I have always said, the only objective in any cup tie, is to progress to the next round, so that being said we achieved our objective yesterday against Auchinleck Talbot, but you would have to say it was not one of our best performances on the plastic pitch at Kilmarnock. Apart from Callum it was a team of players who you wouldn’t say are guaranteed a game every week, but these players are at Celtic Football Club, and therefore should be more than capable of taking on a team from the sixth tier of the SPFL, I’m afraid I have to say we toiled a bit yesterday, but we made the next round. Great credit to Talbot yesterday, they gave everything they had, and never stopped fighting right up to the final whistle, their fitness level was remarkable for a part-time team.
We now have a difficult tie against Dundee, but the bonus is, the match will be played at Celtic Park. I have to say as well, once again Sevco got a home tie against a team from a lower division, how many cup ties have they actually played away from home since they came into existence just over a decade ago? And how many times have they faced a team from the Premier League? And no doubt it will be broadcast live to help out with their finances, only in Scotland would that happen so regularly. Before the next round, in fact before next Sunday we need reinforcements into our playing squad, I’m not suggesting that’s an easy task, but like martin has done already, we need to find a way of getting it done.
Thursday night brings another difficult game for us versus Bologna, we can get some confidence from our last away match in Europe against Feyenoord, which was one of our best displays ever away from Celtic Park. To be honest I’m more focused on Sunday’s visit to Tynecastle, we really need to get something from that game, Hearts will have a full week to recover and prepare, while we will have the travelling to and from Italy to deal with, I suppose that’s what big teams are expected to contend with, so we need to get on with it. It’s a hard schedule for us, after those two very important games we then welcome FC Utrecht to the home of the Champions, that game could well give us the opportunity to progress to the knock-out stages of the Europa League, so possibly another must win game.
Glasgow’s still Green & White.
