Celtic will bid to book a place in the Scottish Cup quarter-finals on Sunday, when they travel to the SMiSA Stadium to take on St Mirren in a fifth-round tie.
The visitors head into the game as the competition's defending champions and thrashed Buckie Thistle 5-0 to progress through the previous round, while their hosts scraped past Queen of the South to reach the final 16.
Match preview
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St Mirren head into the Scottish Cup fifth round at the weekend with the aim of returning to the quarter-finals, having exited at this stage at the hands of Celtic last season after making the final eight in the previous three campaigns.
Indeed, their 2022-23 run was abruptly ended in a 5-1 thrashing at the hands of Celtic in Glasgow last February, with Mark O'Hara's 87th-minute penalty being nothing more than a consolation.
Their new cup campaign then began in the fourth round in January as third-tier Queen of the South visited Paisley, and while Stephen Robinson's side were able to progress with a win and a clean sheet, they were arguably not overly convincing, with Alex Gogic's 71st-minute goal making the only difference between the sides.
That victory was followed by a narrow 1-0 defeat at home to Rangers, but the Saints have since bounced back in impressive fashion with back-to-back wins to move clear in fifth spot in the Scottish Premiership, firstly beating Hibernian 3-0 in Edinburgh before most recently picking up a 2-0 triumph at home to Dundee thanks to second-half goals from Mikael Mandron and Toyosi Olusanya.
With a degree of momentum now back on their side, St Mirren will now aim to avenge last season's fifth-round defeat to Celtic and end a six-match winless run against the visitors to book their own quarter-final spot this season.
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That will be no easy task, though, as the defending champions aim to take a step closer to winning their 42nd Scottish Cup title this season.
After thrashing St Mirren in last season's fifth-round meeting between these sides, Celtic went on to prevail alongside their Scottish Premiership win last season by beating Hearts and rivals Rangers before seeing off Inverness Caledonian Thistle in a 3-1 win in the final.
Brendan Rodgers's side would then kick off their bid to retain the title in the fourth round last month, as fifth-tier Buckie Thistle travelled to Celtic Park, and they advanced with a dominant triumph, dishing out a 5-0 beating with Paulo Bernardo, Odin Thiago Holm, Kyogo Furuhashi, Luis Palma and Rocco Vata all on the scoresheet.
The Scottish Premiership leaders do now head into the weekend on the back of a slightly tougher run in their league title defence, though, despite only dropping two points in their last three outings, having firstly beaten Ross County 1-0 at home following their cup win before being held to a 1-1 draw by Aberdeen, as they pulled level through Nicolas Kuhn on the hour mark.
Now following a hard-fought 2-1 victory away at Hibernian thanks to a pair of Adam Idah penalties, with the winner not coming until the 92nd minute, Celtic will be keen to return to their best sooner rather than later with hopes of succeeding on all domestic fronts once again this term and will bid to show their quality and progress to the Scottish Cup quarter-finals in style on Sunday.
Team News
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St Mirren may come into Sunday's fifth-round tie with an unchanged starting XI from their Premiership victory over Dundee on Tuesday, with Ryan Strain, Mark O'Hara and Conor McMenamin remaining sidelined by injuries.
James Bolton was sent off for a second bookable offence in that game, but he is eligible to feature with his suspension instead carrying over to their next league match, and he should again join Alex Gogic and Marcus Fraser at the back as a result.
At the other end of the pitch, Mikael Mandron is bound to spearhead the attack again, having scored in back-to-back matches for the Saints, while James Scott and Greg Kiltie should again join him in a front three.
Celtic continue to deal with several injury issues, as defenders Cameron Carter-Vickers and Greg Taylor remain confined to the treatment room alongside midfielders Reo Hatate and James McCarthy.
Daizen Maeda did return to the squad from the Asian Cup to feature against Hibernian last time out, though, and he should again start in a front three on Sunday with Oh Hyeon-Gyu having also now returned from international duty with South Korea to compete for a spot.
Adam Idah will hope to again lead the line, having netted a brace in his first start for the club last time out after arriving from Norwich City in January, while Odin Thiago Holm and Rocco Vata will bid to earn places in midfield if Rodgers opts to rest Matt O'Riley and Callum McGregor.
The visitors are also fearful that Alistair Johnston suffered a head fracture in the showdown with Hibs, so Anthony Ralston ought to come into the side at right-back.
St Mirren possible starting lineup:
Hemming; Bolton, Gogic, Fraser; Bwomono, Kwon, Boyd-Munce, Tanser; Scott, Mandron, Kiltie
Celtic possible starting lineup:
Hart; Ralston, Welsh, Narowcki, Bernabei; Bernardo, Holm, Vata; Kuhn, Idah, Palma
We say: St Mirren 0-2 Celtic
Celtic are certainly not operating at their best levels in recent weeks and meet a St Mirren side who are gaining momentum, but Rodgers still has an abundance of quality in his ranks, even with several notable absentees, and they should have more than enough to advance to the final eight nonetheless.
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Sam Varley
