Celtic vs Buckie Thistle Prediction: Win over Buckie is just the tonic for Hoops

There’s one game from the Scottish Cup on Sunday as Celtic hosts Highland League side Buckie Thistle. Betfred’s Frank Monkhouse offers his preview and predictions…

The Scottish Cup Fourth Round ties continue on Sunday as champions Celtic host Highland League dreamers Buckie Thistle. The hosts are red-hot favourites to pull rank on their lower-league opponents, with this game likely to be a high-scoring affair.

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers is unlikely to field his strongest 11 from the start, but he will send out a team he believes is good enough to progress to the next round.

Buckie Thistle arrives in Glasgow at the home of last season’s treble winners, knowing they have nothing to lose. Everyone is expecting a comfortable home win, with pundits predicting how many goals the Hoops will score past The Jags.

Followers of the Scottish Cup know anything is possible in this competition, but will the footballing gods shine down on Graeme Steward’s ambitious lot?

Team News

Celtic arrives back from a much-needed winter break following a punishing festive period in the Premiership. Their last game was a simple 3-0 away win over St Mirren, who played the second half with ten men after Toyosi Olusanya was sent packing for a high boot following a VAR check.

Success in Paisley means the Bhoys have now won each of their last four domestic games and will fancy five to get the second half of the season moving.

Unlike their hosts, the Buckie Thistle squad didn’t enjoy a winter break. They’ve been hard at it in the Highland League, where you’ll find them sitting down in fifth place after 14 played. They have won a dozen games so far, drawing one and losing the spare, and also have games in hand over the teams above them in the pecking order.

If Buckie picks up the slack, they’ll have a good chance of gaining promotion to League Two, meaning they may see this cup campaign as an added distraction.

Celtic vs Buckie Thistle Odds

As you’d expect when approaching this game, Celtic are priced like losing isn’t an option, and although we know that’s a dangerous view, it’s understandable here. For Buckie to trouble the hosts, they’d need the greatest performance in the club’s history while the Celtic players endured a day to forget. There’s a lot of luck required there.

Betfred traders prefer to keep things simple and offer a home win for Celtic at odds of 1/200. It’s not worth backing them in the match-winner betting, but it’s likely to see more attention than Buckie Thistle, even at an enormous 40/1, while the draw is also 40/1.

Over 4.5 goals @ 1/2

We’ll avoid picking the winner and, instead, shoot for value in the goals market. Betfred customers can get a decent 1/2 quote on Sunday’s game producing more than four goals, and that looks worth a spot in your weekend accumulators. 

Celtic scored five goals past Greenock Morton at this venue in the Fourth Round of the Scottish Cup last season. The Ton are a decent Championship side that often pushes for the playoff places. If the Hoops scored five past a full-time opponent from the division below, you’d expect at least similar against the part-timers of Buckie.

Turnbull to score @ 5/2

We’re second-guessing how Rodgers might line up against Buckie but will take a pop at David Turnbull getting some minutes and marking his return to action with a goal. The 24-year-old midfielder’s future at Parkhead remains unclear, but Rodgers is likely to use this game to give fringe players a chance to shine.

Turnbull scored at this stage last season in that impressive win over Morton, and if he gets on the pitch on Sunday, we fancy more of the same this year. He last played against Rangers, and his most recent goal was against Motherwell in a 1-1 draw back in November. David scored four goals in five games earlier in the season and will be eager to get back into the swing of things on Sunday.

Frank Monkhouse covers Scottish Football for us here at Betfred Insights. You can check out all of his work along with that of the rest of our Football Betting Tips desk on our main Football page...