Scottish Cup
Fifth round
Saturday, February 11, 2023
Celtic Park

CELTIC… 5
(Maeda 15, Hatate 76pen & 90+4, Oh 80, O'Riley 88)

ST MIRREN… 1
(O’Hara 85pen)

Celtic booked their place in the last eight of the Scottish Cup with a 5-1 victory over St Mirren. Daizen Maeda gave the Hoops a first-half lead, while Reo Hatate netted from the penalty spot and Oh scored his first goal for the club.

St Mirren, who scored a late consolation from the spot through Mark O’Hara, were also reduced to 10 men when Richard Taylor was red-carded for handball in the incident that led to Hatate’s penalty, and there were late strikes from Matt O'Riley and Hatate again.

Celtic started brightly and Jota showed great attacking intent inside the first minutes, cutting in from the right wing and waltzing past two St Mirren defenders and firing a shot on target, which was pushed behind for a corner from Trevor Carson.

Daizen Maeda’s pace was causing St Mirren problems on the other flank, and on 10 minutes Greg Taylor floated a perfectly-weighted ball over the top of the defence for the Japanese attacker to race on to. His effort from a tight angle evaded the St Mirren goalkeeper but came crashing back off the post.

Just two minutes later, Celtic suffered an injury blow when Kyogo was forced off after he picked up an injury following a robust challenge from two defenders.

Liel Abada came on, with Jota switching to the left wing and Maeda playing through the middle, and on 16 minutes he scored Celtic’s opener.

Abada slotted a pass into the path of Mooy and his low ball across the six-yard box was knocked home by Maeda.

St Mirren tried to respond quickly, and Cameron Carter-Vickers blocked a goal-bound effort from the visitors.

Just before the half-hour mark, Maeda had another chance, this time heading just over from an Abada cross, while towards the end of the half, former Celt, Tony Watt, who was introduced as a substitute for the injured Alex Greive, headed wide from a cross.

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