Celtic avoid upset

(l to r) Georgios Samaras, Thomas Rogne and Daniel Majstorovic
12 April 2012

Berwick Rangers failed to deliver a shock to match their famous victory over Rangers back in 1967 as they went out of the Active Nation Scottish Cup following a 2-0 defeat against Celtic.

Neil Lennon's men have suffered their fair share of upsets in the competition in the past but goals either side of the interval from Daniel Majstorovic and Scott Brown saw them safely into the fifth round.

Berwick wrote their names into the history books 44 years ago this month when they pulled off arguably the biggest shock in the history of Scottish football when they dumped Rangers out of the competition.

Battling Berwick looked up for the tie from the outset and almost caused problems early on when Lukasz Zaluska was forced to race yards out of his box to clear the danger before Darren Gribben could connect with a dangerous long ball.

Gribben then had the ball in the back of the net after lobbing the Celtic goalkeeper but, unfortunately for the striker, the offside flag was raised well before the shot even left his boot.

The breakthrough came after 17 minutes when Andy McLean failed to deal with a Charlie Mulgrew cross from the right and Majstorovic was on hand to rifle into the roof of the net from just a few yards out.

Berwick goalkeeper Mark Peat had passed a late fitness test ahead of the game and he pulled off an impressive save to prevent a point-blank effort from James Forrest from finding the back of the net as the Glasgow giants were forced to settle for a single goal advantage heading into the break.

The Hoops also suffered a setback when Georgios Samaras - who netted both goals against Rangers last weekend - limped out of the action and was replaced by Anthony Stokes before half-time.

Any hopes of a dramatic comeback where dashed with eight minutes to go when Brown raced on to a Beram Kayal ball before sending an angled drive past Peat and into the bottom corner.

Stokes also had the ball in the back of the net moments later but was denied adding his name to the scoresheet by the assistant referee's offside flag, with Celtic by then ensured of their progression in the competition.

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