The TJDS Cup Final Shoot

After a season of moaning and criticism towards a Celtic team who have slept-walk to the double so far, Motherwell, who failed to stop us lifting the League Cup in November, are standing between us and a historic double-treble.

Will this be another game where we turn up and put on the style ?

In my opinion - yes, although I feel it will be an extremely difficult game against an energetic and physical side, who are likely to start the game at an intense pace.

Motherwell have been tricky opponents for us in the league, coming close to ending our then unbeaten record back in November, a game in which the fallout from our hotly disputed penalty was so great that their box office chief executive was running about with a laptop in the press office to prove it wasn’t the right decision!

Then in March, a 0-0 draw tainted with their controversial red card also ruined what was, until then, a very open game, but the Fir Park side defended extremely well in the second half and restricted us to very few chances.

It took James ‘Jamesy Bhoy’ Forrest’s quality skill and finish to break the deadlock in the League Cup final last year against a resilient Motherwell side, who, in fairness to them, had a man sent off and a penalty given against them for a shocker of a Scott Sinclair dive to kill that particular game off.

There have been several flashpoints between the two sides this season, and it adds to the excitement of the fixture tomorrow with some BITTERNESS flowing out of Lanarkshire ahead of it.

I suspect our big game players will step up yet again and keep the Scottish Cup at Celtic Park, with us also boosted by the five year contract extension signed by Thomas ‘Tom’ Rogic. Celtic Twitter went into meltdown. Did I ? Not for me to say, but no.

Bumper deals and big contracts these days in fitba sadly still mean nothing. I remember working myself into a frenzy in 2006 when Stilyan Petrov signed his deal, and then was away to Aston Villa that summer.

Nonetheless, I wouldn’t put it past him being FGS tomorrow. My money is on him, or McGregor.

Motherwell have enjoyed success at Hampden against the top teams in the country, in Aberdeen and Rangers, but tomorrow will likely be a bridge too far for them, against a Celtic team who have, domestically at least, turned up for the big games when it suits them, which has annoyed me greatly, but if they do it one last time tomorrow I’ll be extremely delighted.

Shoot Prediction: Celtic 3-1 Motherwell.