Craig brings you CaughtOffside’s weekly Scottish Football update for those find it hard enough keeping up with the English Premiership.
Hibs won their first trophy for 16 years, beating Kilmarnock 5-1 at Hampden on Sunday. Captain Rob Jones scored the first goal to give Hibs a half-time lead, before Abdessalam Benjelloun and Steven Fletcher made it 3-0. Killie defender Gordon Greer then scored to make give them hope, but Hibs capitalised as the Ayrshire side threw everyone forward and Benjelloun and Fletcher both grabbed their second goals. Even as a Killie fan, I have to say Hibs thoroughly deserved their victory and if we had to lose to anyone I’m glad it was them because they are an exciting team who always try to play football.
In the SPL, Celtic lost their second game in a row, going down 1-0 at Falkirk. It was an incident packed match – Craig Beattie showed why he’s in the Scotland squad by missing a penalty, while Steven McManus (Celtic) and Carl Finnigan (Falkirk) were both sent off in the first half after a heated incident. Celtic boss Gordon Strachan claimed his side should have had another 4 penalties in the match – expect a controversial award in his side’s favour next week.
Rangers reduced their lead to 13 points by destroying Aberdeen 3-0 at Ibrox. Top scorer Kris Boyd scored a hat-trick in the first half – proving a point to Walter Smith who bafflingly left him out in the gutless 1-0 defeat away to Osasuna which saw them eliminated from the UEFA Cup.
Hearts’ tumultuous season sunk to a new low, with a 4-0 at home to Dundee Utd seriously harming their chances of playing European football. Captain Craig Gordon has spoken out again, claiming that there is disharmony within the squad, and that players are even eating in groups based on their nationalities. He also confirmed that he would be interested joining Arsenal – with most Scottish news sources believing a deal will be done in the summer.
Dunfermline gave themselves a chance of avoiding the drop with an impressive 3-1 win away to Inverness CT, which leaves them only 6 points behind St Mirren. That defeat also consigned Inverness to the bottom six when the league splits in 2 games time.
And Rangers have disgraced the country once again, with clips of their fans singing sectarian songs during the Osasuna match being posted on You Tube. The club now faces UEFA sanctions – and having already been fined for fans’ behaviour in Villarreal last year, a stadium ban could be on the way. Indeed, UEFA could even make an example of the club the way they did with Feyenoord, by throwing them out of next year’s competition. I would fully support any move which finally gets it into the thick skulls of the idiots who sing these songs that it is just not acceptable.