RONNY DEILA will be hoping that Dougie Imrie is nowhere near Hampden Park on Sunday as the Hamilton attacker has been involved in wrecking the treble for Celtic in each of the last two seasons.

 

In one of the greatest cup upsets in Scottish football history, Imrie scored an extra-time penalty to give second-tier Morton the most unlikely victory at Celtic Park in the third round of the League Cup last season.

And only six months earlier he was on the bench at Hampden as St Mirren made sure there would be no clean sweep in the 2012/13 season, winning 3-2 in a thrilling semi-final before going on to win the League Cup.

Many felt Neil Lennon should have claimed all three domestic trophies in the two seasons he managed Celtic when Rangers were out of the top flight and now Deila is within touching distance of achieving it.

However, former Inverness Caledonian Thistle forward Imrie has a feeling his old team might end the dream for Celtic this season on Sunday in the second semi-final of the Scottish Cup.

Imrie said: "The 1-1 draw last weekend shows it's not going to be easy for Celtic to get the treble.

"Inverness have done extremely well this season and they got to the League Cup final last season so they have shown they have what it takes to get to the big occasion.

"It's massive for Inverness. They would love to get to the Scottish Cup Final and you never know what can happen in a cup game.

"There are only a couple of players left when I was there - Ryan Esson and Graeme Shinnie.

"Graeme has come on leaps and bounds. He had only just come up from the 20s when I was there but he has done extremely well since.

"He has got his to move to Aberdeen on the back of his performances and I have picked him as my player of the year.

"He can play in a few positions and he has filled in as captain for Richie Foran which shows you how highly thought-of he is that the club would give him the armband."

Imrie says Inverness should take heart from his experiences of the last two seasons with St Mirren and Morton.

He said: "Celtic will be heavy favourites but you never know what can happen on the day as Morton showed last year and St Mirren the year before.

"That semi-final two years ago was an example of everyone turning up and doing their jobs. I thought St Mirren were excellent that day. They never gave Celtic a minute to settle.

"We knew that Celtic had match-winners throughout their team so couldn't let them get time and space. In the end we were 3-1 up and cruising when they scored with the last kick of the ball.

"The Morton game was a battle. How we managed to win the game is really a fairy tale. Celtic dominated the match for long periods and had 27 corners which shows you how much pressure we were under.

"But it showed the team spirit at Morton at the time because we weren't doing that well in the league but went to Celtic Park and ground out a 1-0 in extra-time."