Aiden chases missing medal

Aiden McGeady is looking to complete his collection of medals by sinking Rangers at Hampden.
The international midfielder has three SPL medals and one Scottish Cup winners medal but has still to get his hands on the League Cup -- after missing Celtic's 3-0 League Cup win over Dunfermline in 2006, which featured Roy Keane -- through injury.
Hampden hasn't been a happy hunting ground for McGeady, who lost out on a place on the bench for the 2004 and 2005 Scottish Cup Finals despite being in the squad that Martin O'Neill took to the final.
Although he has missed the last two Old Firm clashes, one through a club suspension, the 22-year-old is expected to start tomorrow's showpiece game and is determined to make his mark by lifting the first trophy of the season.
McGeady told Celtic TV: "I've been to Hampden a few times and want to make up for last time, after missing the Dunfermline game through injury. I'm hoping to be on the pitch this time and win a medal.
"There's not many games bigger than a cup final against Rangers but I won't treat it differently to an SPL game, it's a big match but you don't want to build it up too much. We're confident about our chances, this is a cup final and we know that we have a good enough team to go out and win it."
"At the end of your career you want to be able to count your medals and this is a chance to add to that."
Celtic squeezed past Dundee United on penalties in the semi-final to face Rangers, with both side's delighted the Hampden pitch has been relaid.
Hosting pop concerts during the summer as well as Queens Park's Second Division fixtures has taken it's toll on the pitch, with McGeady holding painful memories from his last appearance at Hampden.
He added: "I'm pleased to hear that the pitch has been relaid, I had a bit of a nightmare against Dundee United, the ball was bobbling around and it was tough to play on that pitch.
"A few players played well that night but I certainly wasn't one of them!
"This will be a one off game, it could go all the way to extra-time or penalties. The semi-final was a great game for neutrals to watch although it wasn't that great from our point of view.
"Last week we were very disappointed losing to St Mirren. We failed to get started and I can't quite put my finger on what happened.
"Winning any trophy gives a team a boost, the fact that it's Rangers that we're playing should give us a big lift if we can win and take that into the run in for the title."

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Bad boy Boyd Banned

Rangers leading scorer Kris Boyd is out of Sunday's Co-Operative Cup Final with Celtic after being sent home from training by Walter Smith.

The Rangers boss read the riot act to Boyd after the striker was left out of Sunday's 5-1 win over Hamilton Accies with sources at Ibrox describing the strikers attitude as unprofessional and unacceptable.

Earlier this season Boyd quit international football by texting George Burley following Scotland's 0-0 draw with Norway when he was left on the bench with Steven Fletcher and Kris Iwelumo preferred as substitutes.

Boyd is Rangers leading goalscorer with 21 SPL goals this season but has scored just once in his entire career against Celtic and has only started one of the last eight Old Firm clashes.

Kyle Lafferty was selected ahead of Boyd for the 5-1 over Hamilton Accies on Sunday and it is reported that Boyd lashed out against a pile of football boots when he found out he wasn't playing and refused to join the other subs on the pitch for a half-time warm up.

Rangers players were given Monday off but Smith, who allows assistant Ally McCoist to take charge of cup ties, confronted Boyd before training yesterday and told to report back next week.

Boyd has scored 94 goals for Rangers in the three years since his £400,000 transfer from Kilmarnock and turned down a £2.7m move to Birmingham during the summer.

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Re-arrangers call off reserve fixture

As the young hoops chase 8-in-a-row in the SPL Reserves the fixture list presented the perfect finale/clincher with a Rangers-Celtic game on St Patrick's Day of all days.

Alas the game has been postponed by Rangers.

Not due to Uefa Cup commitments or anything like that but with Celtic seeking a win to clinch the title the mighty Rangers are unable to find a ground to play the game.

First choice of Murray Park can't host a Rangers-Celtic game and for reasons unknown the 5-star UEFA rated Ibrox Stadium is unavailable.

The game has been rescheduled for April, hopefully.

No effort has been made to find an alternative venue with Clyde and Airdrie regular hosts of Celtic-Rangers reserve fixtures.

After their 4-0 win over Falkirk on Tuesday Willie McStay's side are twelve points ahead of Rangers in the Reserve League table.

Should Celtic have beaten Rangers that would have given them a fifteen point lead with Rangers having just five games left to play......... game set and match to the hoops.

It's not all about winning at reserve level of course but winning is a great habit to pick up and some day soon Celtic will again be crowned SPL champions.

Stephen McManus, Shaun Maloney, Aiden McGeady, David Marshall, Craig Beattie and Ross Wallace have all played their parts down the years in the current reserve successes before going on to win first team honours.

Hopefully Mark Millar, Niall McGinn, Kevin Cawley and Simon Ferry will be graduating from the current reserve side to bring further success to the first team.

There's only one Davie Provan

He was a great player in a great Celtic side of the early eighties and is one of the few former players to have genuinely made it in to the 'meeja' off his own merits rather than relying on the former player tag.

Davie Provan linked up brilliantly with strikers whether it was Nicholas, McGarvey or McCluskey through to a newer side of McClair and le petite merde.

Playing in front of Danny McGrain, Provan was an essential part of a successful Celtic side before being struck down with ME that forced his retirement from the game with his last memorable contribution being the equalising free kick in the 1985 Centenary Scottish Cup Final win over Dundee United.

Provan has graduated through the media ranks to being straight talking, honest and controversial, but crucially not controversial for the sake of it.

In a great interview in today's Sunday Herald, which strangely almost acts as an advert for the News of the World, Brian Conney finds Provan in good form. Opening up about the loss of his father, the 'skive' of being a footballer, his political voting but most of all lifting the lid on what passes for media coverage in this country.

Admitting to the system where chairmen and managers have journalists basically on a string, or the 'grace and favour' system, Provan speaks out about how he has the independence to call it as he sees it without having to then go and plead for airtime or words with those that he has criticised.

Compromise for copy it could be called with Provan now an opinionated outsider contributing to Sky Sports, the News of the World and Radio Clyde.

Provan discusses Tommy Burns, Gordon Strachan and others with the frankness and honesty that is rarely displayed when the microphones and cameras are switched on.

He is happy to go on record with his affection for Celtic although that doesn't stretch to contributing to club publications and delivering the agreed soundbites expected with the party line.

The feature is punchy, honest and open with Provan admitting that his real friends are now in the golf club with football pals virtually non-existent.

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