Stuart Bannigan reckons Thistle have a “free shot” against Celtic

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Partick Thistle midfielder Stuart Bannigan reckons that his side can look at their Betfred Cup tie against Celtic as a “free shot”.

The Firhill side will aim to end a 28 game cup winning run for the Hoops that stretches back to April 2016. Nobody has been able to stop the rampant Celts in either of the domestic cup competitions in that time – and Neil Lennon’s men are now just three wins from ten domestic trophies in-a-row.

And they may navigate Wednesday’s next step pretty easily if the former Jags’ captain’s comments are to be taken seriously. Bannigan reckons that Ian McCall’s side have little to lose from the Parkhead encounter, and he even thinks it could be a case of confidence building ahead of their next league fixture.

“The boys are excited to go and play there,” he told the Herald. “They know the challenge ahead of us, they are a top side and they haven’t been beaten in the cup competitions for a long time.

“We know the job at hand, but it’s something of a free shot for us to go and try to express ourselves and try to get a bit of confidence for our league game on Saturday.

“And you never know in football, we might just throw up a surprise and shock everybody.”

Bannigan and his teammates will be nervous coming to Celtic Park

For Thistle to pull off a momentous upset they will have to play out of their skins and hope that Celtic have a dire night. We must make sure that the latter doesn’t happen and we can do that by remaining focussed on the task at hand.

Lennon is likely to make several changes from the weekend and that could have some real benefits. The Celtic team that lines up should be eager to impress, as this may be one of their only chances to stake a claim for a starting berth.

The likes of Tom Rogic and Olivier Ntcham should play and they are the kind of guys who will be expected to lead the team. The defence must look to be strong and not offer any encouragement to the Thistle attack. The visitors will thrive on any uncertainty in our backline and that could make a quiet crowd a little nervy.

We saw what can happen against lower league opposition in the last round. Dunfermline stayed in the game at Parkhead and took their one chance when it arrived. Thankfully now we look like a much better team. Hopefully it shows on Wednesday evening.