Celtic will face Hibs in the quarter final of the Scottish Cup at Celtic Park after the 5-0 win over Raith Rovers. Across the city the meltdown continues after the rangers were beaten in front of their own fans at Ibrox 1-0 by Queens Park. Before that we have a big Champions League night ahead against Bayern Munich.
The Scottish Cup Fifth round kick off time of 5:30pm may not have suited everyone and the 3pm kick off traditionalists would not be happy with the kick off times continually shuffled around to suit television. From a selfish point of view the kick off time suited this bhoy.
It suited me because I had a late night gig Friday night and the later kick off gave me a chance to get a proper sleep before making the journey to Paradise. The later kick off gave me the luxury of a 2:45pm flight out of Dublin. Most travelling Celtic fans had opted for the earlier flights out to enjoy the match day build up. Games like this are a great day to bring younger fans over to enjoy the Celtic experience.
My flight was over booked by 8 and when I checked in I had no seat allocated but thankfully everyone got on with some no shows on the day. The flight was full of Rugby fans heading over for today’s six nations international between Scotland and Ireland in Edinburgh.
The journey was very worthwhile for Celtic fans with the Hoops beating Raith Rovers 5-0. Man of the moment Daizen Maeda turned in another Man of the Match performance and scored a Hatrick which brought his goal tally to 50 since he arrived in Glasgow from Japan and 21 this season. He also had a goal chalked off for offside. He really is in fine form.
Maeda started up front before switching to the wing later in the second half when Johnny Kenny came off the bench. Brendan Rodgers rang in the changes (9 in total) and some Celtic fans questioned why he had made so many changes on our quest to get a day out in Hampden in May.
There was no need for panic and McCowan and Yang both got on the score sheet after being given the nod to start and Callum McGregor rattled one off the bar. Viljami Sinisalo made his competitive goalkeeping debut and was only called in action twice in the first half and was almost a spectator in the second. While on spectators fair play to the Raith Rovers fans who travelled to Celtic Park in big numbers to back their team and put some SPFL teams fans to shame.
Paulo Bernardo was replaced in the first half by Hatate after picking up a foot injury but thankfully Brendan Rodgers spoke after the game and said they took him off more as a precaution and will now plan for the visit of Bayern Munich with Maeda now available for the game after his red card ban was reduced to one game.
It is always nice to catch up with fellow St. Margarets CSC members on match day. Shout out to Billy, Colm, Jamie, Vincent and Zac. Big shout to Jeff for the lift home. I was tucked up in bed for midnight with the match day program for company.
Andrew Milne is Editor of More than 90 Minutes & Host of the Celtic Soul Podcast
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