"We're on our way to Hampden, We shall not be moved, The Scottish Cup is ours, We shall not be moved. Not by the Hibs, the Hearts or the Rangers, We shall not be moved."

This popular ditty has long been a favourite refrain of the Celtic supporters, particularly when the Scottish Cup competition swings around.

If you know your history it will tell you that Celtic are the most successful team in the oldest football association tournament in the world with 40 Scottish Cup wins to their name.

It was the late Lisbon Lion Bertie Auld who once famously quipped that Hampden Park was like a training ground for Celtic such was the regularity with which the club graced the hallowed sod - and claimed silverware into the bargain.

In fact, since the turn of the millennium Celtic have won the Scottish Cup no fewer than 10 times.

Up until last season when St Johnstone bagged the trophy you'd be forgiven for thinking that the Scottish Cup was the property of Celtic after the club claimed an unprecedented quadruple treble.

Although there have been some Scottish Cup shockers since 2000 mind you.

John Barnes (2000), Martin O'Neill (2003) and Ronnie Deila (2015) all succumbed to Inverness Caledonian Thistle in the Scottish Cup and Gordon Strachan (2006) was famously bundled out of the tournament by Clyde.

Aberdeen (2008 & 2014), St Mirren (2009), Hearts (2012) and Rangers (2003 and 2016) make up the other teams that contributed to Celtic's cup losses in the past 22 years.

Having won the League Cup at the national stadium last month against Hibs, Ange Postecoglou and his merry men were eyeing up another trip to Mount Florida in May.

This year, Celtic's road to Hampden was starting in the less salubrious setting of Clackmannanshire as former Rangers captain Barry Ferguson's Alloa Athletic provided the fourth-round opposition on a synthetic surface at Recreation Park.

It was a neat sub-plot and Ferguson was aiming to bag his biggest managerial scalp to date.

His counterpart wasn't taking any chances or unnecessary risks on the plastic as Postecoglou rotated his squad and named five changes from the side that defeated Hibs 2-0 at Celtic Park in the Scottish Premiership on Monday night.

Out went Cameron Carter-Vickers, Josip Juranovic, Greg Taylor, Monday's man of the match Reo Hatate and James Forrest as Anthony Ralston, Stephen Welsh, Liam Scales, Yosuke Ideguchi and Giorgos Giakoumakis all came into the side.

Japanese midfielder Ideguchi was handed his first Celtic start and Greek striker Giakoumakis was given a rare chance to impress in attack.

Striker Daizen Maeda was making his second consecutive appearance for his new club after Monday's impressive goalscoring debut.

Maeda was also boosted by the fact that he'd earned a call up to Hajime Moriyasu's Japan squad for their upcoming World Cup qualifiers against China on January 27 and Saudi Arabia on February 1.

READ MORE: Detailed Celtic player ratings as Liam Scales impresses again and Giorgos Giakoumakis finally scores

However, Maeda's international inclusion rules him out of crunch Premiership matches against Hearts on January 26 and Dundee United on January 29 as well as (in all likelihood) the Glasgow derby clash against Rangers on February 2.

There was a welcome return to the substitutes bench for French defender Christopher Jullien, who had spent over a year on the sidelines with a damaged knee.

It was a step in the right direction for the £7million stopper who was stepping up his rehabilitation bid.

The hosts almost produced a shocker inside 90 seconds when Ralston was robbed of possession on the halfway line and Conor Sammon spotted Joe Hart well off his line but his floated attempt from 45 yards was wayward.

Celtic scored with the first moment of quality play and meaningful on 14 minutes. Scales whipped in a superb cross from the left which was clinically volleyed into the roof of the net by Giakoumakis for only his second goal for the club.

It was a welcome counter that will have no doubt done wonders for the attacker's confidence levels.

However, the striker fluffed his lines barely seconds later when he burst clean through of the Alloa defence and poked the ball inches wide of the target when he ought to have got his head up and squared to Maeda for a tap-in.

Hart then spared Callum McGregor's blushes with a crucial block from Sammon's drive when the skipper was short with an attempted backpass.

McGregor left the field as a precautionary measure due to a knock that he suffered on 42 minutes and was replaced by James McCarthy.

It was all over as a contest in first-half injury time as Liel Abada cut in from the right and unleashed a cracking curled effort with his left foot that fairly fizzed past David Hutton into the net to make it 2-0 to Celtic as the Israeli bagged his 11th goal of the season.

Abada, too, then had to hobble off in the 51st minute before Ideguchi left the field after he was the victim of a crude challenge by Niang that could have resulted in the Alloa player seeing red just after the hour mark.

It was another treble for Celtic. This time it was an unwanted treble of injuries for Postecoglou.

With 13 minutes left on the clock, Sammon beat Welsh to the punch as the Celtic defender got caught underneath the ball and the striker pounced to head into the net to make it 1-2.

Celtic were limping towards the finish in more ways than one. 

They may know what it takes to win silverware this season already - and it was a definite case of job done against Alloa - but Postecoglou knows that Celtic will need to be much more clinical in the ensuing rounds as well as try to avoid losing players to injury in the process.

Postecoglou and Celtic may well be on their way to Hampden once again. Will they be moved?