St Mirren Vs Celtic
Scottish Cup 6th Round.
Saturday 7th March 2009.
KO 12:15 (Live on Sky Sports 1)

Celtic travel to St Mirren Park this weekend as the hunt for the domestic treble continues. With a place in the Semi-Finals of the Homecoming Cup up for grabs, Celtic will be looking to take their winning run to Paisley while leaving the striking crisis behind. The last time these sides met was just 7 days ago at Celtic Park. If the strikers in that game were suffering a drought, then the midfield were struck by a monsoon, scoring six of the seven goals that destroyed a hapless St Mirren side.

The in-form Scott Brown and Scott McDonald​

One Celtic forward not short of confidence is Scott McDonald who is set to start after his superb match-winning brace against Kilmarnock on Wednesday. Gordon Strachan will have a selection headache in picking a strike-partner for the Australian international, with Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink returning from suspension, Ben Hutchison raring to make the step up from the reserves and Georgios Samaras struggling to regain the scintillating goal-scoring form, which served so well early on in the season.

With the Premier League at the forefront of Strachan's mind and Celtic battling through a tricky midweek tie, he may be tempted to rest a number of first team regulars. Aiden McGeady was tireless on Wednesday night, while team-mates Scott Brown and Shunsuke Nakamura worked the full ninety minutes. With only 10 games to go in the SPL the likes of Willo Flood, may be preferred. Marc Crosas is another midfielder who may find himself on the bench – his manager has great faith in the Spaniards impressive precise and cultured displays but will be tempted to toughen up the midfield with a blood and snotters battler such as Paul Hartley for what is sure to be another tight away cup tie.

Artur Boruc and the Celtic defence are likely to remain unchanged from midweek following a solid performance at Rugby Park, and Lee Naylor is not thought to have recovered from a hamstring injury in time to reclaim the left-back berth.

The threat of Andy Dorman.​

The Buddies will be looking to influential attacker Andy Dorman who has been in great form of late, grabbing 4 goals in just 6 games, a record some of his hooped counter-parts will be looking on with envy. Top scorer Billy Mehmet who is sure to start, will be eager to spoil Celtics treble ambitions. Jack Ross was suspended in the SPL following his red-card at Celtic Park but will be eligible for this home-coming fixture. Similarly the experienced midfielder Hugh Murray is likely to return from suspension, having 8 league bookings to his name.


Gus Macpherson spoke of cutting out the individual errors that cost St Mirren so dearly in the seven-nil drubbing last week, and will be heartened by the recent display against Aberdeen, where the Paisley side were denied only their second win at St Mirren Park thanks to a late Tommy Wright equaliser. With St Mirren hurting and Celtic picking up momentum, this is sure to be a fascinating tie.





MG