Battles With The Buddies

Ahead of Sunday's Scottish Cup quarter-final at home to St Mirren we thought we'd have a look at back at some notable Scottish Cup games against them in the recent and not so recent past.

In 1984 the teams met at a windswept Hampden Park in the Scottish Cup, for the right to play Aberdeen in the final, with Celtic emerging 2-1 winners. Brian McClair gave Celtic a first half lead before Frank McDougall equalised just ten minutes later. Celtic eventually dug out the victory with a bizarre Paul McStay goal with nine minutes to go. A Tommy Burns shot hit the post hit the post and eventually found it's way to McStay, whose shot caught in the wind and looped over St Mirren goalie Billy Thomson and into the net. The Celts were into yet another cup final!

First half highlights of the game:

Second half highlights including McStay's bizarre winner:

The teams met again in 1991 in the fourth round at Celtic Park, goals from Gerry Creaney, Tommy Coyne and a Norrie McWhirter own goal giving Celtic a comfortable 3-0 victory. The scoreline was repeated when the clubs once again met at Parkhead in the third round in 2003, with two goals from Henrik Larsson and one for Momo Sylla making the difference this time.

Glossing over our dreadful 1-0 defeat at Love Street in the quarter-finals in 2009, the teams last met in the Scottish Cup at the quarter-final stage in 2013 - the year that we last won the Scottish Cup. This game was intriguing as St Mirren had deservedly knocked us out of the league cup only two months earlier. Thankfully we managed to grind our way into the semi-final with a 2-1 win, with all the goals coming in the first half.

Joe Ledley gave us the lead with a header after only five minutes, but some poor defending allowed Goncalves to equalise only eight minutes later. Noted Elvis Presley fan Anthony Stokes came to the rescue in the twenty-first minute, bundling the ball into the net from very close range, and after a grim struggle we were on our way to Hampden to play Dundee United.

Not great quality clip of Ledley's header

Not great quality clip of Stokes' winner

Let us hope that Sunday's game is far easier than the tough encounters from the past that we have examined in this article.