As the 32 clubs prepare for the fourth round of the William Hill Scottish Cup this weekend, I take a look back at the most famous cup upsets in the history of the competition, which has the oldest trophy in association football.
Current holders Celtic, who defeated Motherwell in the final 3-0, travel to Peterhead on Sunday while Rangers go to Arbroath on the same day. Other notable ties include Heart of Midlothian, seven time winners of the Cup, playing host to Junior side Auchinleck Talbot and Forfar Athletic are at home to Aberdeen who have also won the trophy seven times.
It is important to note that the biggest teams in Scotland now enter at the third and fourth rounds of the competition, whereas before every team started at the first round.
Here’s some classic upsets in the Scottish Cup, in no particular order;
Celtic 1, Inverness Caledonian Thistle 3. Third Round, 8th February 2000, Celtic Park.
Celtic’s then manager John Barnes was sacked two days after this famous tie in Glasgow, and unsurprisingly. Inverness were an in-form First Division side but did not harbour much hope of getting a good result away to Celtic. Barry Wilson gave the Highlanders the lead in the 16th minute of the game, only for Mark Burchill to level the game a minute later for Celtic. Lubomir Moravcik’s own goal restored Caley Thistle’s lead seven minutes later before Paul Sheerin’s penalty early in the second half sent the small away contingent into raptures and seen most of the home faithful leave their seats. It was a remarkable result and one that Scottish football will remember for a very long time. The Scottish Sun’s headline of “Super Caley Go Ballistic, Celtic Are Atrocious” the next again morning was equally as famous, gaining publicity worldwide. Inverness gained promotion to the SPL in that season while Celtic finished 21 points behind champions Rangers.
Berwick Rangers 1, Rangers 0. First Round, 28th January 1967, Shielfield Park.
Sammy Reid’s first half goal for the ‘Wee Gers’ is seen by many as the pinnacle of Scottish Cup upsets. The Rangers team featured nine players with international caps, while Berwick Rangers were composed of part timers. At the time of the match, Rangers were in second place in the Division One and Berwick Rangers were tenth in Division Two. The defeat of Rangers sent shock waves around Scottish football, as it was the first time they'd been knocked out in the first round in 30 years and the first time they'd lost to a second division club. Rangers' captain John Greig described the result as "probably the worst result in the history of our club", while The Scotsman described it as “the most ludicrous, the weirdest, the most astonishing result ever returned in Scottish football”. Rangers eventually went on to reach the final of the European Cup Winners' Cup that season but lost 1–0 to German side Bayern Munich, while Berwick Rangers lost to Hibernian 1-0 in the next round of the Cup and finished tenth in the Second Division.
Celtic 0, Ross County 2. Semi Final, 10th April 2010, Hampden Park.
Steven Craig and Martin Scott goals gave First Division side Ross County a win over Neil Lennon’s Celtic at the semi-final stage at Hampden in one of the biggest shocks ever. A goal in each half succumbed the side who have won the Cup most times to a defeat to another First Division club based in the Highlands, after two high-profile defeats to Inverness. The victory signalled celebrations among the Dingwall side's 7,000 fans - more than the population of the town that houses the club who moved up from the Highland League to the Scottish Football League in 1994. County went on to lose to Dundee United in the final, while Celtic ended the season trophyless as rivals Rangers won the league and cup double. For Celtic’s caretaker manager, it was a huge blow to his aspirations of getting the manager’s job but Lennon managed to recover to win the remaining SPL fixtures.
Falkirk 4, Heart of Midlothian 0. Third Round, 25th January 2003, Brockville.
Collin Samuel’s hat-trick inside thirty minutes was enough for Falkirk to see off SPL opposition in this classic giant killing at their old famous ground. In one of Sunderland keeper Craig Gordon’s first appearances in the maroon of Hearts, the SPL side were swept away at Brockville by their First Division counterparts. The second half was a little ‘easier’ for the visitors, with the Bairns only managing to notch the solitary goal. Before leaving the following year for Leicester City, this was now Scotland manager Craig Levein’s lowest point in his fairly successful Hearts tenure. The Falkirk boss at the time Ian McCall left for Dundee United soon after this game, the impressive scalp of Hearts a key factor in the Tayside club hiring him. Steven Pressley was in the starting 11 for the away side, now managing Falkirk in the First Division. And in an added coincidence, John Hughes started for Falkirk at the age of 38 and then went on to become manager of the club, impressing many and eventually being appointed Hibernian manager, Hearts’ fierce city rivals.
Clyde 2, Celtic 1. Third Round, 8th January 2006, Broadwood Stadium.
The performance of new signing from China, Du Wei, and the result overshadowed the pre-match build-up to the debut of fellow new signing Roy Keane for Celtic. The Chinese international centre-back was a calamity at the back for Gordon Strachan’s men and was subsequently subbed off at half-time, with Clyde already two goals up through strikes from Craig Bryson and Eddie Malone. The 8,000-strong home crowd were in dreamland at going 2-0 up but could have been celebrating an absolute humping of the then SPL leaders. They missed a penalty and had the ball in the net only for it to be disallowed on two occasions, hit the post through Stephen O'Donnell and conceded an 82nd-minute consolation from Maciej Zurawski. The result was even more astounding given the fact that a large amount of the players in the Clyde squad were signed after the Cumbernauld outfit had open trials in the summer, to attract players at the cash-strapped then First Division club.
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