Celtic’s home tie in the Scottish Cup against Greenock Morton will be played on Saturday 21 January at Celtic Park with the game kicking off at 12.15pm, to accommodate television broadcasting.
Ange Postecoglou will be looking to win the Scottish Cup for the first time this season after the disappointment of last season’s semi-final defeat to theRangers in extra-time and the journey to Hampden begins against Morton.
The game is being shown live on BBC One Scotland while later on the same day St Johnstone will take on holders theRangers at MCDiarmid Park with a kick-off time of 5.30pm and this match will be broadcast live on Viaplay Sports, the new name for Premier Sports.
The subscription channel with then on the following afternoon, Sunday 22 January, broadcast the Edinburgh Derby Scottish Cup tie between Hibs and Hearts which kicks off at 2pm. Then on Monday evening, 23 January, BBC One Scotland will show live the Scottish Cup tie between Darvel and Aberdeen.
🆚 @CelticFC v @Morton_FC
📅 Saturday, 21 January – Kick-off: 12.15pm
📺 Live on @BBCOne Scotland#ScottishCup pic.twitter.com/oWxk0zJems— Scottish Cup (@ScottishCup) December 16, 2022
Here’s the story of Celtic v Greenock Morton in the Scottish Cup as told by Celtic historian David Potter…
GREENOCK MORTON IN THE SCOTTISH CUP…David Potter takes us through the story of Celtic versus Morton in the Scottish Cup after last night’s draw paired the two sides together…
2023 will be the fifteenth time that Celtic have been paired with Morton in the Scottish Cup.
Only once have Morton emerged triumphant, but it was a bad “once”. It was the Scottish Cup semi-final of 1948 at Ibrox when a very poor Celtic team (flirting with relegation) went down 0-1 to Morton.
Only once has a tie gone to a replay (and it went to two replays) and that was, ironically enough, in 1907, generally regarded as one of Celtic’s best season.
In 1907, 1931 1969, 1980 and 2018, Celtic beat Morton en route to winning the Scottish Cup. Celtic, we all know, have won the Scottish Cup 40 times, while Morton have only one triumph, but it was a good one when they beat Rangers in the final in 1922.
Historically and in every other sense, the odds must favour Celtic on 21 January 2023, but the sharp minded ones among us will recall a miserable night in September 2013 when Morton put us out of the Scottish League Cup. We would be foolish then to underestimate the men from the Tail of the Bank!
The Scottish Cup results between Celtic and Morton are as follows:
1907 – Morton 0 Celtic 0, Celtic 1 Morton 1 (McMenemy), Celtic 2 Morton 1 (McMenemy, Hay)
1931 – Morton 1 Celtic 4 (McGrory 3, Napier)
1948 – Morton 1 Celtic 0 Scottish Cup semi final at Ibrox
1956 – Morton 0 Celtic 2 (Tully, Collins)
1962 – Morton 1 Celtic 3 (Carroll, Divers, Jackson)
1964 – Morton 1 Celtic 3 (Hughes, Gallagher, Johnstone)
1969 – Celtic 4 Morton 1 Scottish Cup semi-final at Hampden (Chalmers, McNeill, Wallace, Johnstone)
1980 – Celtic 2 Morton 0 (Casey. McCluskey)
1992 – Celtic 3 Morton 0 (Creaney 2 Collins)
1998 – Celtic 2 Morton 0 (Brattbakk, Jackson)
1999 – Morton 0 Celtic 3 (Viduka 2, Larsson)
2010 – Morton 0 Celtic 1 (McGinn)
2016 – Celtic 3 Morton 0 (Griffiths, Mackay-Steven, McGregor)
2018 – Celtic 3 Morton 0 (Dembele 1 + 1 penalty, Edouard)
Some fine performances there, although most wins were functional and routine rather than spectacular. There were exceptions though.
One was on 25 January 1964 when Morton were romping away with the Second Division Championship and were given Celtic (an infuriatingly inconsistent team in 1964), and according to the Celtic Supporters Handbook for the following year, we had “the laughable spectacle of the good people of Greenock from the Provost downwards being brainwashed by the Press into being totally convinced that their team were bound to beat Celtic in the Scottish Cup”.
The BBC tried hard, The Scottish Daily Express tried harder… but John Hughes scored one of his best goals, and Charlie Gallagher scored direct from a corner kick. Oh, and goalkeeper John Fallon got a row from a policeman for celebrating!
And then there was the semi-final of 1969. The top of the East Terracing is a long way from the action. We were a wee bit late, and scrambled up to the top of the stairway just in time to see Morton come out in their white strips.(Teams came out separately in 1969).
The Greenock men seemed to have a big support with them as well on the East Terracing, because they got a decent cheer. And they had a chap that looked like Jimmy Johnstone … but wait a minute! A team in blue came out! That couldn’t be Celtic in blue! Then the truth dawned. The team in white was Celtic! And after an early reverse, Celtic went on to win 4-1.
And I made an appointment with my optician – but it was a long way from the top of the terracing to the pitch, and I couldn’t really see the minuscule green trim on their cuffs!
David Potter
📆 Fixture Confirmation
Our Scottish Cup Fourth Round tie against Celtic has now been confirmed for Saturday 21st January, with a 12.15pm kick-off.
This match will be shown live on BBC One. pic.twitter.com/YESbwrLDdx
— Greenock Morton (@Morton_FC) December 16, 2022
