Busy weekend in Scottish Football as the first knockout round of the League Cup got under way.
Motherwell 1 – 2 Hearts of Midlothian
Hearts skated by on a rainy night at Fir Park with their first goal in the 40th minute and their second coming just moments later in injury time of the first half. Motherwell would pull one back but it wasn’t enough.
For Motherwell, it has to be disappointing after an excellent showing in the group stages to fall early. For Hearts of Midlothian, it is a positive result in an otherwise mostly poor start to the season.
Celtic 2 -1 Dunfermline (ET)
Celtic returned to domestic play with a splat coming off of the disappointing exit from the Champions League. The match remained tied at 1 into extra time and they required a James Forrest goal in the 114th minute to come away with the win.
The match will do nothing to prove worried fans that the Champions League disaster was a one off, that said, it is too soon to read much into it. This was a classic trap game set up and unless Celtic struggle in similar fashion against Hearts of Midlothian there isn’t much to see here beyond the jokes.
Forfar Athletic 1 – 2 Livingston
Livingston adding onto an impressive start to the season. While this particular match was not exactly a riveting and convincing victory, for a club that many have picked for relegation, every positive result is a sign that they will avoid it. Livingston led 2-0 into the second half before Forfar pulled one back.
Hibernian 5 – 3 Greenrock Morton (ET)
Hibernian may have a real issue with it’s back-line. After giving up 6 to Rangers they gave up 3 to Greenrock and needed extra time to get the victory.
For Hibs, they obviously won’t complain too much about advancing, but given the number of injuries and two-straight poor defensive outings they will look to lock down St. Johnstone in their next match or real fears of their leaky defense are coming.
Worth noting that Rangers loanee Glenn Middleton made his debut for Hibernian and assisted the first goal of the day.
Kilmarnock 1 – 0 Hamilton Academical (ET)
Kilmarnock finally managed to find a positive result in the young season with Dominic Thomas’ overtime winner in the 113th minute, but oh man they still look impotent. After losing to this same Hamilton side in the Premiership last week they will obviously take the victory, but they have yet to show real signs of life.
Patrick Thistle 3 – 2 Ross County (ET)
Another match that needed extra-time as Thistle found the winner in the 114th minute on a goal from Steven Saunders.
Thistle will be pleased to advance, beating a top-flight team is always fun for lower-level clubs even if it is the newly promoted Ross County. The fact that Ross County have actually looked solid so far makes it extra impressive.
On that note, it is a bit of a disappointment for Ross County that they couldn’t work a pair of quality outings in the Premiership into advancing in the Cup.
Dundee 1 – 2 Aberdeen (ET)
Nearly a disaster for Aberdeen. Dundee is terrible, this shouldn’t have been competitive. Aberdeen need something to slow the slide they are on and while they can be pleased to advance, this isn’t what they should be doing.