Scottish Cup Draw Gives Celtic The Toughest Game We Could Have Had.

So it’s Hearts away, at their ground, arguably the toughest draw we could have had against a manager who will play a settled tactical shape and always makes sure he gives everything against us and that his team does as well.

Let’s be honest; there’s no way we were getting the Ibrox club in that draw, certainly not at home.

It was predictable then, and I knew it was a certainty the moment Hearts came out.

The Ibrox club, in contrast, got a home game against another non SPL club. No-one will be able to say that the heated balls conspired against them on their path to another game at Hampden. The difficulty for them will come if they have to play us in the semi. But for some reason I’m having very strong doubts that such a draw would ever come to pass.

The Mooch simply has to be seen as having made “progress” and two trips to Hampden will “confirm” him as a tactical genius. It won’t matter they’ve played cannon fodder on the way to getting there.

Celtic will now then have to travel to Tynecastle where I have no doubt Robbie Neilson will be back to normal, and giving his all against our club. By the time that game comes around they might be the Last Best Hope Ibrox has of avoiding playing us on the day Ange clinches a treble, a prospect that scares their fans more than Holy Water coming out of the showerhead.

There’s no reason for us to have the least bit of concern about this draw. The interesting thing will be seeing how many tickets Hearts give us; Scottish Cup convention states that we’re entitled to some 20% of the ground, which is a few thousand tickets.

The club will be very keen to make sure that we actually do. We will take a huge travelling support through there, and in recent times the number of fans able to attend has been severely limited.

Not that it’s done us much harm, or Hearts much good.