The second round promised much and it actually delivered. My match of the day was a spectacle as Dundee powered past Raith Rovers with a 4-0 win thanks to Greg Stewart, Paul McGinn, Peter MacDonald and Martin Boyle. My possible shocks saw a Kris Doolan goal edge Partick Thistle past Greenock Morton; Ross County came from behind to beat Stranraer 2-1 as Melvin De Leeuw and Liam Boyce scored for the Staggies to beat Sean Winter’s opener; and St Mirren did the same to Dunfermline Athletic as a Ross Caldwell double cancelled out the Pars’ Lewis Spence’s goal.
My two difficult to call games proved to be close ones as they saw MylesHippolyte score late on in extra time to allow Livingston to shrug off Queen of the South whilst it took penalties to separate Falkirk and Cowdenbeath; the Bairns went through 4-3.
Of the games that I thought would go by way of league position, Heart of Midlothian saw off Stenhousemuir 2-1 as Gary Oliver and Kevin McHattie scored for the Jambos and Kieran Miller pulled one back for the Warriors. Rangers had a scare as Queen’s Park made a fight of it in their delayed first round tie. Tony Quinn of the Spiders had the audacity to level the scoring in between Kris Boyd’s two goals for the visitors. Hamilton Academical had a comfortable evening as they beat Alloa Athletic 4-1. The Accies goals came from Tony Andrieu, Martin Canning, Louis Longridge and Eamon Brophy whilst Greg Spence got one for the Wasps.
Hibernian left it late and broke Dumbarton hearts as Mitch Megginson and Mark Gilhaney had the visitors to Easter Road in the driving seat but Farid El Alagui then scored twice to equalise before Sam Stanton thundered the Hibees into round three. Finally Rory MacKenzie broke my heart as his goal was the only one of the game in the Ayrshire derby and saw Kilmarnock progress past Ayr United.
The draw gives us some really interesting ties as it is: –
Dundee United v Dundee
Falkirk/Rangers v Inverness Caledonian Thistle
Ross County v Hibernian
Kilmarnock v St Johnstone
Aberdeen v Livingston
Partick Thistle v St Mirren
Celtic v Heart of Midlothian
Hamilton Academical v Motherwell
Two derbies, a chance for all three big Championship contenders to face Premiership opposition, two all Premiership ties and one that sees the holders up against a team that won 4-0 in the last round means that all of these ties look tasty.
