Ireland U21s' Rocco Vata off the mark as Celtic down Buckie Thistle to advance in Scottish Cup

Republic of Ireland Under-21 international Rocco Vata seized a surprise chance in the Celtic team to score his first goal for the club in a 5-0 victory over Buckie Thistle.

Vata appeared to be on the way out of Celtic amid several links with Serie A clubs but the 18-year-old came off the bench in the Scottish Gas Scottish Cup fourth-round tie amid reports of talks over extending his contract beyond the summer.

The Glasgow-born winger hit Celtic's fifth goal from close range as the holders eased into the fifth round where they have been drawn to face St Mirren.

Odin Thiago Holm also netted his first Celtic goal while Paulo Bernardo, Kyogo Furuhashi and Luis Palma were also on target.

But Thistle's offside trap helped them keep the score to a respectable level - Celtic had four goals disallowed.

The Highland League side even had a couple of moments at the other end to excite their roughly 3,000 travelling supporters.

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers named a strong team with only Callum McGregor rested. The captain was handed an extended winter break, thus ending a run of 59 consecutive starts for the midfielder stretching back to December 2022.

Holm made his fourth start of the season in place of McGregor while Liel Abada returned to the starting line-up for the first time since suffering a thigh injury in September.

Buckie got their first taste of VAR after two minutes when referee Chris Graham was called to his monitor to review what appeared to be a trip on Abada, but an offside was spotted in the build-up.

It would be a regular theme of the game and Buckie had another escape when a close offside decision denied Greg Taylor after the left-back's cross had gone in off Thistle goalkeeper Stuart Knight.

The breakthrough eventually