There are no cracks! Celtic defender tackles critics head on

Stephen Welsh gave as determined a display in the St Mirren media room as he had on the pitch to help Celtic into the Scottish Cup quarter-final.

The homegrown defender helped deliver a clean sheet when the pressure was on, ahead of the visit to Paisley all eyes were on Celtic after two faltering performances on the road against Aberdeen and Hibs.

Welsh had to go off after an hour at Easter Road but not even a near miss with the goalpost at the STMISA Stadium was going to deflect him from Sunday’s mission.

This season’s Celtic looks more vulnerable than last season’s version, nine more points have been lost in the SPFL Premiership but there is a resolve among the players to battle though the obstacles to retain two of last season’s trophies.

St Mirren gave it everything with a first half bombardment but found Welsh, Liam Scales and their team-mates equally determined to progress into the last eight of the Scottish Cup.

30 seconds

What about people saying that there are cracks in the team?

There are no cracks. We are confident in what we do. The gaffer is confident in what we do and we stick together, not just the back four, the midfield three and front three and whoever comes on the pitch. We are together, we are really a united team so we will move forward.

After three testing away matches over nine days Welsh and his team-mates have a full week of training to prepare for Saturday’s match at home to Kilmarnock with 13 matches left to play in the SPFL Premiership.