Brown v Diouf round III

Captain Scott Brown is looking beyond Wednesday's night's Scottish Cup replay, against Rangers, towards lifting the trophy. Celtic beat Rangers 3-0 in the league last week, but then lost 2-0 to Motherwell on Sunday as the brakes were applied to the drive to the title charge. However, Wednesday's fifth-round replay at Parkhead offers an opportunity to make amends and progress at the expense of their Old Firm rivals. Brown, who was named Scottish Cup player of the round for his performance in the 2-2 draw in the first go at getting a result, said: "Just expect what we've had already. We've played them four times previously this season and every single match has had a wee twist here and there, so there's always a twist in these games. I've never won the Scottish Cup so it means a lot to us if we can go all the way."

Of course, Brown set off a war of words with Rangers' El-Hadji Diouf after he scored the equaliser at Ibrox on 6 February. The verbal spat drew attention away from how Brown played and he was pleased his display was recognised with the player of the round prize. The midfielder said: "I'm very pleased. It was a great moment in a great game and a great experience but it's not just me that deserves it, it's all the lads. The game could have gone either way. Rangers went 1-0 up then hit the crossbar but we came back into the game a lot and were a wee bit unlucky with the sending-off. But when we lost the man, I think we played the better football and we looked like we had 11 men on the park by the end of the game. It was a good goal and I've never scored at Ibrox before so that goal means a lot, that's for sure."