Many people are seeing this game as Celtic's chance for revenge after we beat them at Hampden last month. I disagree. Our victory was glorious, once in a lifetime stuff that can never be taken away. The fact it ended Celtic's hopes of winning the treble is irrelevant. In my view it is pretty difficult for them to gain real revenge for that magical afternoon, short of beating us in heartbreaking circumstances in a final. So, while a win would make Neil Lennon happy and be a bit of payback, it certainly wouldn't be equal to our win and it wouldn't make up for their defeat.
It is pretty rare for Saints to manage a draw against the Old Firm once a season, let alone beat one of them. For us to pull it off twice within a few months is almost impossible, but that is what we must do tomorrow if we want to book our third Hampden trip of the campaign. It is a huge order, but we have already shown we can beat them. We must go in tomorrow with the same approach - we had the balance between attack and defence absolutely perfect at Hampden and if we do that again, and everyone puts in an equally good performance, there is no reason why we can't pull off another shock.
In the past our best results against Celtic seem to have come when we're struggling - the 4-0 tanking was just after the League Cup horror show, while the January win came the week after a heavy defeat to Celtic. Maybe the fact we won during the week while Celtic lost is a bad thing! On the plus side, despite repeatedly making the quarter-finals of the Scottish Cup in the last few years we have only managed to go any further once - and that was after we beat Celtic at home. Mind you, that was a week after they tanked us 7-0...
The win against Hearts on Wednesday came with a team that shocked many people. It worked as we got three points but it would be an even bigger surprise if the same side started tomorrow against far tougher opposition. Most fans would probably prefer to see Esmael Goncalves and Steven Thompson start up front than Lewis Guy and Sam Parkin so it would be a bit of a shock not to see that partnership restored, while we will hopefully have Gary Teale back. He was hoping to be fit for this one and we have missed him - as has Thompson!
That's about the only good bit of injury news. Jim Goodwin is out and faces a race against time to make the final, while Graham Carey left the ground on Wednesday night on crutches. Maybe he hurt himself scoring that screamer. Hopefully it was just a precaution but if he's missing it leaves us with a big problem. Maybe Goncalves will drop back into a midfield five, maybe Dougie Imrie will play there or we could put John McGinn across and put Kenny McLean back in. At least the Goodwin absence is solved rather more easily - we play Lee Mair as Darren McGregor is still out, as is Thomas Reilly.
Celtic were expected to cruise to the treble this season, the lack of competition in the SPL meaning they'd have that sown up quite quickly which would allow them to focus on the cup competitions and the Champions League. As we all know, it hasn't quite worked out like that but its just a matter of time until they wrap up the title and they are still in with a shout of the double. Our win at Hampden has obviously been niggling at Neil Lennon and whatever side he opts to put out tomorrow will undoubtedly be fired up - although with the second leg of their Champions League clash with Juventus coming up they do have other things playing on their mind, even if they do require a miracle to go through.
For us to have any chance we'll need to keep Gary Hooper quiet. The striker has been superb this season with 23 goals, including one against us at Hampden, and was the subject of numerous offers from Norwich in the transfer window. It now looks more a case of when, rather than if, he leaves but Celtic will be in line to pocket a huge sum of money when he leaves. If he does go they arguably have a ready made replacement in the form of Tony Watt, the youngster impressing when he gets a go in the first team. Anthony Stokes is now back available, while Georgios Samaras is either awesome or awful against us - his comedy first half pass at Hampden definitely falling into the latter category.
Two other players may soon be moving on from Celtic. Fraser Forster only signed on permanently in the summer after two years on loan from Newcastle and has been terrific, his performances in the Champions League really catching the eye. He is likely to make his England debut soon - not bad going considering how the folk down south view the game up here. Victor Wanyama has also impressed on the European stage this season and the Kenyan midfielder is likely to end up at someone really big in England - or further afield. Even without him the midfield is pretty strong with the likes of Scott Brown and Joe Ledley as well as attacking wingers like Kris Commons and James Forrest.
The defence in front of Forster is usually pretty strong too, Efe Ambrose now back up to speed after helping Nigeria win the Africa Cup of Nations. He has done well for Celtic this season and scored against us in October, his somersault celebration one of the few moments that made me smile. Charlie Mulgrew is comfortable at centre half or leftback and has a terrific set-piece delivery, while Mikael Lustig and Kelvin Wilson are usually reliable. Emilio Izaguirre likes to get forward but doesn't quite seem to be at the level he was when he got injured last season.
There could be a few less well known names lining up against us tomorrow. Lennon opted to rest players ahead of the first leg against Juventus and with a trip to Turin coming in a few days he could do the same again. January signings Tom Rogic and Rami Gershon could be involved, while the likes of Lassad and Miku could be asked to do a shift up front. There may even be a rare sighting of Paddy McCourt. Hopefully another fringe player will get a shot - after all, the last two times we've beaten Celtic Lukasz Zaluska has been the goalie...
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