THE fourth round of the Scottish Cup is always something to savour, and for me, our national cup competition still maintains its prestige in a way that the FA Cup in England does not, even for our top clubs.
Most teams in the English Premier League will play second-strings in the FA Cup, no matter the opposition, whereas you will only see a few changes from the really top teams up here if they are playing a club from much further down the ladder. Yes, both Old Firm sides may rest players, because with the greatest of respect to Brechin and Fraserburgh, they should still cruise through.
But look at Bournemouth during the week, an average side in the English top flight. They went to Wigan with a second-string in their FA Cup replay and got thumped. That just wouldn’t happen up here.
Read more: Talks between Michael O'Neill and SFA off to a positive start
Make no mistake, the Scottish Cup is still a real priority for all of our Premiership teams. The draw has thrown up some brilliant ties, and for me, there are three that stand out as potential crackers.
First up is Aberdeen’s game against St Mirren at Pittodrie tomorrow lunchtime, and I think it is a bigger game for the home side than it is for Jack Ross’s men. Aberdeen, having got to two finals last season and lost them both, will want to make amends.
Derek McInnes has said repeatedly that he wants Aberdeen to be winning more trophies. He has won the League Cup, of course, but Aberdeen haven’t won the Scottish Cup since 1990, so it will be a real priority for them in the context of their season. It has eluded them for so long.
I may be contradicting myself when I say that it won’t be as much of a priority for St Mirren with their Championship title push, but they will still field their strongest team and won’t devalue the tie. And while I fancy Aberdeen to go through, you can’t write off a team who are on such a great run as St Mirren are. They will be flying.
The obvious tie of the weekend is the Edinburgh derby, and if you want to see how much this tournament still means, then you just have to tune in to see Hearts and Hibs do battle. Rest assured, this will be a ding-dong, full-on, old-fashioned Scottish Cup tie from start to finish. It’s a real clash of styles, and it will be so intriguing to see who comes out on top.
I fancy that Steven Naismith may start for Hearts. What a coup that is for them. Hearts have got results by being defensively solid, but they were maybe just lacking that spark at the other end. He will be a huge boost to their creativity.
He could prove to be the missing link for Hearts, and he might just be the signing of the window.
Hibs could really be doing with a spark of their own at the top end of the pitch, and I’m sure that Neil Lennon would like to think that new signing Jamie Maclaren can provide it. They have good players, but sometimes they lack that final moment of magic, and the end product isn’t there. Maclaren could provide that spark having scored a lot of goals in Australia, but the fact Hearts have managed to land a known quantity in Naismith before this game could make the difference.
It might not be as high profile, but the Lanarkshire derby is also bound to be tasty, particularly with what happened at the end of the last game between Dougie Imrie and Peter Hartley.
Dougie will come in for loads of stick going to Fir Park again, but as a former teammate of his at St Mirren, I can assure you he will thrive on it. It will only make him more determined. He epitomises what Hamilton are all about, proving people wrong.
For Motherwell, Stephen Robinson was making noises before the break that the reason his side were in such poor form was that Louis Moult was out. He put his cards on the table by saying his strikers weren’t putting away their chances. The board have backed him by bringing in Curtis Main and Nadir Ciftci, and it is vital for Robinson that they deliver.
Read more: The Serie A Scots: Liam Henderson joins exclusive group of footballers to make move to Italy
Ciftci has so much to prove. He hasn’t fulfilled his potential at Celtic, and hardly set the heather on fire down at Plymouth either. It’s so important for him to do well in terms of his own career, but also for his manager.
Elsewhere, there could be shocks aplenty. Dundee United won’t have it easy at Alloa, and Partick Thistle have a tricky tie against Queen of the South. If you pushed me though, I’d say the biggest chance of an upset will come as Dundee take on Inverness.
Inverness have been in great form and have pushed into contention for the play-offs after a poor start, and I think they can get a result.
Whatever happens, it promises to be a great weekend of Scottish Cup action. Magic.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel