Celtic face Partick Thistle in the quarter final of the Premier Sports Cup this afternoon.
Brendan Rodgers will be keen to retain the trophy he won last season which was the first-ever trophy he won as the Celtic manager in his first spell at the club.
Standing in Celtic’s way is Mark Wilson’s Partick Thistle as the two Glasgow clubs prepare to face each other in a city derby.
And whilst Thistle will welcome the challenge, they will be gutted at meeting Celtic just one game before a possible date at Hampden.
So while Celtic and Thistle both know who they could face at Hampden, BBC man Allan Preston makes a strange claim about the ‘best time’ to face the Parkhead club in the competition.
Allan Preston says ‘best place to meet’ Celtic is the Premier Sports Cup final
With all the hype and build-up leading up to the big game this afternoon, after Kilmarnock beat St Mirren midweek, Preston shares when he (strangely) believes is the best time to play Celtic in the competition.
Preston told The Scottish Football Podcast [10m 40s], “I think Celtic will win [vs Partick Thistle]. I think Aberdeen, because I think Motherwell are brilliant, but just can’t score a goal.
“So Aberdeen might just kickstart their season, get themselves into a semi-final. Then you would say if you are St Mirren,’ OK, who do we want then?’ Because Hibs are a good side, Rangers will get better, I would imagine.
“Celtic you don’t want, regardless of who you are. If Celtic get by Partick Thistle, which is still an if, but you don’t want them at any stage. You’ve got to meet them in the final. And that’s the best place to meet them.
“Because as we’ve seen with Aberdeen, you don’t need all the possession, you don’t need all the shots, you just need that one chance to get yourself back in the game and then hang on and take it to penalties.”
Preston’s Celtic comments are misguided
Look, we all get the whole cup final is a one-off game theory but in practice, Celtic don’t lose many of them.
Over the course of the last 14 years, Celtic have played a Hampden final 16 times and lost just twice.
Once in the League Cup against Kilmarnock in 2012 and in last season’s Scottish Cup final against Aberdeen. That’s a formidable record by any stretch of the imagination.
If anything, getting Celtic away from Hampden is any club’s best chance of knocking the Scottish champions out and Brendan Rodgers will be well aware of that this afternoon.
Receive a digest of our best Celtic content each week direct to your mailbox
