Draw hands Celtic chance of revenge against Ross County

Defender Charlie Mulgrew believes Celtic have been handed the ideal opportunity to exorcise the ghosts of their last meeting with Ross County after both teams were paired together in the Scottish Communities League Cup.

Celtic were famously dumped out of the Scottish Cup in April 2010 by the Highlanders, who booked their place in the final at Hampden with a 2-0 win and left Neil Lennon’s men facing the prospect of ending the season without a single trophy. Lennon was interim manager at the time following the departure of Tony Mowbray and Mulgrew insists a lot has changed since that shock defeat, with the manager now having had time to put his own stamp on the team.

He said: “It was a disappointing day for the club. But it’s a different team, the manager has been a bit longer in the job now. It will be at the back of a couple of players’ minds but we will just take it as another game and we will go up there and get a result.

“We will hear a lot about it in the build-up to the game but we’ve just got to approach it like any other game.”

The third round tie takes place on 20 or 21 September and sees Celtic make the long trip north to Dingwall. Mulgrew, who returned to the Parkhead side a few months after that last game against Ross County, added: “Hopefully we can go there and win and get the result and go through. At a club like Celtic every game is important, even the friendlies. This game will be no different and we will be looking to win it.”

Two all-SPL ties emerged from the draw. Hibernian face a hazardous trip to play last year’s Scottish Cup finalists Motherwell, while St Johnstone will entertain St Mirren, with Liam Craig urging the Perth side to go one step further by reaching the final of a major cup competition this season. St Johnstone have progressed to the semi-finals of both the League Cup and the Scottish Cup in recent years and Craig hopes this will be the year they finally book their place in the Hampden showpiece.

The midfielder said: “We know we are not going to win the league so we want to do well in the cups. If we can stay in the SPL and have another cup run, it will be great for the club. We are not getting carried away with ourselves but we have been to a few semi-finals and it would be nice if we could go that one step further.”

Reflecting on the draw, Craig added: “It’s probably one of the harder ties of the round. There were teams from lower leagues in there and it would have been nice to get one of those at home. St Mirren have had a great start to the season and it’s going to be difficult but it’s a game we will look forward to. We’ve got them in the league next weekend and all our focus will be on that game first and then we will look towards the cup after that.”

Meanwhile, Ryan O’Leary has backed Kilmarnock to come through their tie after being drawn against Irn-Bru First Division side Queen of the South. He said: “The boys will cope fine. We have a good squad and we have started the season well. It’s all been positive apart from the slip-up against Inverness at the weekend but I’m sure the boys will be looking forward to the next game to rectify that. We’ve got that passing style and we can open up teams and I think we can go far in the league and the cup.”

However, O’Leary will have to look on from the sidelines after being told he faces around six months out of action with cruciate ligament damage. He said: “It’s going to be a long six or seven months, especially just now when I’m still at the bottom of the ladder and all I can see is the rehab in front of me.”

In the other last-16 ties, Falkirk will host Rangers, Hearts travel to play Ayr United –who eliminated Inverness in the second round – while Aberdeen are at home to East Fife and Dundee United have an away tie at Airdrie United.