5 - Ross County were the highest scorers of the opening weekend of Viaplay Cup action, defeating Stranraer 5-1 at Stair Park. Simon Murray scored a hat-trick for the Staggies, with the other goals coming from Jack Baldwin and a Craig Ross own goal. Amazingly, Murray also scored a hat-trick on the same ground on the opening weekend of last season, in Queen's Park’s 5-2 win over Stranraer. In fact, Murray has now scored four hat-tricks in the League Cup group stages, for four different clubs – he also scored trebles for Dundee United against Cowdenbeath in 2016 and Hibernian against Arbroath in 2017. He has scored 18 goals in the group stage of this competition, more than any other player since the groups were re-introduced in 2016/17.
7 – Greenock Morton defeated Kelty Hearts 3-1 at New Central Park to make a winning start to their Viaplay Cup campaign. Steven Boyd, Robbie Crawford and Kirk Broadfoot were all on target for Dougie Imrie’s side as they came from behind to clinch all three points in their first-ever competitive meeting with Kelty. Morton are now unbeaten in their last seven away matches, with their last loss on the road coming against Celtic in the Scottish Cup back in January. This is their best run without defeat away from home since they went 10 without defeat from October 2017–February 2018.
47 – Montrose kicked off their 2023/24 Viaplay Cup campaign in style by beating St Mirren 1-0 at Links Park. Rory McAllister’s goal was enough to give the Gable Endies just their second victory over top flight opposition in the last three decades – they also beat St Johnstone at this stage of the competition in 2019. McAllister has now scored in 19 consecutive seasons, starting in 2005/06, and has racked up an incredible 310 goals in all competitions. Saturday’s success was Montrose’s first win against St Mirren in over 47 years – their last victory came in a SFL Division 1 match back in January 1976.
1 – Stenhousemuir made an impressive start to their season with a shock 1-0 victory over St Johnstone in the Viaplay Cup. Euan O’Reilly scored the crucial goal for Gary Naysmith’s side, to give them their first win over top flight opposition since they defeated Kilmarnock at Rugby Park in this competition back in 2012. The Warriors hadn’t beaten a side from the top tier at Ochilview since February 1995, when they picked up a famous victory over Aberdeen in the Scottish Cup.
1 – Spartans’ first competitive fixture as an SPFL club was a memorable one, as they defeated Dundee United 1-0 at Ainslie Park in the Viaplay Cup. Blair Henderson scored the only goal of the game to hand Dougie Samuel’s side their first ever victory in the competition – their only previous foray into the League Cup was back in 2018/19, when they drew two and lost two of their group stage matches. It was Spartans’ first ever meeting with Dundee United, and their first ever victory over a side from the top two tiers of Scottish football.
