of his outfield team mates.
Jim Goodwin - who was disappointed the SPFL rejected two appeals to have the Celtic and Rangers matches postponed following a Covid-19 outbreak in his squad - is set to be without several regular starters in Govan.
However, English journeyman Lyness is confident that St Mirren can give the Scottish champions a scare if they reproduce their midweek showing.
“You would much rather be playing big games constantly than not,” he said. “That is what it is like at this time of year with the busy schedules.
“It will also be a special experience for the young boys in the team to go to Ibrox. But after Wednesday night we will back ourselves. It is a massive confidence booster.
“We can take so many positives and hopefully we can build on it going into the Rangers game. We showed so much fight and character.
“It is an incredible opportunity and experience for the young lads. These boys have aspirations to play senior football week in, week out and this will only help in the long run.
“We will just be encouraging them to make the most of it and to try and grasp the opportunity with both hands.”
St Mirren only had 16 per cent possession on Wednesday night and managed just two attempts on target during the course of the 90 minutes – but Lyness argued the game would have been exactly the same if Goodwin had had a full complement of players to choose from.
“When you are playing the Old Firm it is always going to be like that even if you have a full team,” he said. “You have just got to try and grind it out.
“We had one or two half chances and they could have gone our way on another night. But we will not be greedy. We will take the point.”
Lyness, whose previous outing had been against Stenhousemuir in the Premier Sports Cup group stages back in July, insisted that he had his team mates had treated the Celtic match like any other game despite their unhappiness it had to go ahead.
“When the gaffer named the team I was prepared as always,” he said. “If anything it was easier as you go in with a nothing to lose mentality.
“I think for us we just prepared for a game until we were told otherwise. Maybe it (a sense of injustice) did motivate us, maybe it didn't. As soon as you get on the pitch you just go into football mode and try to win regardless. “
“As a goalkeeper playing against Celtic you know you are going to be quite busy. It was nice to contribute so early on and hopefully it did give everyone a bit of belief and a lift so early on.”
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