Scottish Football Weekend: Celtic Claims League Cup, Fan Reactions to Premiership Fixtures

The recent weekend delivered a series of eventful moments in Scottish football. Celtic emerged victorious over their rivals Rangers in a penalty shootout to claim the Scottish League Cup. Concurrently, the four Scottish Premiership matches featured numerous goals and compelling narratives. Below are reflections from fans on these events. Supporters of Celtic expressed satisfaction with securing the initial trophy of the season, even though many felt their team’s performance was not at its peak. Peter commented, “Not our best performance but still, it’s trophy 119. A sign of a good team is digging out results when not playing well. Players gave everything. Great to see wee James Forrest get his 25th major title. What are the odds of him getting to 27 by May 2025? Onwards and upwards.” Steven observed, “Celtic miles off the pace first half especially, defensive errors across the park. Rescued by our talented wingers Nicolas Kuhn and the ice-cold Daizen Maeda. Lots of lessons for Brendan Rodgers for the upcoming New Year trip across the city.” Michael stated, “Cup final football, Celtic know how to stay calm and get the job over the line as they have dominated the Scottish game for the best part of 15 years. Rangers played well but don’t have the winning mentality.” Stephen noted, “In the first half Celtic were very poor, in the second half we only really played our real football for 15 minutes. The bottom line is, Celtic were nowhere near their best and still won.” Another Michael added, “We didn’t push them hard enough, too much playing backwards when we had the pace to get at them. Still, we’ll take the win. Well done Celtic, a great win, showed great strength and determination.” Hugh described the match as “a compelling and entertaining game and one of the most competitive Old Firm finals ever. However, let’s not get too carried away; Rangers played to their maximum potential and fell short, Celtic underperformed but again found a way to win. The next two transfer windows could determine who will be the dominant force for the next few years.” John highlighted, “Cameron Carter-Vickers = player of the match. Four-vs-one? Not a problem. Tough game, Rangers are back playing better, they silenced Callum McGregor, and they silenced Kyogo but still can’t silence Daizen Maeda.” Despite the loss at Hampden, Rangers supporters identified positive aspects from the match. Sally commented, “Rangers played extremely well and were tactically sound. Nicolas Raskin kept Callum McGregor in check and Celtic’s play suffered for it. The players gave everything for the entire match and their commitment could not be faulted. Penalties are a lottery and any player could have missed one, sadly it was a Rangers player. They need to continue to play as a team.” Stephen expressed, “Gutted! We didn’t deserve it, but yet again Celtic get the breaks, who knows if Philippe Clement will ever beat Celtic!” Ronnie stated, “We gave 100% and should have won the game. The four-vs-one was pivotal, not to score at that point ultimately cost us the final. The team has improved greatly in the past four weeks & we showed we can go toe to toe with Celtic. We must gather ourselves keep winning then beat them in the New Year derby. It’s a sore loss in a fantastic final.” An anonymous fan remarked, “Great performance at last. Maybe now those supporters will stop harping on about getting rid of Clement, appreciate the work that the manager is doing with the extremely limited budget and stop this nonsense about the likes of Derek McInnes coming in to replace Clement.” Brian offered, “Firstly I must say what a cup final, two teams all out to win the cup. A great advert for Scottish football, but I have to say what a way to win or lose a cup final. I would like to see the golden goal rule coming in, I think that would be a better way to have a winner.” Fraser saw “A ray of hope for the New Year’s game, it was a sore way to lose with a poor penalty but Philippe Clement has now got something to build on, we can only hope he gets the backing from the board. Definitely our best Old Firm performance in over a year.” Tom suggested, “A draw was a fair result, both teams had good spells, so based on this game and the cup final last season you would expect Rangers to beat Celtic at Ibrox and for Celtic to win their home games, the gap between the