Scottish Cup Quarter Final Action This Weekend Wednesday, 19:45

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.

Deja View:- The omens are certainly doing their best to help Inverness.  There are many parallels with a certain date in February 2000.  The same two teams drawn together for a Scottish Cup game.  First game cancelled because of the weather. Game to be played in midweek, three days after original date.  St Mirren and Aberdeen drawing 1-1 in the same round, 0-0 at half time and Saints took the lead for a short time. I'm not superstitious, but I think Jupiter may have aligned with Mars, and, just in case, my fingers are crossed, and I bought some lucky white heather, I found a four leafed clover, my path was crossed by a black cat and I saw a rabbit with only three feet.

I'm off to kiss the blarney stone to be sure, to be sure, and I won't be stepping on any cracks on the pavement or getting on a number 13 bus.

The God's are with us I tell you.  As I said, I'm not superstitious, so let's get stuck in.

Heavy overnight snow and sleet meant that the original Sunday afternoon date was put on hold as the pitch was deemed to be waterlogged and unplayable by the match official.  With the game being rescheduled for Wednesday evening, it now looks unlikely that there will be live TV coverage at the moment and this will mean a cash blow in excess of £80K for both clubs, although I'm sure it will only be loose change for Celtic, whereas Inverness will find it harder to balance the books with the loss of this revenue.

The draw has now been made for the semi-finals and with eight teams still in the pot, then it's a little complicated.

Scottish Cup semi-final draw:

Dundee United or Motherwell v Brechin or St Johnstone

St Mirren or Aberdeen v Inverness CT or Celtic

The semi-final ties will be played on the weekend of 16-17 April, (weather permitting) at Hampden Park.

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The omens have once again paired Inverness against the might of Glasgow Celtic in the Scottish FA Cup.  Celtic managed to battle their way past Rangers, literally, after a turbulent replay at Parkhead saw them defeat their Glasgow rivals 1-0, Mark Wilson netting the decisive winner with a mishit shot that eluded McGregor and Bougherra as it bounced upwards into the net.  This game though was more notable for angry scenes during and after the match, with three Rangers players red carded and McCoist and Lennon squaring up as tempers frayed in the aftermath.  Such was the animosity and fury displayed, MP's were debating the right's and wrong's of the whole fiasco in Holyrood and Strathclydes' finest were taking a closer look at the events of that evening.  In truth, such incident's have been brewing for a long time and it all reached boiling point for a variety of reasons.  It's not for me to judge these incidents, but in my opinion it's about time these two clubs returned to playing football and show a little respect for each other, the referees, and the organising body, not to mention fans of other teams.  It's no wonder the fans get into bother when managers and players are behaving like shell-suited Burberry wearing street brawlers.  For their troubles, Mr McCoist and Mr Lennon have received dugout bans for their part in the rather unsavoury scenes.

Inverness on the other hand played out a more gentlemanly affair against Greenock Morton and meandered into the quarters with a clinical display, routing the Cappielow side 5-1.  This result was a refreshing change from the turgid displays being dished out whilst on SPL duty, although a clear the air meeting seems to have lifted some of the gloom surrounding recent SPL performances.

It's not quite a western, but I'll let you make your mind up who The Good, The Bad and The Ugly were.

The Scottish FA Cup:- This is the oldest national cup competition in the world and the first winners were Queens Park in season 1873-1874.  In fact, the Spiders are still the third most successful side in this tournament with 10 wins to their credit, the last being in 1893, I think Scarlet Pimple and Johnboy still have their programmes from that game.  Celtic top the list on 34, Rangers next on 33 and in fourth equal come Aberdeen and Hearts with 7 triumphs.  Vale of Leven, Clyde, St mirren and Kilmarnock all have a hat-trick of wins, Vales dominance in the early years includes consecutive wins from 1887-1889.

Cup shocks:- there's been a few, but then again, too few to mention ................................ Crikey!  I don't know what came over me there, I almost burst into song.  Aye, cup shocks are what makes it all worthwhile.  It does seem like a long time now since Berwick Rangers humbled the mighty Glasgow Rangers, 1-0 in 1967, but let's not worry about them.  This century alone, Celtic themselves have been on the wrong end of cup scalps.  In 2006, Clyde took down high flying Celtic 2-1 with a patchwork side.  That was the introduction to Scottish football for one Roy Keane, and his debut saw Celtic humiliated by the Bully Wee.  It could have been much worse as an inspired Clyde were by far the better side in that game and had a couple of goals ruled out for offside and keeper Boruc kept the score down.  This brings me on nicely to March 2003, when Dennis Wyness sent Celtic crashing out of the cup in front of 6,050 fans in Inverness, rounding off a neat passing move with a clinical finish just before half time.  That of course, was not the first time Inverness had upset the big bhoys.  Who can forget supercaleygoballistic................ you know how it goes, Feb 8th 2000, John Barnes etc.  That was the game that announced the arrival of the wee team from the Highlands to a global audience.  In fact, talking about wee teams from the Highlands, Celtic had an uncomfortable time last season, when the team from the market town of Dingwall upset the odds to reach the final, much to the chagrin of the Inverness support, how dare they.  So, miracles do happen, let's see if there are any more miracles left in the world of football.

***Note, the kick off time for this re-arranged game is Wednesday 16th March 19:45***

Ginger Jaggy will describe the pros and cons of this cup tie for us, so read on.

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What is happening at 3.30pm on Sunday afternoon?  (Nothing I'm afraid, it's slushing). Is it time for Super Caley to go ballistic again as the Bhoys of Celtic travel Northwards for a massive Scottish Cup quarter final? For the winner a trip to Hampden awaits with a realistic chance of winning the competition as a whole. It is a huge ask for Inverness to pull off another cup shock and become heroes of the highlands again. Celtic is the current SPL leaders with a staggering 31 point difference between the two clubs, but Sunday is a cup game and the boys in blue and red stripes will stand toe to toe with Celtic, there are no advantages.

Fixture History

This season, Celtic has beaten us twice with one draw between the two clubs. Celtic won the opener 1-0 thanks to a fantastic goal scored by Paddy McCourt even though Inverness matched them stride for stride during long periods of the game. The second was a Co-op Cup tie at Parkhead when Celtic hammered a weakened Inverness side 6-0. But the high point for us was grabbing that valuable point at Parkhead back in November when 2-0 down we clawed our way back thanks to Richie Foran and Grant Munro, to see us go unbeaten for 12 months on the road.

That is this season but there have been memorable clashes between the two clubs in this very competition. The last Scottish cup game in this fixture was only played 3 years ago when Celtic triumphed thanks to a late Man Utd style come back. In a game which I remember attending Caley Thistle took the lead thanks to some brilliant wing play by Barry Wilson, he slotted the ball across to the unmarked Graham Bayne who put us ahead. That remained the only goal all the way up until the 89^th minute, as Celtic huffed and puffed for an equaliser. First a deep corner was nodded back by Stephen McManus onto the head of Stephen Pressley to equalise. But a replay (which was the least we deserved) was cruelly snatched from us by KennyMiller as he hit a decent curling shot from just on the 'D' to send Celtic through in a game they barely deserved to win. I remember the gut wrenching feeling afterwards which I'm sure was felt by every other Inverness supporter in the ground that day.

It hasn't been all doom and gloom though, with far happier tales to tell. I unfortunately wasn't there that day but there were a fair few who were at Parkhead on the 8^th February 2000. This has to be the greatest day in the clubs history. Then we were just another first division team, and we had progressed through the divisions within our own means, but no one gave us a prayer of progressing in this tie. Who would have expected a newly promoted side to division one to come up against the likes of Ian Wright, Lubo Moravcik, Paul Lambert, Mark Viduka etc and triumph. Probably no one, but the impossible happened as

Finally another cup upset as we knocked out Celtic again this time in Inverness thanks to a Dennis Wyness goal. Again Celtic was full of star names with the likes of Henrik Larsson, John Hartson, Chris Sutton and Neil Lennon etc and had actually beaten the likes of Liverpool and Stuttgart on their route to the UEFA cup final. What a couple of victories they were.

Form Guide

We come into this match in a period of inconsistent form. Poor performances blighted our chances of a top six spot with consecutive 2-0 defeats against Hibs and Dundee United. But last weekend the supporters saw a much improved performance in the 3-0 victory over Motherwell. The players looked hungrier and more determined which has got expectation levels rising that we can pull off another shock against the SPL leaders.

As for Celtic there is not much to say. They have been in great form since our last meeting in November when they have beaten Rangers three times. The two league victories have helped them scale the summit of the SPL table with them being five points clear even though the blue half have two games in hand. The other victory was a Scottish Cup replay which has set up this tie. Celtic looked invincible sweeping aside all challengers but were beaten at Motherwell 2-0 to show that they are not as invincible as everyone thought.

GingerJaggies thoughts

I don’t think any supporter of Caley Thistle will question Celtics tag of being favourites, but all I will say is if you have  read this preview, then you can see that the impossible can become reality. Besides there is a much smaller gap between the clubs now which should hopefully show them not to underestimate us. I also think that we can do it. Richie Foran has shown his quality in the SPL so far and will be key if we have any hopes of progressing. Hopefully Hayes will be fit again to tear the Celtic full backs to pieces, he will be a vital cog in our attacking midfield. I feel that if the players can get stuck into their players then we can really dare to believe that we can become Celtic’s nemesis for a third time. I have also added a hyperlink to the 3-1 win. Im sure everyone has seen it before but it is a bit extra to get the fans pumped up for Sunday.

***Latest Team News***

Inverness received a boost with the news that Hayes and Doran were both ready for a comeback, should Butcher re-shuffle the pack.  Hayes will require a minor operation on his ankle after the season finishes, but would be able to play should he be deemed fit enough.  David Proctor is still out and Graeme Shinnie is recovering at home after a stomach problem hospitalised him.  Better news of Kenny Gillet, the left back is training hard but will not be ready for a week or three.  Dani Sanchez is also healing well and is stepping up his leg work, which may see him return sooner than expected.  The additional three days will have given Hayes and Doran more recovery time and could work in our favour.

Celtic were dealt a blow with the news that Daniel Majstorovic could be out for eight weeks with a fractured toe.  He was injured during the 2-0 home win over Accies.  Skipper Scott Brown and scorer from the last round Mark Wilson are suspended for this game, but striker Gary Hooper is recovering quicker than expected and has a chance of making this one.  The former Scunthorpe United player has been in fine form since joining Celtic.  Hooper was scoring a goal every other game for Scunthorpe and has even bettered that with Celtic, scoring 13 SPL goals in 17 appearances.  Likewise for Celtic, Hooper has had an extra three days to recover and could be in contention for a start.

Other Quarter finals

St Mirren 1-1 Aberdeen (Sat 12:15):-  Paul McGowan opened for Saints, but a Rory McArdle injury time strike keeps this tie alive, replay Wednesday evening.  The game sparked into life in the second half, especially after the introduction of Michael Higdon.  The Buddies may regret not completing the task at the first time of asking given the chances spurned in the second half, but fair play to the Dons for digging deep and securing the draw in the 93rd minute.

Brechin 2-2 St Johnstone (Sat 15:00):-  A Rory McAllister double earns second division Brechin a replay.  Chris Millar and Danny Invincible had put the Super J's back in front before ex-ICT man Rory made it all square.  Another ex-ICT man playing for Brechin is Kevin Byers.  Replay Tuesday 22nd March.  Well done Brechin who more than matched there SPL opponents.

Dundee Utd 2-2 Motherwell (Sun 13:15):- Just to round off the Quarter Finals, United and Well played out a 2-2 draw, which leaves all eight sides still in the competition.  John Sutton continued his recent good form and put Well ahead in the first minute.  Goodwillie equalised before half-time, but Sutton again put the Steelmen ahead, alas that only lasted for a minute before Daly took the tie to a replay in the 73rd minute.

SPL game:-  Rangers have the chance to narrow the gap at the top to two points as they take on Kilmarnock at Ibrox , 15:00 kick off.  Update:- Celtic's weekend just got worse as a very late OG earned Ranger's all three points in the SPL game against Killie, 2-1 being the final score, so that's two points behind with one game in hand.