Stirling Albion may have been knocked out of the Scottish Cup but emerged from the east end of Glasgow with a great deal of credit after a tenacious performance in which the Binos were still in with a shout of causing an upset with quarter of the match remaining. Albion succumbed to heavy legs and a late brace of goals, losing by three goals to nil.

The Celtic support, which was relatively poor, turned out to see new signing Andreas Hinkle slot in on the right-hand side of the back four, combining with Japanese star Nakamura on the flank as Gordon Strachan took no chance by playing his strongest eleven. While many of the Celtic players looked distinctly rusty after a fortnight off competitive matches due to the untimely passing of Phil O’Donnell, for who a minute’s applause was observed at the start of the game, Nakamura was only playing his first game since October and showed only sporadic moments of excellence.

Unfortunately for Albion the Japanese internationalist’s most telling moment was a superb curling twenty yard strike that left young goalkeeper Scott Christie utterly helpless.

Nakamura’s moment of brilliance gave the score an unfair gloss against an Albion team who had competed hard and restricted Celtic to a handful of meaningful efforts over the course of the ninety minutes as well as producing the occasional moment of enterprising football that might well have yielded a goal on another day.

Allan Moore, understandably, set his side out in a rather introspective looking 4-5-1 formation having been cruelly shorn of the services of Steven Bell only minutes before kick-off. Ross Harris proved an able deputy for the box-to-box midfield player but lacked Bell’s defensive qualities and fantastic engine. Nevertheless Harris, like the rest of the fourteen in red who took to the Celtic Park turf, can rightly be proud of their efforts as each player produced a showing that could not be, realistically, expected to be better.

Arguably no player enhanced their reputation more than Christie, who dealt with Celtic’s barrage of efforts on goal stoically and handled the numerous crosses that flew his way flawlessly. The young goalkeeper was busy in the early stages of the match, denying McDonald in the opening minutes before watching helplessly as a Venegoor of Hesselink effort narrowly beat his post.

Christie must’ve felt as if he was in a shooting gallery in the early stages as efforts seemed to be aimed at his goal on a frequent basis in the opening fifteen minutes. After this uncertain opening the Binos gradually managed to assert some control on the game as they grew more confident in their grand surroundings. David McKenna was the first player in red to strike at goal, however his ambitious effort from distance was always rising. Aitken and McBride would also fire off target while Donati passed up the Hoops’ best chance to date as he headed over the bar from ten yards following a dangerous Nakamura corner.

The Japanese wide player had been kept relatively quite in the first half down the right while on the left pseudo-Irishman Aidan McGeady was generally being shackled well by Nugent.

Indeed, Celtic’s opening goal was much of Albion’s own making. An attempted Binos counter-attack was swiftly arrested as Harris gave away cheap possession on the left. Naylor overlapped effectively, out-pacing Nugent to the bye-line before delivering the first truly telling cross of the afternoon. Giant Dutch striker Venegoor of Hesselink was alive to the possibilities, thumping a powerful effort into the net.

Both sides created possibilities in the remaining five minutes before the interval. Harris will perhaps feel he should have done better than to scoop the ball over the bar from inside the Celtic box after enterprising play from McKenna while Scott McDonald forced Christie into evasive action to push away a powerful drive from a tight angle.

Allan Moore would have been encouraged by the positive nature of the first forty-five minutes and delighted that his side were still in with a half-chance. Any hopes the Binos had of taking the match to a replay quickly receded as Celtic piled forward, again flashing shots at the visiting goal without really testing Christie. Scott Brown came the closest with a stinging drive that sliced narrowly wide of the goal.

As with the first half Stirling steadied themselves impressively having suffered early problems but posed only an intermittent threat. A first shot on target was registered as Harris took the ball from Donati as he was much too over-elaborate in his own half however the former Dundee man’s well-hit strike was straight at Boruc.

The Binos would have an even better chance moments later as the ball broke kindly to Aitken at the edge of the box but the midfielder saw his effort superbly blocked by McManus as he fired the ball goalwards.

Celtic were still pressing forward hungrily for the second, and killer, goal however Christie was infrequently being tested. Inevitably the Hoops had to click at some stage and they did just this in the seventieth minute. Aidan McGeady was the catalyst, sprinting down the left hand side of the pitch and, taking advantage of an untimely Nugent slip, drove into the box before cutting the ball back to McDonald, who had peeled off the central defenders. The Australian striker was never going to miss, placing the ball into the far corner of the net with the aid of a post.

To their credit not a single head in the Albion side dropped. With debutant forward Jay Rodriguez now on the field Celtic were having to cope with the intelligent and strong play from the youngster as he twisted and turned, generally causing Caldwell and McManus a few headaches at the back.

The two large central defenders were nullified as Albion carved out their best chance of the game only a minute after Celtic’s second. Stewart Devine’s delivery from a free-kick was impossible to defend again and only a strong Boruc hand from seemingly nowhere kept out Andy Graham’s header from point-blank range.

Had Graham’s effort gone in, who knows what might have happened. As it was the Celts stole up the field and truly finished Albion; Nakamura taking advantage of a rare piece of erroneous play from Aitken to send his wonderful strike into the net. Donati may have added a fourth as tiredness began to take hold but three was hard on Albion, a fourth would have been a downright injustice.