AFTER overcoming Partick Thistle at Firhill last Saturday, Celtic take on Clyde in the fifth round of the Scottish Cup. Callum McGregor scored the Hoops’ second goal of the evening in the comfortable 2-1 win over Thistle, and he’s now looking forward to a trip to Broadwood Stadium for the next cup challenge.

The last time the two teams met was in 2006, when Clyde clinched a shock 2-1 victory on home soil. McGregor acknowledged the scope for upset in cup competition, but said he and his team-mates will approach the tie with the same mentality and focus responsible for their impressive 32-game unbeaten domestic cup run.

“Clyde is a good draw,” said the 26-year-old. “We’ve not played them for a while, but away games are always difficult. We’ll approach the game with the same attitude and mentality that we approach every game with, and we hope to win and to progress.

“In football, there is always potential for upset, but we obviously don’t want that. If you don’t prepare properly, you don’t play well or you don’t earn the right to play then you can always get caught out. We think it’s a good draw, but on the day, we have to turn up and earn the right to win.

“The record we have is great. We obviously want to continue the run, it’s something that we’re proud of and something that we’ve worked hard to achieve, and something we certainly don’t want to give up.”

McGregor said despite Saturday’s tight scoreline against the Jags, he was pleased to return from the break with a win and a goal.

Now, he’s determined to help his side push on into the second half of the campaign, and said replicating last year’s fine form at this stage – wherein the Hoops won 11 straight domestic games after the winter break – is achievable with the right attitude.

He added: “The first game of the year, it’s always good to progress into the next round and blow some of the cobwebs off after the winter break. The away games are difficult, especially with some difficult places to go to in this league.

“The next fortnight will be tough for us, and we obviously want to come through those well. That said, the break is good for us to re-focus. When we come back, we have to go foot to the floor and win the next run of games.

“Mentality-wise, we know we can go on a run from here. We did so this time last season, and there’s no reason why we can’t do the same again this year. We know that’s something we’re capable of, and if we apply ourselves like we know we can.

“We’re targeting the same run of wins as last year, and we’ll see how many we can get.”

McGregor: We’ll approach Clyde draw with same winning mentality