Bhoys Are Through To The Quarterfinals Of The CIS Cup

Celtic started the week with an impressive 6-0 victory over Inverness CT in the Third Round of the CIS Insurance Cup and capped off that success with a hard-fought 2-1 win against Hibs at Parkhead.

On Wednesday night, Georgios Samaras bagged a hat-trick and made a decision on his future with the club more pressing. His first came in the 17th minute when he redirected a Joe Ledley shot into the net. The next was set up by a Efrain Juarez pass and he capped that with a shot from short-range in the 57th minute.

Gary Hooper scored another and Anthony Stokes kept his good run of form going by claiming a brace of goals in the 74th (from a penalty after he was brought down by Tuffey in the box) and the 81st minutes.

The Bhoys went top of the Scottish Premier League for a day with their 2-1 home victory over Hibs, but were back in second place (on goals scored) after Rangers came back from a 2-0 deficit to defeat Aberdeen at Pittodrie on Sunday morning.

Scott Brown opened the scoring against his old club after just ten minutes with a fantastic volley from 18 yards out. Brown, who had replaced Ki Sung-Yeung in midfield, broke for goal from midfield, played a one-two with Juarez and got on the end of the return ball to score his first goal for the club since last March.

Almost immediately after the half-time break Celtic were up by two when, neither Hibs' goalkeeper Mark Brown nor defenders on the line could stop a Loovens' header from going into the back of the net.

Hibs narrowed the gap in the 54th minute when Derek Riordan lobbed the ball over Celtic's Fraser Forster from the edge of the box.

While Hibs continued to play for the equalizer, Celtic's defense held firm for the win and a (temporary) place at the top of the table.

Celtic managed to avoid a tough Old Firm clash in the quarterfinal draw for the CIS Insurance Cup, instead facing a trip to McDairmid Park to play St. Johnstone. The full draw was:

Aberdeen v. Falkirk
St Johnstone v. Celtic
Motherwell v. Dundee United
Kilmarnock v. Rangers

The games will be played on Tuesday October 26th or Wednesday October 27th.

Celtic coach Garry Parker was at the draw and told BBC Scotland that the game "will be a difficult tie - they are a well organized side, very strong - but we are playing well at the moment.

"We have competition for places, everybody has got to play well to stay in the team.

"We want to do as well as we can and get to the final."