It shouldn’t shock anybody to see which two games Premier Sports have decided to nab for their Scottish Cup coverage for the next round.
Unlike Stranraer’s trip to Ibrox which is clearly an attempt to pander a certain audience without any attempt to show a competitive game, Celtic’s visit to Firhill at least has the makings of a decent cup game on paper.
Even the return of Ian McCall has done nothing to turn Partick’s fortunes around, but you could argue that any team that wants to thump long balls to a 39 year old Kenny Miller is never going to be successful.
READ MORE: Video: Watch highlights of Celtic Reserves’ victory including sublime Afolabi lob
The date and time has been released for the fixture – the possibility of a Saturday evening game in Glasgow is certainly an intersting one:
🚨 Announcement 🚨
Our Scottish Cup picks for the 4th round are here 📺
Rangers 🆚 Stranraer
Partick Thistle 🆚 CelticFixtures get underway on Friday, January 17th 📅#ScottishCup pic.twitter.com/lv19i7FlJs
— Premier Sports 📺 (@PremierSportsTV) December 3, 2019
This will be Celtic’s first fixture following the Winter break, so there might be some rust to knock off but this should be a routine victory. If anything, the chance to play a local cup tie against a poor team is the ideal fixture after the break.
Partick don’t have the luxury of any breaks and face a grueling run of fixtures through Christmas and New Year. They travel to Dundee the week before so at least the Firhill pitch should get a break, but it’s difficult to see any shocks coming from this game.
