119 – Celtic won the Premier Sports Cup by defeating Rangers 5-4 on penalties following a dramatic 3-3 draw at Hampden. Greg Taylor, Daizen Maeda and Nicolas Kuhn were all on the scoresheet for Brendan Rodgers’ side and Maeda also scored the winning penalty in the shoot-out after Kasper Schmeichel had saved from Ridvan Yilmaz. Celtic have won the League Cup eight times in the last 11 seasons to take their overall tally to 22. The Hoops have now won 119 major trophies – 54 league titles, 42 Scottish Cups, 22 League Cups and one European Cup – and have now taken the outright lead as Scotland’s most decorated club, ahead of Rangers on 118.
4 – Motherwell climbed to fourth in the William Hill Premiership thanks to a thrilling 4-3 victory over Dundee United at Fir Park. Two goals from Apostolos Stamatelopoulos and one apiece from Andy Halliday and Tom Sparrow helped Stuart Kettlewell’s side leapfrog their opponents in the table. The Steelmen have now recorded four consecutive victories over United – they have beaten them three times this season and also won on the final day of the 2022/23 campaign, with all four wins coming by a single-goal margin. This is the first time in over 50 years that they have recorded four wins in a row against United – the last time was in 1973/74, when they defeated them twice in the League Cup group stages and twice in the league.
5 – Ayr United beat leaders Falkirk 5-2 at Somerset Park to move to within seven points of the top of the William Hill Championship. The Bairns led twice, but goals from Connor McLennan, Ben Dempsey and Scott McMann put the Honest Men in front before Alfie Bavidge rounded off the victory with a double. Scott Brown’s side have won four of their last five games in all competitions, the only blemish being a loss to Partick Thistle last weekend. Saturday’s success was Ayr’s biggest winning margin against Falkirk in 23 years, since they beat them 6-0 in Ayrshire in March 2001. Myles Hogarth, father of current Falkirk keeper Nicky, was the Bairns goalkeeper that day.
5 – Annan Athletic moved to within five points of the promotion play-offs in William Hill League 1 thanks to a 5-1 victory over Dumbarton at the Marbill Coaches Stadium. Paul Smith, Willie Gibson, Rhys Breen, Aidan Smith and Tommy Muir were all on the scoresheet for the Galabankies, who remain eighth but are now 11 points clear of the relegation play-off spots. Willie Gibson’s side ended a run of consecutive seven away league defeats – their only previous points on the road this season came with a win at Cove Rangers on the opening day. This was the first time in seven years that Annan scored five goals away from home in the league – that was a 5-1 victory over Berwick Rangers in March 2017.
5 – Forfar Athletic thrashed Bonnyrigg Rose 5-1 at the Alpha Projects Stadium @ Station Park to close the gap at the foot of William Hill League 2. Josh Skelly and Matty Allan opened the scoring for the Loons before Russell McLean stole the show with a second-half hat-trick. McLean has now scored back-to-back trebles for Forfar, having also scored three times against Stirling Albion in the Scottish Cup a fortnight ago. McLean is the first Forfar player to score hat-tricks in consecutive matches since John Coburn in August 1960 – Coburn netted four goals in a league win over Brechin City and then another four in a League Cup victory over Stranraer four days later. He is the first Forfar player in two decades to score two hat-tricks in the same season - Paul Shields was the last man to do so back in 2004/05.
.png){kind=logo}
