And Heading to the Scottish Cup Final, It’s…Ross County?!?

(Steven Craig goal. Brilliant, no?)

Everybody loves a Cinderella story.

Well, except for the bigger teams who play the role of the ugly stepsisters the prince leaves behind.

This weekend it was Scotland’s Celtic in the stepsister role; they were sent packing by little Ross County (from Dingwall, pop. 5,000) in the Scottish Cup semifinals; this gave Ross County their first trip to the final in their 81-year history. And it wasn’t a fluky win, either; Ross County played like they deserved it. Celtic? Not so much.

Best description I’ve read of the match comes from Douglas Alexander at the Times:

As the teams sparred and sussed each other out in the first half, the conviction must have grown for Adams and his side that they could win this match. They poked slightly hesitantly at Celtic until the break, as though not believing how badly their opponents were playing. Yet this phoney war ended emphatically 10 minutes after the restart when Steven Craig, son of Joe Craig, the former Celtic striker, seized on a slack header by Darren O’Dea and accelerated past the labouring Josh Thompson before driving the ball forcefully home when he entered Celtic’s box.

And worse for Celtic, Ross County wasn’t finished. Not content to scrape by with 1-0, though, they added insult to injury with this exquisite little number by Martin Scott:

(In case you didn’t catch it, the commentary in the video talks about goal-scorer Martin Scott being such a Celtic fan he named his dog after former Celtic player Bobo Balde. Oh. irony.)

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Category: World Football