Scottish Cup Final: O’Neill to bring back big guns

Celtic manager Martin O’Neill will go out of his way to make sure Chris Sutton and Bobby Petta are in his side for next Saturday’s Scottish Cup final.

Sutton has been sidelined with a knee injury since the semi-final win over Dundee United, but is making good progress.

Petta recovered from a groin strain to make his comeback in Tom Boyd’s testimonial, but suffered an ankle injury, and also failed to figure in yesterday’s 1-0 defeat at Kilmarnock in the final game before the cup final.

O’Neill ideally wanted the duo to play at Rugby Park but he will instead organise a practice match this week to give both players a run out.

‘‘They were just not right for this one,’’ revealed O’Neill.

‘‘I would have liked both of them to play against Kilmarnock.

‘‘It’s possible they could play in Saturday’s final. They trained with us over the weekend, but I felt they were just not right for this one.

‘‘Sutton is honestly fine, but he just felt it was too early and he wasn’t right to play against Kilmarnock.

‘‘I am prepared to arrange a non-competitive game between now and then to give them both a better chance.

‘‘Sutton is essential to us and there might well be something done this week to make sure they are both available for next week.’’

Celtic expect to be at full strength against Hibernian at Hampden Park next week after manager Martin O’Neill came under fire for resting his stars.

Henrik Larsson, Paul Lambert, Neil Lennon, Didier Agathe, Alan Thompson, Joos Valgaeren and Johan Mjallby did not play any part at Rugby Park as the youngsters were given the chance to impress.

That sparked outrage in the Hearts camp, who felt they had been cheated out of a UEFA Cup place.

But O’Neill, who will bring back the big guns on Saturday, hit back at the criticism and insisted that anyone else would have done the same.

He said: ‘‘We have got a cup final to look forward to and I’m sure other teams would have done the same.’’

Kilmarnock manager Bobby Williamson jumped to the defence of O’Neill and admitted he would have done the same in that position.

‘‘People go on about Celtic’s line-up,’’ said Williamson.

‘‘But they’ve got a lot of talented youngsters.

‘‘I’m sure there will be some resentment by Hearts, but Martin O’Neill is only concerned about his situation and rightly so.

‘‘They’ve got a cup final to look forward to and he had guys who could have picked up an injury or suspension.’’