Celtic and Dunfermline Athletic will meet in Saturday's Scottish Cup final, with the Championship side trying to end a 58-year wait for the trophy and Neil Lennon aiming for a fourth top-flight scalp. Celtic, meanwhile, are chasing an unlikely double after Martin O'Neill guided them to another Scottish Premiership title last weekend.
The final brings together two clubs that took very different routes to Hampden. Dunfermline opened with a 2-1 win over Queen of the South, beat Hibernian after an own goal from midfielder Miguel Chaiwa, then moved past Kelty Hearts 2-0 before shocking Aberdeen 3-0 in the quarter-final. They reached the showpiece by beating Falkirk 4-2 on penalties after a goalless 120 minutes. Celtic's run was less straightforward than the scoreline beside it suggests. They started with a 2-0 win over Auchinleck Talbot, with Johnny Kenny and Sebastian Tounekti scoring, but were then taken to extra time by Dundee after Junior Adamu's 97th-minute equaliser on his debut. Tounekti scored the winner in that tie, before Celtic beat Rangers on penalties in a quarter-final that produced only one shot for O'Neill's side in 120 minutes and won the shootout 4-2.
They then survived another scare against St Mirren, trailing to a late Mikael Mandron equaliser before scoring four goals in six minutes to settle the semi-final. That late burst has become part of the story around O'Neill's second interim spell this season, after the departures of Brendan Rodgers and Wilfried Nancy. It also underlines why Celtic will start as favourites against a Dunfermline side from the Championship that has already eliminated Aberdeen and Hibernian this spring.
Lennon knows better than most what O'Neill can do when the pressure rises. O'Neill signed Lennon for Leicester City and won the League Cup twice with him, then brought him to Celtic in December 2000. Lennon went on to win seven major honours under O'Neill at Celtic before later becoming manager himself in 2010. The two men have stayed linked ever since, and Lennon put it bluntly this week: underdogs bite. O'Neill, for his part, has kept his sense of perspective as Celtic move within one game of a cup double, saying there is still place for older gentleman.
For Dunfermline, the final is a shot at rewriting a long history. For Celtic, it is a chance to avoid another season ending with disappointment after they were beaten finalists last year. The scale of the task is clear: one club chasing a rare upset, the other trying to finish a domestic run that has already delivered a title and now asks for one more result at Hampden. For readers planning the night around the final, the Greenock Celtic Supporters Club will also host a Scottish Cup Final after-party.
