USING THE SQUAD: A CELTIC-KILMARNOCK PREVIEW

CELTIC V KILMARNOCK (BETFRED CUP 2ND ROUND: TUESDAY 8TH AUGUST; 7:45PM)

Celtic begin another busy week as our defence of the Betfred Cup begins with a home tie against Kilmarock.

Team Selection: As we are in action again in the league against Partick Thistle on Friday and have a few injury problems, you would imagine that Celtic will make a few changes for this game.

Dorus de Vries - who impressed in the friendly win over Sunderland a few weeks ago - could be handed a rare start in place of Craig Gordon. Jonny Hayes and Eboue Kouassi seem in line to start the game and Nir Bitton may well continue his role as a centre-half. It will be interesting to see if the likes of Calvin Miller, Jack ‘Triple’ Aitchison, Michael Johnston and Anthony Ralston are invovled, they were on the fringes of the squad last season and tomorrow night’s game would be an ideal scenario to give them some game time.

Previous Meetings: Our last victory against Kilmarnock in the league/Betfred Cup was on October 29th 2008, when goals from Scott McDonald, Shunsuke Nakamura and Aiden McGeady gave Celtic a 3-1 win at Rugby Park, with a trademark Naka free-kick the highlight of the game.

Prediction: Even though we may make a host of changes, Celtic should have enough in reserve - quite literally - to get a victory.

Celtic 3 Kilmarnock 1