Teams Up – Kyogo and Idah both start, no sign of Abada

Brendan Rodgers has never lost a Scottish Cup tie and he’s named his Celtic team for today’s fifth round tie away to St Mirren that he believes will give him the best chance of continuing that incredible personal record as Celtic manager.

Joe Hart is as you would expect, named as our goalkeeper and the back four is Anthony Ralston, Stephen Welsh, Liam Scales and Alexandro Bernabei.

Ralston replaces Alistair Johnston at right back after the Canadian suffered a fracture in the head-knock at Easter Road on Wednesday evening and Stephen Welsh who went off in midweek with a tight hamstring, is fine to start today. Scales and Bernabei keep their places in the starting eleven, with today’s match coming just too soon for Greg Taylor, who will return next weekend, all going well.

Paulo Bernardo drops to the bench as Celtic could be going with a four in midfield with Callum McGregor and Matt O’Riley being joined by Luis Palma and Daizen Maeda in the wide areas.

That means we have – joy of joys – two up top with Adam Idah and Kyogo both starting! New signing Adam Idah retains his centre forward slot in the team after scoring both goals from the penalty spot against Hibs and as he’s joined by Kyogo we could see the start of a new striking partnership that could transform our season.

On the bench for Celtic this afternoon are Bain, Kuhn, Yang, Nawrocki, Oh Tomoki, Bernardo, Vata and Kelly.

There’s one surprise in that there’s no sign of Liel Abada on the team sheet. Maybe his head isn’t in the right place at the moment and if that’s the case it’s great mana management from Brendan.  Abada is a popular player among the Celtic support who have never shown him any hostility, his recent standing ovation in the last round of the cup against Buckie Thistle is proof of that.

Kick-off is fast approaching at 2pm. Best of luck to the Bhoys, let’s get this won!

COYBIG!