Celtic’s u-19 side step up their double bid tomorrow when they face St Mirren in the semi-final of the SFA Youth Cup.
A Hampden date against Queen of the South or Dundee United awaits the winner with skipper Jackson Irvine desperate to follow in the footsteps of Matty Hughes and get his hands on silverware.
Celtic have never won the Youth Cup three times running but to reach Hampden they’ll have to overcome a stubborn St Mirren side.
It took an 81st minute free-kick from Filip Twardzik to get the better of the Saints last month at Lennoxtown with Irvine anticipating another tough hurdle on the road to Hampden.
“We haven’t thought too much about the semi-final but it’s going to be a massive game for us,” the bhoy from Melbourne admitted. “They caused us a few problems at Lennoxtown. They are good defensively, they frustrated us, we had a lot of possession but just couldn’t break through till Filip’s late free kick.
“We don’t know what kind of game we’ll get on Sunday- whether they’ll come out and attack us a bit or whether they’ll sit back behind the ball, either way we’ve got to approach it the same way that we approach every game.
“The final is the most public game of the year and all four teams in the semi-finals want to be part of that.
“Our focus is solely on St Mirren as we know how tough a game this will be for us.
“In the last two seasons we’ve won the cup and hardly played an SPL club but this season every round has been against a good strong SPL side.
“This has been a very difficult run and if we can get through on Sunday it’ll be a great achievement to be going for three in a row.”
As well as aiming for a trip to Hampden, Irvine has taken a lot of personal pleasure from this season’s cup run with three goals from three ties against Kilmarnock, Dunfermline and Aberdeen.
The SPL however has been another matter entirely with the midfielder left frustrated by his own nightmare version of the Crossbar Challenge.
“I’ve hit the bar seven times this season,” Irvine admitted. “I can’t believe it. I’ve had a good few chances and hopefully it will come in our last few games.
“I haven’t scored in the league this season, I’ve saved my goals for the cup and it would be unbelievable if I could get one on Sunday.”
Irvine has been one of the stalwarts of this season’s side after making the breakthrough in the second half of last term.
Alongside Callum McGregor he’s formed a crucial midfield partnership as well as taking on the armband.
At every level of the game the captaincy issue comes under scrutiny with Irvine happy to embrace the armband and the responsibilities that come with it.
“Matt Hughes left a massive impact on the u-19s and there was a lot of talk about who was going to get it,” Irvine explained.
“When they came to me and said that they wanted me to be captain it was a great honour and something I’ve embraced.
“It hasn’t changed me, it’s something that you have to implement into your game, something has to kick in in terms of communication, talking and organising. “Encouragement is an important part of being a leader but you have to lead by example.
“It’s a great feeling to be the captain of this side, a year ago I was trying to establish myself in the side, things were a bit frantic and I felt that I had to prove myself and keep my place.
“I’m happy with the way that the team has played and also my own game. I’ve been involved with the Development squad and technically that’s improved my game a lot.”
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