Craig Cairns selects a two of the tastier-looking fixtures from this weekend’s Scottish Cup Fourth Round.
Glancing at this weekend’s Scottish Cup fixtures, you could be forgiven for mistaking them for league fixtures from any other week. St Mirren host Inverness, Cowdenbeath travel to Falkirk, while St Johnstone and Ross County play out exactly the same fixture as they did in the Premiership last Saturday.
Dundee v Aberdeen
Both these sides are on excellent runs – save their respective defeats to Celtic – making this one of the more intriguing encounters of the weekend. Derek McInnes will have Shay Logan available for selection after his one-match suspension, easing his selection problems.
McInnes was forced to move Andy Considine to right-back for their victory over Partick Thistle, meaning Johnny Hayes was again selected as an auxiliary left-back. Cammy Smith was brought into the midfield for a rare start in the absence of the injured Willo Flood and Barry Robson and looks likely to retain his place for Saturday’s lunchtime kick-off.
This is an area where Paul Hartley’s men could hold the upper hand as the former Dons midfielder has shown his desire to flood his side with able central midfielders. Their formation at Celtic Park on Saturday saw one of these – Paul McGowan – played out wide – with Greg Stewart on the opposite flank – in an attempt to counter the width of Ronny Deila’s Celtic. Both these players were found drifting into central areas, however, and it is likely Hartley will return to a narrower formation for this tie, knowing that the midfield battle will be key.
The most intriguing facet to this match is that both teams are on form and will likely go out expecting to win the game. And with two shrewd tacticians at the helm, this promises to be one of the ties of the weekend.
Hearts v Celtic
For similar reasons, Sunday’s televised clash between Hearts and Celtic looks set to be one of the ties of the round. Hearts found themselves embroiled in a physical battle with Rangers last weekend and, even though this match also has the potential to boil over, will find the pace, power and skill of the opposition their main threat this time around.
At the time of writing, Celtic still have to face Red Bull Salzburg in the Europa League but have failed to win in all but one of their fixtures directly after a European tie. In saying that, Celtic won their match immediately after returning from a foggy Romania a few weeks ago and find themselves on a run of 9 matches unbeaten – they have also won 7 matches in-a-row domestically.
The last time the sides met – earlier in the season in the other Scottish cup competition – Celtic ran out comfortable winners, though the match was a bit closer than the result would suggest. Hearts missed a fantastic opportunity to equalise through Jamie Walker, then again through Osman Sow from the penalty spot and eventually crumbled.
Sow may be one of a host of key players missing for the Jambos, along with Prince Bauben, Dale Carrick and captain Danny Wilson, with Robbie Neilson reluctant to rush any players back before they have fully recovered.
The Hearts backline stood strong to the challenge set by the likes of John Daly, Kenny Miller and, later on, Kris Boyd last Saturday, but will face someone a step above most strikers in the country when they face John Guidetti.
The highly-rated Swede is ineligible for the Europa League so will arrive at Tynecastle fresh, not to mention the fact he has netted 10 goals in 11 appearances so far this season.
WRITTEN BY CRAIG CAIRNS
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