NIALL McGINN is not surprised people are still talking about James Maddison’s stunning 25-yard free-kick winner for Aberdeen against Rangers on Sunday.
The Northern Ireland international might have found himself standing over the ball had he still be on the park at the time, but the winger insists there will be no arguing should a similar effort be required against Kilmarnock at Rugby Park today.
“In recent weeks, James and me have been practising free-kicks," McGinn said. “There's different positions where different players will fancy their chances. Me, him or Kenny McLean will be hitting them for different reasons.
“There'll be no falling out. It was just unbelievable seeing James score that one last Sunday.”
McGinn, named in Michael O’Neill’s squad for the World Cup qualifiers against San Marino and Germany this month, insisted he is an admirer of the on-loan Norwich City player.
“I was off the pitch on Sunday," McGinn said. "James is a confident lad and he's shown his abilities since he’s come to the club and for him to stand up and do that in the last minute of the game was sensational.
“To see it go in was just incredible as well. It can't be a good thing if our opponents don't know who's taking it. With the calibre of Kenny McLean and James Maddison hitting the free-kicks we can be happy with that.”
McGinn admitted that their three wins over seven days – against Dundee, a Betfred Cup quarter-final victory over St Johnstone and the win against Rangers – were a boost, hoping now to maintain their challenge to Celtic by taking the points at Rugby Park.
“I felt that last week was an important week for the club,” he said. "For us to come through it with three wins we're still on track and we're still an improving team. We're a force to be reckoned with. After a couple of wins and getting into the semi-final of the League Cup, things look a lot better.
“Drawing with Rangers at home a few weeks ago was probably the highlight for Kilmarnock and we know the calibre of players that they have.
“Their manager Lee Clark has made a few additions and they're probably still merging together as a team but we know it's going to be another difficult game.
“The expectations maybe aren't as high as when you play Celtic or Rangers but we know in the Scottish League that a lot of teams do rate wins against us.”
Clark, meanwhile, is looking for Kilmarnock to put the harsh lessons learnt from their punishing defeat by Celtic into practice against Aberdeen.
The Ayrshire side were demolished 6-1 by the Premiership leaders last week and now face the second-placed team.
Second-bottom Kilmarnock's quest for their first win in six games continues against an in-form Pittodrie side but manager Clark is hoping his players are better equipped for the task.
"The good thing about last week is that it shows us what we have to do better in terms of when we come up against the top teams," he said. "We have to be more aggressive and play higher up the pitch.
"When I say aggressive I mean aggressive in our pressing game. We showed a little bit too much respect for Celtic even though on Wednesday against Manchester City they went on to show what a good team they are now under Brendan Rodgers.
"I have been impressed with Aberdeen. I was impressed with Derek McInnes and the work he did last year.
"I had one game against them in the latter part of the season and he has made some good signings and he already had some big players."
Clark will be without 19-year-old midfielder Dean Hawkshaw, who is out for between two and three months with medial ligament damage sustained at Celtic.
Clark said: "It is a shame because the lad has got into the team and done really well, he has been a shining light for us.
"It is a bit of a blow but we have to give him the best opportunity to recover and rehab so when he comes back he is stronger again.
"As soon as my medical team assessed him on the pitch they made the decision to get him off so quickly.
"They said his knee was feeling a little bit loose we were expecting some bad news but probably not as bad as we have had.
"It is one of the consequences of playing the game. There was nothing involved in the challenge, it was just a normal block challenge. Dean is such a slight young lad and small and he is up against a lad of Tom Rogic's size and Dean doesn't pull out of anything.
"It was a perfectly fair challenge by both players but he has opened his knee in the challenge which is a bit unfortunate."
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