Celtic diary Friday October 5 Special late edition

Celtic have been drawn at home to st. Johnstone in the quarter finals of the League cup. The Saints, who beat Celtic 2-1 have had manager Steve Lomas named as manager of the month after a successful September which saw his club rise from bottom spot to seventh. The run -and his season-was kick-started with that win over the champions, and its kind of fitting that the hammering they will take on October 30 should send them back into a downward spiral.

Plucky giant killing minnows Rangers  will have another home tie, now that the SFA have noticed that they suffer from travel sickness, this time against Terry Butchers Inverness Caledonian Thistle. Despit being a captain of the original now defunct Rangers, the new lot have never really seen him as one of their own, and hopefully he can get his side to rise to the occasion. Fittingly, that game is on Halloween, and it will save the support getting costumes when they go out for the night. Their usual matchday clothes should suffice.

This sunday, Celtic host Hearts, and with a full squad there should be some rotation to allow a few to be rested, and a few to get some game time. Miku and Kayal may well start, and again the team -whatever team lines up-should be too strong for the Tynecastle side. Three points would help towards putting some space between Celtic and the chasing pack.

Fraser Forster is indeed in the England squad, and Joe Ledley is adamant that Gary hooper should be in there as well. With Joe Ledley and Adam Matthews in the Welsh squad, and Scott Brown amongst others in the Scotland squad, perhaps Kris Commons is just feeling a bit left out of the new Team GB thing. He has done his chances no good though, claiming if  manager  Levein thinks there are seven better players than him, then” so be it.”

Whilst Levein may feel that way, his omission of Commons is baffling. The forward has been outstanding this season, but at least he#ll be around after Levein has gone.

Speaking of all things Scotland, Hampden Park is to be closed to football after november 13 to put n a running track for the 2014 Commonwealth Games, the SFA citing it as an opportunity to take the national team around the country, starting with Ibrox, and er, ending with Ibrox, and some games at Ibrox inbetween. The latter stages will be played elsewhere, but you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to guess which Yorkshireman will be the beneficiary.

Just as he benefitted from the “Not Proven ” verdict yesterday, of bringing the game into disrepute… The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Charlie Mulgrew is “delighted” to have signed a new extension to his contract, which will keep him at the club until 2016, and it will perhaps calm any fears the press will put in his mind now that he is being shunted around the team. He deserves it, and its  great  to have someone who can take free kicks with accuracy. Always useful in Europe, and he certainly relishes his more advanced role in left midfield.

Lennon has said he wants to get his best players to stay, and this is a sign of his intent.

Right, the teaser still hasn’t been guessed, so it rolls until Monday, when the answer-and it is a tricky, perhaps even nasty question, will be revealled.