The Fourth round of this year’s Scottish Cup continues tonight with both Celtic and Rangers in action. Division One's runaway leaders Dundee also take to the field. We had one upset in yesterday's games as Motherwell where knocked out by Inverness Caley.
With the games at Raith Rovers and Livingston postponed, is there still a chance of another upset on the cards this evening...?
Morton v Celtic
The winner of this game will get to play Stenhousemuir in the next round (assuming Dunfermline lose their appeal), so there's a lot at stake here, namely avoiding a(nother) SPL team. Morton have not won a game on the league since the end of November, a 4-2 win against Airdrie where the Ton found themselves 2-0 behind after just 6 minutes; this unenviable record puts them firmly at the bottom of the form table. Celtic's form has not been the best lately either, with two wins, three draws and a defeat to their name.
Nevertheless, you'd expect Celtic to win this one - Morton have only ever recorded one win against Celtic in 10 attempts in the Scottish Cup, that one coming in the Scottish Cup semi-final back in March 1948, when 80,000 spectators saw Morton win 1-0; they'd eventually lose out to Rangers in the Final, the last time they'd make the final of the Scottish Cup.
Rangers v Hamilton
Rangers and Hamilton slug it out again for the second time in this competition. The previous encounter saw the two sides fight out an entertaining 3-3 draw, with the Accies fighting back from 2-0 down to lead 3-2, and where just a 63rd minute penalty away from a glorious Cup upset. T'was not to be however, and here's hoping tonight's replay will be every bit as exciting. Rangers are still missing Kris Boyd, though Kenny Miller returns from suspension. Accies welcome back Mark McLaughlin, but they'll be without the central defensive pair of David van Zanten and Richard Hastings.
Livingston v Dundee
Two teams at the top of their respective competitions meet up again. Dundee are running away with the First division, while Livingston are doing their utmost to make their stay in the Third Division mercifully short - they lead the table by two slender points from East Stirling. It'll be a tough test from the Almondvale side, A pitch inspection later on today may well put pay to this fixture, but should it go ahead, we reckon Dundee have the form and the quality to see themselves through to the next round.
Update - this game was postponed after the pitch at the Almondvale failed a pitch inspection. The tie will be replayed tomorrow, possibly.
Raith Rovers v Airdrie Utd
Two sides in the bottom half of the First division play each other. Three league places and 15 points separate Raith from Airdrie. There have not been too many fixtures between these two sides, and this is in fact the first time they've met in the Scottish Cup. Tonight's game will be the 20th time they'll have played against each other, with Airdrie just having the edge over the team from Kircaldy in terms of victories. Interesting to note is that Airdrie's last game, just after the New Years was a schock 1-0 win against Dundee, so clearly they're capable of putting together a performance on the night. Raith are unbeaten at home in their last three games, so we're putting our money on John McGlynn celebrating with a pint tonight, and looking forward to a game against Aberdeen in February.
Update - this game failed the pitch inspection, and will be replayed on 25 January.
Last Night
The only real surprise in last night's round of games was SPL side Motherwell going out of the competition - they lost 2-0 away at Inverness Caley Thistle. Nauris Bulvitis and Dougie Imrie scored the winning goals. Elsewhere there where victories for Ayr United, St Johnstone (who now face Tayside rivals Dundee United) and Ross County, who comprehensively knocked out Highland League outfit Inverurie Locos.
Jimmy Calderwood got his first win as Kilmarnock manager when his side knocked out bottom side Falkirk at Rugby Park. Montrose won out comfortably against Junior side Edinburgh City to set up a tie against Inverness Caley in the next round, and Albion Rovers and Stirling will be playing again this Wednesday - their game ended nil-nil.
The Fifth Round
The Fifth Round of the competition will be played on Saturday, 6 February 2010. The fixture list looks as follows:
Hibernian v Montrose
Kilmarnock v Inverness CT
Livingston/Dundee v Ayr/Brechin
Raith/Airdrie v Aberdeen
Ross County v Albion/Stirling
St Johnstone v Dundee Utd
St Mirren v Hamilton/Rangers
Stenhousemuir v Morton/Celtic
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