It was a break from the league action last weekend as the Scottish Cup returned to the forefront. The round of 16 saw six matches go ahead, with Aberdeen v Motherwell and Dundee United v the Spartans postponed due to adverse weather conditions. 

The weekend began with a tightly contested battle between Airdrieonians and St Mirren. The Buddies needed a 115th-minute strike by Rowan Idowu to keep their dreams of an unlikely cup double alive. They will face Mark Wilson’s Partick Thistle in the quarter finals, after the Scottish Championship title challengers saw off Elgin City thanks to an 80th-minute winner by Ben Stanway. As expected, Dunfermline defeated Kelty Hearts at home 2-0, while Celtic and Rangers got respective home wins. Albeit the latter much more convincingly. The weekend ended with a 2-0 win for John McGlynn’s Falkirk away to Stenhousemuir. So, let’s digress into five talking points from all the action:

A Mixed Showing From Celtic’s New Signings

Joel Mvuka lined up at right wing for Celtic against Stephen Pressley’s Dundee. Signed on loan from Lorient, he replaced Daizen Maeda, as Yang played on the left hand side. They say it always helps for a new signing to hit the ground running, and while he did this literally at one point when dribbling, it instead summed up a disappointing showing from the Norwegian. In his forty-five-minute display, he struggled in one-on-ones, often refusing to engage and the moments where he did, he looked uncomfortable with the ball at his feet. On the other hand, Junior Adamu had the dream debut off the bench, securing an equaliser in the dying seconds of injury time. While he didn’t get involved a whole lot in overall play, he showed great awareness to be in the right place at the right time and even greater composure to flick it home. With Adamu, Tomas Cvancara and Kelechi Iheanacho all fit, Celtic now have a selection headache in the striker position. A situation that looked very unlikely just over a week ago.

Partick Thistle Shaky at The Back Despite Progressing

Since such a strong start to the season, Partick Thistle have somewhat tailed off. It’s just two wins in their last eight league games, meaning they remain two points behind St Johnstone, having played a game more. Nevertheless, against the 8th-placed League Two side Elgin City, they would still have been entirely confident of securing a place in the quarter-finals. Yet, thanks to some sloppy defending, it was getting rather nervy as the Jags approached the final ten minutes. The first goal conceded came from a scrappy corner landing at Ryan Sargeant’s feet before he headed it home after a mix up. The seventy-fourth-minute equaliser came from a similar scenario, this time a cross from Jack MacIver finding Sargeant’s head. Thistle just lacked basic organisation in both scenarios. Had it not been for a last-ditch save by Josh Clarke late on, extra time was beckoning. It’s an area they will look to shore up for Dunfermline’s visit next week.

Chris Kane Reignites Scottish Cup Magic

Speaking of which, it was a Chris Kane double that booked Dunfermline’s place in the quarter final. Kane, of course, was part of the St Johnstone side who famously won an unlikely domestic double in the 2020/21 season. While Shaun Rooney made the headlines for his goal in the Scottish Cup Final, none of that would’ve been possible had it not been for Kane forcing a penalty shootout against Rangers in the quarter-final with a late equaliser. He also opened the scoring in the semi-final against St Mirren. His brace at the weekend was well appreciated by a Dunfermline crowd who had witnessed a poor performance up until then. With one effort hitting off the bar and onto the goal line earlier, he was just inches away from a potential hat-trick. It marked just his seventh goal this season for a man who has found minutes hard to come by at times. He will be hoping this sparks his season alive.

Respectable Displays From Most Lower League Sides

Ultimately, apart from Queens Park, most of the lower league opposition made a good account of themselves over the weekend. Whether it was Falkirk and St Mirren being pushed to extra time by Stenhousemuir and Airdrie, or Elgin and Kelty Hearts losing narrowly to Partick Thistle and Dunfermline, it was reassuring to see the health of the Scottish game lower down the pyramid. Although one team, as we will talk about, didn’t quite manage that.

Rangers Run Riot Against Cross-Shy Queens Park

It’s important to mention that Queens Park were only at Ibrox on Sunday due to Stranraer fielding an ineligible player during their shootout win against the Spiders. So, it’s little surprise then that a team who couldn’t beat Stranraer would struggle against Danny Rohl’s men. Yet, Rangers can still take positives from the display, especially with new boys Ryan Donnari and Tochi Chukwauni netting their first goals for the club. The pair cost a combined £8.8 million and will be essential to the title run-in. From a Queens Park point of view, boss Sean Crighton is right to point out that these aren’t the games that will define their season. Nevertheless, their basic lack of competency at defending cross balls should concern him if they want to get off the foot of the Scottish Championship table.