ST MIRREN were 3-2 winners over Steven Gerrard’s Rangers in the Quarter Finals of the Betfred Cup tonight after coming from 1-0 down to beat the Ibrox side. However, while many will be celebrating the result it is likely that they missed the fixture implications that this result has for Celtic.
Celtic, who already have two games in hand, were due to play St Mirren at Celtic Park on January 24 but following the win tonight, Jim Goodwin’s side will be playing Livi at the National Stadium. This means that Celtic could potentially have another game in hand, which means another fixture build-up.
The natural thought would be to reschedule the other game – with Aberdeen the other game in hand. However, St Mirren are both one of the games in hand and they will be at the National Stadium as well and unfortunately the Dons have a game against Motherwell that weekend. Unless Celtic can reschedule the games, it looks as if they will have another game in hand over Gerrard’s Rangers.
This will be extended to FOUR games this weekend as Celtic’s trip to Livingston has been postponed owing to the Scottish Cup Final with Hearts. The fixture backlog needs to be managed but it will be a boost to Celtic knowing that it won’t be their Glasgow rivals taking the trophy they held for four years.