The Scottish FA this morning confirmed that Celtic’s Fourth Round Scottish Cup tie away to Alloa Athletic will be on Saturday 22 January 2022 will be broadcast live on Premier Sports and the kick-off time will be 5.30pm.
All the details of the fourth round matches can be found via the link shown below.
The televised matches in the Fourth Round of the 2021-22 Scottish Cup have been confirmed.#ScottishCup https://t.co/SpkbyFjEDu
— Scottish Cup (@ScottishCup) December 13, 2021
Here’s Celtic Historian David Potter telling the story so far as far as Celtic and Alloa Athletic meetings in the Scottish Cup are concerned…
CELTIC v ALLOA ATHLETIC IN THE SCOTTISH CUP…
There is no great tradition of Celtic playing Alloa Athletic in the Scottish Cup. There have only been four games, two at Recreation Park, Alloa, one at Celtic Park and one at, of all places, Brockville, the home of Falkirk, and generally reckoned to be one of the worst grounds in Scotland.
The Brockville game is the only game that I can ever recall the Celtic Park announcer warning supporters AGAINST going to a game. It was played on 8 January 2002. Alloa had been drawn at home but opted to play the game at Brockville which was an even worse ground than Recreation Park, and basically was not destined to last much longer. Women supporters were advised not to go there because of the inadequate toilet facilities.
The Men’s toilets were not a great deal better either, as I recall, and although Brockville was a “grand old traditional” Scottish stadium with loads of history, few tears were shed when Falkirk moved to their new ground. Why Alloa would want to go there when they could have had Dunfermline’s East End Park, or Tynecastle, or even Firhill (where they once played a League Cup tie against Celtic) is a matter of some mystery, but goals from Petta, Sylla, Maloney, Balde and Wieghorst saw Celtic through without many problems.
Back in season 1954/55, there seemed to be no problem for Celtic’s visit to Recreation Park on 5 February. An all ticket crowd of 15,000 saw Alloa score first and almost reached half time before Celtic equalised through a Mike Haughney penalty after Neil Mochan had been brought down. Jimmy Walsh then scored early in the second half before Alloa equalised again. Jock Stein was then carried off injured and with the score at 2-2 the tie looked well balanced and heading for a replay, but Stein recovered and Jimmy Walsh and Bertie Peacock then saw Celtic to a 4-2 win.
That seems to have been Celtic’s only visit to Recreation Park on Cup business (they did of course play there when Alloa were in the old Division One in the 1920s) for the other two Scottish Cup ties were both at Parkhead. On 18 February 1928 Jimmy McGrory and Paddy Connolly scored twice in a 2-0 victory, and on 7 February 1925, McGrory scored twice in a 2-1 win. Celtic were well on top until Thackeray pulled one back for the “Wee County” side and made a game of it. On February 18 1928, Celtic were well on top throughout, but in the latter stages a few tempers were lost and Smillie of Alloa and Paddy Connolly were sent off.
Celtic and Alloa Athletic in the Scottish Cup – The story so far
7 February 1925 – Celtic 2 Alloa Athletic 1
18 February 1928 – Celtic 2 Alloa Athletic 0
5 February 1955 – Alloa Athletic 2 Celtic 4
8 January 2002 – Alloa Athletic 0 Celtic 5
The fifth meting between Alloa Athletic and Celtic will be played on the weekend of Saturday 22 and Sunday 23 January, 2022 with the date to be determined by television coverage.
