I never got a chance to write a preview of the Clyde game.
Truth be told it would really have focused on the 2006 debacle when we played them.
I was there that day at Broadwood.
In the build-up, it was all about Roy Keane who had just arrived and was set to make his debut.
On the day it was all about Clyde as Celtic fell to arguably the worst cup result in our history.
I can still remember Du Wei getting pelters as he made his one and only appearance in a Celtic jersey. He was bullied from the get-go by a team of mostly part-timers and then subsequently hooked at half time. His replacement at the interval Adam Virgo didn’t fare much better. The ÂŁ1.5 million signing from Brighton toiled just as badly.
What a disaster.
Du Wei was never seen again in a Celtic jersey though unfortunately, Adam Virgo was. Though mercifully not often.
We’d actually hammered the Bully Wee 5-0 the season before it in the cup with Craig Bellamy starring.
A repeat of that, as opposed to 2006, was hoped for yesterday and that’s more or less what happened.
Patryk Klimala made his starting debut with returns to the side for Scott Bain, Bolingoli, Max Baur, Mohamed Elyounoussi and Ryan Christie with Forster, Griffiths and Taylor dropping to the bench and Odsonne Edouard, Jozo Simunovic, Tom Rogic and Callum McGregor given the day off.
With storm Ciara battering the British and Irish isles all weekend it was going to be difficult but truth be told this was a pretty tame and by the numbers affair with Ntcham netting from distance on 16 mins before Scott Brown tapped in a second from close range five minutes before the break.
Klimala missed a good chance which has him now written off by some in Celtic quarters but a third arrived in the dying embers thanks to a nice finish from substitute Bayo.
Shved also made a rare appearance and nearly scored himself but alas it was not to be.
We now play St.Johnstone at McDiarmid Park in the quarter-finals which is a relatively kind draw compared to some of the alternatives and we can be pretty confident of progression considering our recent results in Perth.
Yesterday’s triumph was also our 33rd consecutive domestic cup win which has to be some kind of world record surely.
Anyway that all went to plan and next up is a home tie with Hearts at home on Wednesday night.
The Jambos are struggling big time and are rooted to the bottom of the Premiership.
New manager Daniel Stendel replaced serial loser Craig Levein and the hopelessly out of his depth Austin MacPhee on December 10th last year and got off to a flyer with four consecutive defeats – including a 2-0 loss at Tynecastle against us – before arresting that run with a 1-1 home draw against Aberdeen just before the winter break.
During the January window, he jettisoned Glenn Whelan, Christophe Berra, Aidan Keena, Jake Mulraney and Craig Wighton and brought in Donis Avdijaj, loanee Toby Sibbick and Irish striker Liam Boyce.
Things have improved slightly with only one loss in their last seven games, five of which have been in the league, but they’ve only won a solitary game on league duty which was at home against Rangers a result which tipped the title balance back in our favour.
They’ve shipped six league goals since that win with a last-minute goal saving them in a 3-3 draw at St.Johnstone before going down 3-2 at home to Kilmarnock last Wednesday.
Deploying a high press, they leave acres of space at the back for pacey wingers and strikers to exploit as was shown by Kille five days ago.
On Saturday evening they got out of jail in the Scottish Cup with a 1-0 win at Falkirk with the hosts gifting the Edinburgh side a penalty and then the Bairns hit the post twice and smacked another effort off the crossbar as lady luck completely deserted them.
They are bottom and we are top for a reason.
Their league position might appear misleading based on their squad which on paper is probably the third-best in the league but they are where they are on merit.
Of course, nothing else but a win will do.
I’ll be conservative and say 2-0. I might be wrong but I just can’t see Stendel deploying the same gung-ho tactics that he has in recent matches.
Though I hope he does as it looks made for us.
....Always A Tim! 