Hibs 2 - 1 Celtic. Great performance by the young Hibs side who well deserved their victory to set up a semi final against Rangers. Came from behind to win too. Two old firm defeats in a week! Great stuff!
This was actually more encouraging than Sunday in the sense that Celtic still played reasonably well (although missed some chances, and a bad mistake by Kennedy for the penalty), whereas Rangers were just laughably bad on Sunday. It was also encouraging in the sense that Hibs played so many youngsters, Baillie marking Henrik Larsson fairly effectively on his senior debut, and Kevin Thomson scoring the winner, his first senior goal. Riordan and Brown also both hit the woodwork. Interesting semi final lineup now - Hibs - Rangers (in what people assumed would be the OF semi final, but scuppered tonight) Dundee - Livingston. Hibs - Rangers is interesting given Rangers' weakness so far this year, and it is now their best chance of a trophy by far. But it is also a game Hibs can win since the league match between the two recently was only won 1-0 by Rangers in the last minute. The problem for Hibs is that this game will be at Hampden, so most of the crowd will be Rangers and the match is in Glasgow. Dundee - Livingston is interesting since it gives the opportunity for a non-OF team to reach the final, and Dundee's financial situation (assuming Dundee are able to field a side then). The whole competition is also more interesting now given the recent proposal by Carling to have a challenge match at the end of the season between the league cup winners in England and Scotland. So maybe now we will have Arsenal - Livingston,
Is this the Scottish Cup? Just curious. And does all of the SPL clubs play their best sides? I'm stunned that Hibs upset Celtic and Rangers. Maybe Hibs are making the SPL alittle more competitive for the Big Dogs? Thanks.
Re: Is this the Scottish Cup? No the CIS (league) cup is different and less important but it was still a very strong side Celtic put out.
Exactly, catfish. It used to be called the 'League Cup', and was played on a mini league basis - with group stages first (4 teams to a group, playing home and away). The group winners would then progress to the knockout stages. That was the format from the initial inception of the League Cup in 1946 right up until the early '80s (I don't have the exact date to hand). Then they changed it to a straightforward knockout competition, but there was still a UEFA Cup place available for winning it, so clubs took it quite seriously. In the 1987-88, 1988-89 and 1989-90 seasons, the finals were each contested by Rangers & Aberdeen, and rank as probably the 3 best finals of the competition by those with memories long enough to have seen most of them (not me!) For the record, the scores were: 87/88: Rangers 3-3 Aberdeen (Rangers win 5-3 on penalties) 88/89: Rangers 3-2 Aberdeen 89/90: Aberdeen 2-1 Rangers (after extra time) Sadly nowadays the competition is seen as basically superfluous to the Scottish season, and the big teams don't really take it all that seriously (same as in England), though for most clubs it does stand as the best chance to win a trophy...