Scottish Cup draw: Celtic face St Mirren or Hearts whilst Aberdeen meet Hibs

Neil Lennon’s team yesterday knocked out Rangers’ conquerors, Dundee United, beating them 4-0 at Tannadice. A red card for United’s Robbie Neilson handed Celtic the initiative and second-half goals from Joe Ledley, Georgios Samaras, Anthony Stokes and Scott Brown moved the Parkhead side another step closer to the treble.

Hearts and St Mirren drew 2-2 at Tynecastle on Saturday and now face a replay in Paisley next Wednesday for the right to face the SPL leaders. Hearts last met Celtic in the semi-finals in 2005, with Martin O’Neill’s side running out 2-1 winners.

Aberdeen, 2-1 winners away to last year’s beaten finalists Motherwell yesterday, will play Hibernian, who beat Ayr United 2-0 on Saturday. The two sides last met in the semi-finals in 2000, with a 2-1 victory taking the Dons through to a showdown with Rangers, their last appearance in a final.

Dons manager Craig Brown, whose side lost 4-0 to Celtic in last year’s semi-finals, said: “We’re delighted to be in the draw, all the teams are fairly even. Celtic are the best team (left in) I think and to avoid them is fortunate, but I’m not taking anything for granted. We made heavy weather of the game today. Hibs are improving dramatically and if we don’t play better than that we won’t beat Hibs. We have a chance. We’ve got to improve our performance, but there’s work in progress in Aberdeen.”

The draw keeps alive the mouthwatering prospect of an all-Edinburgh final.

Aberdeen v Hibernian

Celtic v Hearts or St Mirren

(Ties to be played at Hampden Park on the weekend of 14 and 15 April)