The Bhoys head for a Scottish cup quarter final meeting with Aberdeen at Pittodrie on Monday with a doubt still hanging over the fitness of Joos Valgaeren. The big Belgian has a chronic abdominal Injury and the only cure is rest. Chris Sutton is likely to deputise at the back for Valgaeren, leaving room at the front for the inclusion of John Hartson. Ironically, this solves a bit of a selection headache for Martin O'Neill with Sutton and Hartson both vying to partner Henrik Larsson in attack.
The fact that this game is being played on a Monday night remains a bone of contention amongst the Celtic travelling support. The 7.45pm kick of means that those travelling by coach to the game will be getting back to Glasgow in the wee small hours of Tuesday morning and thus it will mean many of the fans taking a couple of days off work to attend the game.
The SFA, in their great wisdom, paid scant regard to this consideration when they rescheduled the game and once again the regular supporter is ignored and taken for granted. Mind you, the club itself did little in the way of trying to get the game rearranged, preferring instead to bow to the wishes of Rupert Murdoch's mighty empire and take SKY's shilling without as much as a whimper of protest.
The game itself should be an interesting one given that the Dons are the only side to have inflicted a league defeat on Celtic this season. For Aberdeen the game will make or break their season so they should be up for a battle. Celtic will certainly have to improve on their performance earlier on in the season when they crashed 2-0 to an Aberdeen side who fought tooth and nail for every ball. However, given the fact that we should be more or less at full strength I look forward to a well earned victory and a place in the semi – finals come draw time. It will be close though and I expect to see a lot of goals, so maybe a something like a 3-2 win could be on the cards.