Rutherglen ace Craig Howie thought playing Celtic in the Scottish Cup would be a once in a lifetime opportunity - now he’s preparing for his third crack at the Hoops in six years.
The Alloa defender admits it’s a surreal feeling as he gears up for another huge clash, following his first outing in 2016 with Lowland League East Kilbride and a second go with League One Clyde in 2020.
When East Kilbride fell to a 2-0 defeat at Airdrie’s Excelsior Stadium in a last 16 tie, it was Ronny Deila at the helm and the 3-0 last 16 exit with the Bully Wee came when Neil Lennon was in charge.
And Howie insists the challenge facing him when Ange Postecoglou’s charges come calling at the Indodrill on Saturday night for the fourth round tie will be the toughest test of them all.
The 25-year-old, who works full-time for Tesco Bank, said: “It’s very surreal, to be honest.
“I can’t believe this will be the third time I’ve played Celtic in six years.
“When I was at East Kilbride I thought it’d be a once in a lifetime opportunity for a player around my level, but it’s come about a lot more often.
“From my own perspective, I’ve always been keen to play at as high a level as possible and the higher up the leagues you go, normally the further you will go in competitions.
“I’m very fortunate that this will be the third time I’m in this situation and it’s always a great occasion when you play the top teams.
“But it’s definitely the strongest Celtic team I will have come up against.
“The way they are playing, the intensity they are playing at, it’s going to be very difficult.
“The last two games I played against them, we were comfortably beaten and that was against sides that didn’t play to the level Celtic do now, so it will be, in my opinion, even harder this time.
“It’s just really about us keeping our shape and trying to frustrate Celtic as much as possible.
“But, of course, I’m under no illusions how difficult that will be.”
Incredibly, a trip to Celtic Park has eluded the centre-back each time he’s been drawn against them.
He added: “You always wish you can say you’ve experienced a Celtic Park or an Ibrox or a Tynecastle, but in terms of our probabilities of getting something from the game, being at home will help.”As much as it would be amazing to play at Celtic Park, it would make the task even more difficult.
“So I do think it’s to Alloa’s benefit that we are at home.
”But I’ve had home advantage and an artificial pitch both times previously and it’s not worked in my favour, so I don’t think it will make too much of a difference.
”It will be a really good atmosphere with the fans all back now and we’ve got a narrower pitch so it might help.”
League One Alloa are on a run of one win in their last 10 games and that victory came in the previous round of the cup against Bonnyrigg Rose, so Barry Ferguson’s side aren’t going into the clash full of confidence.
Form tends to go out the window in the cup though and with the buzz of facing the Hoops, Howie insists he believes he has a chance of making it third time lucky.
“There’s no game of football that is impossible to win,” he said.
“There’s always that bit of belief.
“Nobody will think we’ve got a great chance but there’s been huge shocks in the Scottish Cup before and when it is at home for the smaller team, there is always hope you can do something.
“We know Celtic will dominate the game. We are looking to put in a solid defensive performance and nick something on the break.
“There is that bit of hope we can do that.
“It’s not been a great season for us so far. We’ve not put too many complete performances together yet.
“We’ve got a really good squad there that’s always capable of beating top teams.
“We’ve shown that in the good results we’ve had because a lot of our wins have come against the teams at the top of the table.
“But we know Saturday will be completely different to what we’ve faced so far.”
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