CELTIC will take on Morton in the fourth round of the Scottish Cup in January as the bhoys look to win back their Scottish Cup trophy this year.
Morton will take the short trip to Celtic Park on January 21st, hoping to cause the mother of all upsets. For Celtic, it’s the first step in a competition they really want to win. The Scottish Cup trophy is the only domestic silverware that alludes Ange Postecoglou, and the bhoys will want to rectify that.
The early stages of the cup are rarely attended well when they’re at Celtic Park, and we expect there to be a drop-off in the usual SPFL attendance. However, after the latest TV announcement, we could see a bit more of a drop-off than usual.
The game will be aired on terrestrial TV and will be free to watch for all. As the main rights holders, ViaPlay [formerly Premier Sports] gets to pick any two ties to show in each round. They decided to go with St Johnston vs Rangers and Hearts vs Hibs. BBC then picked up the Celtic game and changed the kick-off time to 12:15.
The kick-off time will likely be another deterrent for supporters heading to the game.
Celtic’s gate won’t suffer too much because of the home cup sticker scheme. There will be man hoops fans who will have the money automatically taken out of their banks for the game and who will end up staying home for whatever reason. Cup games are extra cash and at this moment in time, itsn’t a priority for struggling families.
In 2016, Morton came to town, and the attendance was just 14,858 [RecordSport]. In 2018, in the competition’s quarter-finals against Morton, there was an attendance of 18,255 [FitbaStats]. We’d expect the attendance to be more like the 2018 tie.
