With the leagues underway the Premier Sports cup took centre stage this weekend. Some intriguing matches to look forward to, the “magic of the cup” had returned to our beautiful wee country for another season.
With both sides of the Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee divides playing and an Ayrshire derby to look forward to I really was looking forward to this weekend. It delivered but perhaps not entirely how I expected.
Friday night, and almost twelve thousand souls turned up to watch Premiership Kilmarnock face off against Ayr United of the championship. This is the Ayrshire derby. Two towns, Kilmarnock and Ayr separated by roughly fifteen miles, there’s much more than geographical location between the two in footballing terms. Kilmarnock having somewhat established themselves as a top flight club, Ayr have pushed and pushed for the dizzy heights of the SPL without success so far.
What transpired was a game to remember.
Both teams fielding strong sides it was Ayr who took the lead in the fifth minute with a goal from Dundee United loanee Owen Stirton. The home fans and team, rattled, it took them some time to get back into the match but back they came through Joe Hugill to equalise in the forty second minute. All square at the break.
The second half was barely three minutes old when the men from the “Honest Toon” as Ayr is known, went in front. Honest Toon - thanks to poet and dirty tax collector Burns who immortalised the place in his poem Tam O’ Shanter, a staple of Scottish education growing up. You went to school here you knew the poem inside out. Whether a poem with naked dancing witches is suitable for small children that’s a discussion for another day, but anyway back to the game. Forty eight minutes, Ayr back in front through Ross Taylor.
The pendulum swung back in the seventy ninth minute when a Schjønning Larsen shot evaded Ayr’s keeper and restored parity. As the clock ticked round to 90 minutes extra time looked inevitable but in these situations there’s often a hero or a villain depending on your perspective. And the cruellest of cruel blows fell on eighty nine mins when Kilmarnocks’ Cleșcenco pounced on a mistake in goal by Ayr's Stone. The Moldovan slotted home to secure the home side's place in the next round. Ayr gave a grand account of themselves and this is one of those matches neither side deserved to lose. I’m not a Ayr United supporter but you felt it for them after putting everything into the game to lose it so cruelly, it leaves you shaking your head.
Saturday and as well as cup fixtures Leagues One and Two were in action. Hamilton of League One kept up their impressive start to the season. Three on the bounce and nine points from nine for Darian McKinnon's men with a four nil hammering of hapless Airdrie (Airdrieonians If you prefer).
Conversely, worrying times for Montrose who sit pointless at the bottom of the table on a minus nine goal difference, their latest defeat a 3-0 victory for Alloa. A much needed boast for Alloa fans who recorded their first victory of the season. Montrose without top goalscorer Taylor Sutherland, who coincidentally moved to Hamilton, already look like they’re in for a long season.
League Two, and a little tighter at the top with one point separating Elgin, Forfar and Clyde. All three managing victories with Elgin's 4-1 thrashing of Kelty Hearts the pick of the scores here.
Back to the Cup, and Aberdeen taking on Dundee in an all Premier clash, and Dunfermline facing off against lower league opposition in Ross county the day. I can’t insult your intelligence, these weren’t games of quality and the fact both games were 0-0 at the break tells you all you need to know.
Football really is a game of two halves, though, and second half we saw six goals, in the end a comfortable 3-0 victory for Aberdeen and a shock in the other where plucky Ross county upstaged their hosts from the championship with a 2-1 victory. Not the last shock of the weekend. A bigger one to come.
Celtic travelled to Tannadice a ground they have struggled on recently to face a Dundee United team who always make home games difficult.
With trepidation in my heart, despite my online bullishness that Celtic would steamroller them, I sat down to watch the match. To say I had everything crossed is an understatement. I was nervous and prayer wasn’t helping calm me down.
The final score of an impressive 4=0 victory for the visitors is an injustice to United. Both teams played well but United without their talisman Will Ferry were simply less clinical in front of goal. With rattling posts and bar five times in the match, on another night they could easily have made Celtic work harder.
Without doubt the tie of the round and bearing in mind Rangers managed only a draw here at the opening of the season this makes Celtics rout look even more impressive. A game of high quality the Arabs (nickname for fans of Dundee United) know they will take plenty of points at home this season and could easily be challenging for third place in the league come April/May if they continue to work hard and play like this every match. They weren’t bad at all. The scoreline flatters Celtic somewhat but in the end a victory is a victory and let’s celebrate our progression.
In other matches Hearts demolished Inverness Caley 6-2 in a morale boosting victory.
Hibernian managed a 1-0 victory over Partick thanks to a solitary goal from Irishman Owen Elding - it was enough to progress.
Shock of the round came at Ochilview where Championship side Stenhousemuir stole it right at the end of extra time with a goal from Euan O’Reilly over Premiership Motherwell.
I’m clearly not a football manager, I’m just one man who tries to bring the excitement of Scottish football to the good folk of the Emerald Isle and beyond so far be it from me to question the tactics of any manager but for Motherwell to make eight changes they clearly underestimated their opponents and paid heavily for it. Expect more conviction in the Scottish Cup from the Steelmen. Congratulations to The Warriors (this being one of two recognised nicknames for the club, the other being the less than impressive Stenny) who progressed to the quarterfinals with another home tie against Hearts (full draw further down).
Motherwell granted have Conference League European football to look forward to but this was undoubtedly a game they expected to win. Panic shown later as first choice players were thrown onto the park in desperation but to no avail. A bitter pill swallowed.
Finally Ibrox and Derek McInnes' Rangers desperately in need of a victory faced a St Mirren side bristling with confidence. With just over 34,000 in attendance, whether fans are already voting with their feet or the fact the game was on TV, there were significant gaps in the stands. So much so that the cameras did their best to try and show only the crowd as little as possible.
When looking at the final score - a 5-1 victory for Rangers - you could be forgiven for thinking this was a game of high quality and a resurgent Rangers however it really wasn’t. Ad this is where it pays to be frank. St Mirren were awful yet still created chances. Rangers were only slightly better and but for a wonder strike from Dragojević, in fairness a thing of beauty, the other goals were preventable. Midfield lapses, defensive errors and a clear penalty (given, scored, then had to be retaken and missed) from St Mirren made this Rangers team look much better than they are.
Of course none of this matters in the context of the Cup as Rangers progress but I defy any Rangers fan to tell me they have confidence in this team.
A better team will rip them apart as already has been shown at home this season.
The draw was made shortly afterward and we have a Glasgow Derby to look forward to as Rangers face Celtic. The full draw is as follows:
Rangers v Celtic
Stenhousemuir v Hearts
Ross County v Hibernian
Kilmarnock v Aberdeen
Matches to be played 12 and 13th of September.
Before I go, for anyone interested, further Scottish football analysis can be found most evenings from 6pm on Clyde Super Scoreboard YouTube channel. If nothing else it’s fun to watch and listen to the callers. Some make excellent points, others just like a moan.
Anyway that’s it for another weekend. We have an international break coming up so I’ll find something to get annoyed about during that. As regular readers will know I’m not a huge fan of internationals. Being Scottish it’s rather like being on a diet and standing staring in a cake shop window. You can see the prize but you know ultimately you’re not going to it.
So whatever you’re doing be happy be safe and take care 👍
Til next time ……
🐼 Gary Robertson is the TPQ Scottish football correspondent.
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