Ex-St Johnstone boss Owen Coyle reckons his former club will not relinquish their grip on the Scottish Cup trophy without a fight after the Saints were drawn away to Queen of the South.
And he has certainly not ruled out the prospect of seeing a repeat of last year’s all-Tayside final when this season’s competition comes to a close in May.
The former St Johnstone, Wigan, Bolton and Burnley manager was back in the spotlight yesterday as he conducted the fifth round draw alongside SFA vice-president Alan McRae and Eddie Thompson of competition sponsors William Hill.
And after surveying the weekend’s results and how the fifth round is shaping up, Coyle feels the competition is wide open with the likes of Saints and fellow former club Dundee United, who were drawn away to either Stranraer or Dunfermline, flying under the radar thus far.
“St Johnstone won‘t give it up easy, that’s for sure,” he told Courier Sport.
“I thought they looked good again against Ross County at the weekend and I think we’ve always felt that St Johnstone are decent enough against the ball and don’t give too much away.
“At the other end of the pitch they’ve got one or two who can score goals.
“It was always going to be difficult losing young Stevie May, who has settled well playing in the Championship with Sheffield Wednesday, but they’ve got one or two who show promise.
“Young Michael O’Halloran for example – I gave him a debut at Bolton so it’s great to see him starting to flourish and develop.
“It’s similar at Dundee United. I like watching United because I love the young kids coming through, and again everybody thought it was going to be difficult for them losing the likes of Ryan Gauld in the summer.
“But when they go forward they’ve got plenty of options so they’ve got a great chance as well.
“Nadir Ciftci can sometimes be a wee bit inconsistent but when he’s at the top of his game he can be a terrific player.
“So there’s no getting away from the fact that Celtic will be huge favourites to win the cup but it certainly won’t be a walk in the park.
“There will be a few teams thinking to themselves: ‘We can actually win this trophy.’
“That’s what happened last year and we ended up with a fantastic final.
“I thought St Johnstone v Dundee United was an outstanding game and, as much as we get obsessed in this country with the big Glasgow clubs, it just showed we can have a fantastic cup final without the big clubs being involved.”
Coyle was delighted to have been asked to make the fifth round draw and he believes Dundee’s home game against Celtic was the pick of the bunch.
He explained: “I said to Eddie at William Hill that he actually makes the draw because I was doing the home teams!
“So when I had drawn Rangers at home and Celtic were still in there I think he had a bit of a fright.
“But I think there are some good ties and Dundee v Celtic is a terrific tie.
“I watched the Dundee v Aberdeen game and obviously Derek McInnes is my pal but the spirit Dundee showed was fantastic.
“And Paul Hartley deserves credit as well because Dundee were under the cosh for the last 15 minutes of that game and when he made a substitution he brought another striker on.
“It would have been easy to bring a defender on because Dundee’s best form has been away from home and think they could take their chances in a replay.
“But no, he put another striker on and David Clarkson scores a fantastic goal.
“It was irony upon irony because the young goalkeeper Scott Bain, having been released from Aberdeen, made a fantastic save late on, and David Clarkson played for Derek at Bristol City.
“The cup throws those type of things up.”