Auchinleck Talbot 0, Celtic 2 - 18th January, 2026

A difficult game to enjoy, for many reasons, but job done and another clean sheet (ok, ok).

Unless they melted and conceded ten, the Ayrshire junior side were always going to be the only moral winners here.

An Auchinleck showed admirable organisation, shape, resolve and fight to put up a barrier for Celtic’s attacking.

As I’ll expand on in the next podcast, this match was not unusual when compared to similar early away ties in the Scottish Cup, on artificial ground, against lower league opposition.

Other than the frankly laughable need to give Callum McGregor another 88 minutes, this was an opportunity to see many of the fringe players.

As always, some winners and losers, and we’ll get more into that on the podcast too.

Bhoy of the Match in these circumstances will tend to go to the player who has created the most attacking threat, as opposed to a defender racking up 170 passes!