Inverness Caledonian Thistle beating Celtic? Queen’s Park beating Rangers? Darvel beating Aberdeen? Brora Rangers beating Hearts? What is the biggest Scottish Cup shock of all time? Inverness Courier sports editor Will Clark considers all the contenders.
LAST week, we marked Inverness Caledonian Thistle’s silver anniversary of recording one of the biggest Scottish Cup shocks of all time when they defeated Celtic 3-1 in Glasgow in 2000.
There have been some massive shocks in the history of the Scottish Cup, with some arguing Caley Thistle’s 3-1 win at Parkhead was arguably the biggest of the lot.
Read: Inverness Courier journalist Caley Thistle’s shock win at Celtic 25 years on.
Then a new contender for the crown emerged on Sunday in a result nobody saw coming. Championship outfit Queen’s Park stunned Rangers 1-0 at Ibrox to dump them out of the fifth round of the competition.
Seb Drozd put Queen’s Park in the lead in the 69th minute with a low drive in the box which left the stadium silenced. Then despite a bombardment on the Queen’s Park goalmouth, goalkeeper Callum Ferrie pulled off a string of fantastic saves to keep the Spiders in the lead.
Rangers were awarded a penalty in injury time, but James Tavernier’s saw his penalty saved by Ferrie as Queen’s Park held on for an incredible victory.
The result drew some similarities with Inverness Caledonian Thistle’s win over Celtic Park 25 years ago. Both teams were in what is now known as the Championship, previously the First Division and lying in mid-table.
They also took on an Old Firm team which both well off the pace in the Premiership title race and face the likelihood of finishing in second place.
Even the headlines in The Sun were similar as they plumped for on Monday, “Super Callum Goes Ballistic Rangers are Atrocious.”
My colleague Alasdair Fraser did immediately suggest the headline on social media after full time and is no doubt demanding a finders fee knowing him.
So what is the bigger shock? Caley Thistle beating Celtic or Queen’s Park beating Rangers? You might have a tough time convincing football fans in Sutherland that either of those are bigger than Brora Rangers beating Hearts 2-1 at Dudgeon Park in 2021.
The Cattachs were facing a Hearts team who were playing in the Championship at the time. But there was no doubt the players Hearts had were of Premiership quality.
Jordan Macrae put Brora Rangers in front, but Christophe Berra equalised for Hearts with 20 minutes remaining.
But Martin MacLean replied five minutes later to book the biggest win in their history. It was only a shame fans were prevented from entering the stadium due to Covid regulations. But there was an opportunity for fans to look into the ground from the street.
The Old Firm have lost to lower league opposition in the past, most notably Berwick Rangers beating Rangers 1-0 in 1967. It is believed the only other time Rangers have lost to lower league opposition in the Scottish Cup was to St Bernards 3-2 in 1893.
Without a shadow of a doubt, this was Rangers’ worst ever result in the Scottish Cup at Ibrox and one which may cause Phillipe Clement to lose his job. At the time of going to press, he was still employed at Ibrox.
Highland League Fraserburgh also might argue they recorded the biggest Scottish Cup shock of all time beating Dundee 1-0 in 1959.
West of Scotland League outfit Darvel also defeated Premiership opposition Aberdeen 1-0 in 2023.
Whatever your view is on the biggest Scottish Cup upset of all time, it just shows you what a brilliant competition it actually is. It is also brilliant how it is still taken seriously by all the teams and has not gone the way of the FA Cup in England, which is now considered a secondary competition by most top flight teams.