Past glories count for nothing.

A break from SPL duty this weekend and an early start as current Scottish Cup holders Celtic face Inverness at the Tulloch Caledonian Stadium in a fifth round Scottish Cup tie. Remember to set your alarms on Friday night before you go to bed as this game will kick off at 12:45.

In the last round, holders Celtic strolled past the Blue Toon loon's fae Peterheid; an Anthony Stokes hat-trick proving too much for the Heid. Incidentally, Peterhead now have four ex-ICT players in their ranks. Three strikers in Rory McAllister, Martin Bavidge and the legendary Dennis Wyness, a man who knows a thing or two about putting Celtic out of the cup. The fourth player is another legend, Roy McBain. Unfortunately for that quartet, the only thing of note for them was that McAllister and McBain were both booked, and I suppose the accountant was happy as a ground record crowd of 3700 witnessed the defeat.

Inverness were made to work twice as hard. The only all SPL clash of the round saw them paired at home to bottom club Dunfermline. Surely a stick on home win, but the Cup does strange things to teams. This tie was only decided after a replay and extra time, but the major talking point in both games was the goalkeeping errors that proved to be crucial to the outcome and for Inverness serious injuries to important players. In the first game, the unbelievable happened, Andy Barrowman opened the scoring after Kenny Gillet was sent off for bringing down Andy Kirk. Barrowman was on hand to nod the loose ball in after Tuffy parried a Martin Hardie free kick onto his head and he nodded home from three yards. Tuffey was at fault in the lead up to Gillet being sent off, but his blushes were spared as blunderman Chris Smith made the first of his cock-ups in the sixth minute of injury time to allow Jonny Hayes the chance of a free run at goal after Smith missed a straightforward rolling ball. Inverness were off the hook and an embarrassed Hayes buried his head in the turf as Smith looked a forlorn figure picking the ball out of the unguarded net.

Off to East End Park for a replay and surely lightning could not strike twice. Well, the similarities to the first game were uncanny. Andy Barrowman once more opened the scoring, Chris Smith became a serial blunderer and Jonny Hayes was once more embarrassed as he rolled an equaliser into an empty net to set up extra time. This time though, with eleven men on the park, Dunfermline were no match for Inverness and a stunning goal from Substitute Andrew Shinnie and the clincher from Greg Tansey finally saw off the Pars and set up this clash with Celtic. However, the price for this victory was Roman Golobart and Andrew Shinnie both picked up seious injuries and their season's are all but over.

Celtic are no strangers to Inverness in the Scottish Cup, and no strangers to being knocked out of the tournament by the famous Caley Jags. There has also been some close encounters in the Cup and with Inverness on a better run of form just now the Glasgow club would be right to not underestimate the size of the task facing them.

Who can forget the daddy of them all, Feb 8th 2000, 1-3 at Parkhead in midweek after the postponement of the Saturday game due to high winds blowing some structures from the stands. We seemed to do better as a first division side in the Cup and repeated the feat under John Robertson three years later as Dennis Wyness scored the only goal of the game to send Celtic crashing out of the cup for a second time.

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It hasn't been all plain sailing for Inverness though and Celtic have twice come from behind in Inverness to dump us out of the cup, both games finishing 2-1 to Celtic. A particularly hard one to take was in 2007 when Graeme Bayne had put Inverness ahead in the 18th minute and we looked like putting Celtic out once more. However, much to our disdain, two very very late goals from Steven Pressley and Kenny Miller saw Celtic into the next round. In the 89th minute Pressley's goal had looked like taking the tie to a replay in Glasgow, that was before Scotland international Miller rifled in a twenty yarder to stun the home support. 7119 fans were at that game, but it looks as though apathy has set in and we will do well to match that now.

Anyway, let's get up to date, nostalgia ain't what it used to be.

Inverness are on an unbeaten run of seven games which has eased relegation fears and things were looking brighter, but another spate of injuries has seen the gloss taken off the mini revival. Celtic are in imperious form. The last Scottish side to beat them was Heart's 22 games ago. They have lost only once since then and that was to Athletico Madrid, so we would be in good company if we can achieve a result on Saturday. During that run, Celtic have defeated Inverness 2-0 in the Highlands, although that scoreline maybe flattered them slightly as Inverness were reduced to ten men when Greg Tansey was controversially sent off for an alleged elbow on Samaras.

The overall statistics show that Celtic should be emphatic favourites to progress to the sixth round. Since 2002, Celtic have won 8 with Inverness only winning 3 and 3 games have ended in draws. One of those home wins was the cup game in 2003, the other two were both 3-2 victories, the last one being crucial to the outcome of the SPL title, so I suppose Celtic will be out to avenge that. Celtic have a 22-14 goal advantage at Inverness, averaging 1.57 per game and Inverness at 1.0; so if we can stop Celtic scoring 0.57 of a goal, then it will be a replay in Glasgow. After going 21 league games without a clean sheet, Inverness have now had 3 in a row.

January Sales brought new faces to both clubs. Inverness brought in Claude Gnakpa and Sam Winnall at the expense of midfielder Lee Cox who has departed to Paolo Di Canio's Swindon Town. The two new boys made cameo appearances last weekend and Gnakpa looks like an exciting prospect and was unlucky not to score against St Mirren. A bonus for Inverness fans is that Jonny Hayes has survived another transfer window, but for how much longer can Inverness hold on to their prize asset?

Celtic have loaned in Polish striker Pawel Brozek from Trabzonspor. The 28 year old has scored eight times in thirty-two international appearances for Poland. Efrain Juarez has returned to Celtic after being on loan at Real Zaragoza for the season. 20 year old Nigerian winger Rabiu Ibrahim has signed on for three years and hopes to make an impact at Parkhead. Mikael Lustig also signed on for over three years and the big defender claims his decision to move to Celtic was influenced by none other than Henrik Larsson.

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Inverness have a number of long term injuries to contend with. Hogg, Golobart and Shinnie have all but ended their seasons. Tudur-Jones and Doran both played in a bounce game in midweek with contrasting fortunes. Doran has pulled a hamstring and this will set him back even more, but Jones played for an hour without any cause for concern, although this game comes too soon for him. On the brighter side, Steve Williams could recover, he missed last weeks game against St Miren with a knee injury but Billy McKay is reported to be struggling to be fit. Terry Butcher has to decide which of his two shot stoppers he fits between the sticks. Esson has been number one all season, but Jonny Tuffey normally gets the nod for cup games. Meekings and Gillet are claiming the full back slots and Proctor and Tokely should pair up for the centre back positions should Steve Williams not recover in time. Foran and Tansey will do the dirty work and Hayes and Gnakpa would give us options on either wing. That leaves, Ross, Sutherland, Tade, Morrison and Winnall battling it out for the other two positions, tough choices ahead for Butcher.

Celtic have Beram Kayal out injured and Sierra Leone striker Mohamed Bangura is set to miss another three months after further damaging his knee during training. Unfortunately cumbersome Daniel Majstorovic could still be out suffering after fracturing his cheekbone against St Johnstone before Xmas, although he will be named in the squad. Neil Lennon has much greater resources to call upon and these setbacks are a drop in the ocean to Celtic. The return of Izaguirre is a boost for Celtic as the little Honduran can be effective if given too much space.

tm4tj Prediction:- This is a really tough game for Inverness. More injuries are hampering our season and games don't come much tougher than this. Celtic are sitting on top of the SPL some 33 points above Inverness. It would take a brave man to forecast anything but a Celtic victory, but it's the cup and I'll go for an honourable draw taking the game to a replay.