Celtic2–1Dundee Utd

Our fourth round tie with Celtic was brought forward to Tuesday to enable the match to be shown on BSkyB Satellite television. For the tie we were deprived of the services of Dave Narey through injury and Alex Cleland was his replacement while Darren Jackson returned to the side in place of Victor Ferreyra who joined Ray McKinnon on the subs bench. The stakes were high for both clubs and it resulted in a match played at a frantic pace. Celtic were the early pace setters, but Darren Jackson soon carved out a chance for himself, but shot straight at Marshall. We had the first of several narrow escapes in the 17th minute when Guido Van De Kamp plucked the ball to safety after a scramble in front of goal. Neither defence was looking particularly happy and both sides conceded goals within the space of three minutes. First Guido Van De Kamp let a Galloway corner slip through his hands, allowing Gerry Creaney to force the ball over the line. However,shortly afterwards, Jim McInally pressurised the Celtic defence into an error as the ball broke to Mixu Paatelainen who steered a well placed shot from ten yards past a static Marshall. We survived a couple of amazing escapes after Tommy Coyne had intercepted Darren Jackson's intended pass back.

The second half was no less frantic than the first with Collins finding the net but the goal was disallowed for an off-side infringement. Tommy Coyne figured prominently as Celtic tried to force the issue, heading narrowly past and then forcing Guido Van De Kamp to tip over the former United striker's header. At the other end Marshall tipped over a Ray McKinnon free kick and just when it seemed we had taken the sting out of Celtic's attacking momentum, Miller crossed from the right for Tommy Coyne to head in the winner. Unfortunately, there was no immediate response from us as there had been when Celtic scored in the first half and we made our exit from the Scottish cup prior to the quarter finals for the first time since 1982/83.