The Fifth round draw of the Scottish Cup has thrown up a few fixtures that promise a day out with the SPL big boys, should Forfar, Forress Mechanics, Peterhead or Queen’s Park progress through their respective replays.
Third division Forfar Athletic, the team that finished bottom of the league last season, face the daunting prospect of having Glasgow Rangers come to Station Park. For The Loons, currently mid-table, the chance of playing one of the giants of Scottish football must seem like the Cup final itself, though the fixture is not without its history – a pretty bleak one for the Angus side.
Back in the 2001/02 Scottish Cup, Second division Forfar had battled their way through a series of non-league sides (Gala Fairydean and Threave Rovers). In the Fourth round they beat First division Clyde 1-2, with the winning goal being scored by former Clyde player Barry Sellars. The draw for the Fifth round set up a game with Rangers. Rangers had dumped out the other Rangers – Berwick – and Hibernian to get to the Quarter finals, and three days prior to the game at Station Park, Rangers had been in action in the Uefa against Dutch side Feyenoord. The game finished 1-1, meaning Alex McLeish’s side had it all to do in Rotterdam in the second-leg.
Despite the level of opposition and the danger of losing key players prior to travelling to Rotterdam, McLeish fielded a strong team featuring several first team regulars – Amoruso, Numan, Ferguson, Arveladze and Kanchelskis. Alan McGregor was also given his debut in the second half when he came on for Stefan Klos.
The game got off to a bad start for Forfar when Billy Dodds scored after only 39 seconds. A brace from Arvaledaze and a goal from Andrei Kanchelskis had the game going in 4-0 at half-time. Billy Dodds completed his hat-trick just on the final whistle to inflict a 6-0 thrashing on Forfar. The statistics underline the one-sidedness of this game, with Forfar managing only seven shots on goal (of which three where on target), compared to Rangers’ 21 goal attempts, 13 on target. Rangers eventually went on to win the Scottish Cup that year, beating Celtic in the final (they’d lose the Uefa Cup game against Feyenoord however, going down 3-2 with two of Feyenoord’s goals coming from former Celtic hitman Pierre van Hooijdonk).
There is of course the chance that St. Johnstone beat Rangers in tonight’s game. For Forfar, St Johnstone may well be an easier tie, but they’d do well to remember that the Saints are top of the First division, as well the fact St. Johnstone racked up their record Scottish Cup score against Forfar: a(nother) 6-0 defeat back in 2003!
All that stands in the way of that massive tie against Rangers are Highland League side Forres Mechanics. The “Can Cans” go into the tie as underdogs, a position that may well suit them. Forfar, the fancied side, will go all-out to attack and secure that game with Rangers, meaning that Foress can sit back and hit on the counter.
The only other Highland League side involved in this years Scottish Cup are Aberdeenshire side Inverurie Locos. Their game against SPL strugglers Motherwell was postponed due to a frozen pitch, but should Locos get through that tie they may well face another SPL side in the shape of St. Mirren (provided Brechin City do the Highland League challengers a favour and lose).
The prospect of having two HFL sides in the Quarter Finals of Scotland’s premier domestic Cup competitions is history-making itself, but realistically you’d have to expect Forfar and Motherwell to progress.
Second division sides Peterhead or Queen’s Park face a lucrative away tie at Parkhead in the next round, once the replay of their game that ended 2-2 has been dispensed with. Peterhead have never played Celtic in any competition, while Queen’s Park area seasoned campaigners against the upstarts from across the Clyde. The Spiders won the last of their 10 Scottish Cups back in 1893 when they beat Celtic 2-1.
Fifth Round Draw
Elsewhere, second division side East Fife get an payday with a game against Aberdeen at Pittodrie. East Fife actually have quite a good record against the Dons, having put them out of the Scottish Cup in two of the three meetings between the two sides. The first came in February of 1927 when they ran out 2-1 winners (after a replay). In 1938, the scores where repeated when East Fife emerged 2-1 winners, again after a replay. In 1965, East Fife won 1-0 after – can you guess? – a replay. Aberdeen’s only win against East fife in the cup came in 1959 when they won 2-1.
There’s an all First division game when Airdrie and Dunfermline meet up. The rest of the games are all SPL (replays permitting). Hearts take on Falkirk, Hamilton face Dundee United (4-0 winners over East Stirlingshire for whom the agony continues ever since we awarded them our ‘Performance of the Week’ award) and Inverness Caley take on Kilmarnock, provided Killie can overcome their bogey team Ayr United in the replay next week.
All Fifth round ties will be played in the weekend of the 7th and 8th February.
Related posts:
- Scottish League Cup 2nd Round Preview
- ALBA Challenge Cup Second Round
- Common sense prevails
- Scottish Cup – Game On!
- ALBA Challenge Cup Second Round Results
Tags: Foress Mechanics, Forfar, Scottish Cup
[...] was a case of ‘between the devil and the deep blue sea’ for The Loons who they faced: both the Saints and the Gers inflicted 6-0 defeats in recent years but who knows, on the day they might get the breaks, the run of the ball, the rub of the green, the [...]