Buckie Thistle manager Graeme Stewart this evening spoke of his delight at drawn Celtic in the Scottish Cup Fourth round and revealed that many of his players are Celtic supporters who will love their chance to take on their heroes at Celtic Park on the weekend of 20/21 January 2024.
Shortly after the draw was made on BBC Sportscene this evening the Buckie boss spoke to Press and Journal about what drawing Celtic means to the Highland League side.
“For the club this is unbelievable, financially this will make such a difference,” Stewart said. “For the guys who keep the club running this is the draw they’ve been waiting for. For the players it’s unbelievable because they get to play against top players, the best players in Scotland. It’s a great day out for us and when it comes around we’ll do our best and look to compete as best we can.
“We’ve got the draw we’ve wanted and for the club it’s going to be amazing.
Buckie Thistle looking forward to playing Celtic at Paradise
“We deserved it against Broxburn, we were the better team and had a man sent off after 20 minutes, who should never have been sent off. We played the better football and made the better chances, the attitude was unbelievable.
“I’ve given the players Monday off from training for the first time in all my time as manager because of how well they did. They deserved to go through and they deserve the reward of that draw so let’s see what happens at Celtic.”
And the delighted Buckie Thistle boss also talked about who some of his players are confirmed Celtic supporters. “We’ve got two or three guys in our squad that are Celtic diehards so they’ll be delighted with the draw.
“It’s a great draw for the club, the players and the fans and everyone’s over the moon with it.”
Here’s how Buckie Thistle reached the Fourth Round of the Scottish Cup with their penalty shoot-out win over Broxburn Athletic on Saturday…
And of course Celtic are the holders of the Scottish Cup and have won the trophy more times than any other club. And it was against Highland opposition back in June when Celtic emerged triumphant in yet another Scottish Cup final. Here’s a reminder on how things went that day…