St Mirren confident they can ‘compete with anybody’ heading into Celtic clash

St Mirren assistant manager Diarmuid O’Carroll insists his players fear nobody as they look to cause a Scottish Gas Scottish Cup upset against Celtic.

The fifth-placed Buddies warmed up for the Paisley tie with a midweek victory over Dundee which opened up a nine-point gap on the teams below them in the cinch Premiership.

With fans dreaming of a return to Europe, St Mirren are also looking to cause a splash in the cup.

But they will have to perform better than their previous meeting with Celtic, who scored two early goals before dominating the second half against 10 men following Toyosi Olusanya’s red card in a 3-0 defeat.

O’Carroll said: “They flew out the traps and people talk about every goal is a mistake by a defender, but they were very, very good for the first 15 minutes in particular, and they blew us away early.

“But ultimately from our point of view we were disappointed because it was predictable things that we knew they would do.

“As always, we back ourselves. They are a top, top team with fantastic options, both starting and off the bench, but we fear no-one at the minute.

“It’s one of those cup games, have a go at. There’s no free hits because we don’t believe in that, we believe we can compete with anybody.

“On our day, I don’t think they will enjoy coming to St Mirren, so hopefully we can give them a right good game.”