Partick Thistle score four past Edinburgh in Premier Sports Cup opener
After Cammy Logan and Robbie Crawford scored inside 10 minutes, Robert Mahon's own goal for the hosts – after 23 minutes – made matter even worse for the League Two club.
Logan Chalmers made it 4-0 in the 40th minute, with Tiwi Daramola's goal in first-half stoppage-time acting as a mere consolation for Edinburgh.
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The Herald Scotland
an hour ago
- The Herald Scotland
Michael Flynn excited for the future after Cheltenham knock out Exeter
The success eased the pressure after the Robins started their League Two campaign with two defeats without scoring. 'It's a very pleasing night,' Flynn said. 'Everybody was excellent, even the ones who came on and it's given me food for thought for Saturday (MK Dons away). 'We are a new squad and a young team, learning together and getting used to each other as well. 'The new boys who have come in tonight, who haven't had too many minutes, are getting up to speed and we are only going to get better. 'If we put in that level of commitment, we'll be a match for anybody.' Exeter boss Gary Caldwell, who made 10 changes, said: 'It was a poor performance. I don't think we got going in the game. 'We made a lot of changes, giving players the opportunity to show what they are about and too many didn't get up to the speed of the game. 'We felt the team was more than capable of winning the game but we didn't deserve to. 'Some of the young lads can take a lot from it but overall we need so much more as a team. We have to compete more, run more and be braver on the ball.'
Scottish Sun
2 hours ago
- Scottish Sun
Celtic vs Falkirk: Premier Sports Cup action returns to Parkhead as Rodgers aims to continue perfect start
SCOTT BAIN was in the Celtic dugout the last time these two teams clashed in the competition 11 months ago - at the quarter-final stage. But this week the former Celtic goalkeeper could take on his old team-mates at his old shooting ground at Parkhead - in the Premier Sports Cup last 16. 2 Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers Credit: PA 2 Falkirk boss John McGlynn Credit: Kenny Ramsay Celtic host John McGlynn's side in their first domestic cup fixture after receiving a bye to miss the group stage and progress straight to the knockout round. Both sides faced off at the same stadium last September, but Falkirk were in the Championship at that point. Now this is set to be the first of at least four meetings between the two sides after the Bairns won the second tier last season. The last meeting of course ended in a victory for Celts as Brendan Rodgers' men went on to lift the trophy following a penalty shootout win over Rangers at Hampden in December. But while the quarter-final meeting ended in a 5-2 win for the Hoops, it wasn't quite as comfortable as the scoreline suggests. It was actually Falkirk who raced in front TWICE in that tie, having initially taken the lead through Ross MacIver after 11 minutes. Finn Yeats then ensured they held onto their lead at half-time with a stoppage time goal after Paulo Bernardo's equaliser. A brace from Nicolas Kuhn and Adam Idah in the second half guaranteed the win, though, and the first half scares were quickly forgotten about. But can McGlynn's side stun the Hoops again and get the job done come full-time on Friday? SunSport has all the details ahead of the cup cracker. Ex-Celtic star goes wild as he does the huddle at Oasis gig with 70,000 fans What time does Celtic vs Falkirk kick off? Celtic take on Falkirk on Friday, August 15. The match kicks off at 7.45pm UK time. It will be held at Celtic Park. What TV channel is Celtic vs Falkirk on and can I live stream it? Celtic vs Falkirk is live on Premier Sports 1. Coverage begins at 7.15pm - half an hour before kick off. To stream the game live, head to the Premeir Sports website or app. BBC Scotland will have live radio commentary for the game. Alternatively, you can follow all the action right here via SunSport's LIVE blog. Team news Jota remains the only long-term absentee for Celtic which sees Rodgers having a full squad aside from him at his disposal for this game. Kieran Tierney will be available for selection despite the manager revealing he was SICK at half-time of the 2-0 win against Pittodrie. There could be a place in the matchday squad for the first time for new signing Jahmai Simpson-Pusey after he was left out against Aberdeen. Shin Yamada could make his first start after looking promising off the bench in the second half in the Granite City. Falkirk, meanwhile, will likely be without star man Ethan Ross after he suffered a nasty ankle injury against Livingston. Other players expected to be missing for the Bairns include Finn Yeats, Tom Lang, Coll Donaldson and Barney Stewart. Latest odds Celtic - 1/9 Draw - 7/1 Falkirk - 14/1 *Latest odds correct from Sky Bet as of Wednesday, August 13. Keep up to date with ALL the latest news and transfers at the Scottish Sun football page
Scotsman
3 hours ago
- Scotsman
Hearts explain their right-back transfer issue - cup-tied player and squad size addressed
Scottish Premiership has started well and there is plenty confidence in Edinburgh Sign up to our Hearts newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Edinburgh News, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Adam Forrester's swift return to Hearts alleviates a shortage in the club's right-back position for now. Head coach Derek McInnes said there are currently no plans to enter the transfer market for a more experienced full-back. Following nine new signings so far this summer, McInnes is focused on other issues and needs to move players out of Riccarton. Forrester was recalled from a season-long loan at St Johnstone earlier this week having only signed the agreement last Thursday. A thigh injury sidelined the Norwegian Christian Borchgrevink for around six to eight weeks, and 20-year-old Forrester was quickly ushered back to base as Hearts exploited their new co-operation agreement with Saints. He may now find himself involved in Saturday's Premier Sports Cup last-16 tie at St Mirren. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Co-operation loans are structured so that parent clubs pay all of the player's wages throughout the loan agreement. While Hearts supporters call for another new signing to strengthen the right-back department, the Edinburgh club have spent a considerable amount of money already this summer. Their first-team budget is strong but nine new arrivals, allied to existing high-earners, mean there is a limit. McInnes has therefore exercised contingency plans by recalling Forrester. He also knows centre-back Michael Steinwender can play right-back in a four-man defence, while winger Alan Forrest deputised at wing-back in Sunday's win at Dundee United. Midfielder Oisin McEntee is another option able to cover in that department. 'We've brought Adam back,' explained McInnes. 'I didn't want to be saying too much about it until I spoke with Adam face-to-face. We talked it through and he's more than happy to be back. It was just a pity he didn't get his game against Ross County [for St Johnstone last Friday night]. St Johnstone know it's a free loan effectively and the reason we did it that way is so we have got the comfort of being able to bring him back. 'Christian, while the scan doesn't really read well, it's six to eight weeks. We don't feel it's maybe quite as bad as that just with how he's presenting. So it's important we try to treat the symptoms rather than the scan results. Hopefully it'll be a bit sooner than that. The club brought Christian to the club to be the guy to play right-back and right wing-back, but we also feel it's incumbent on us to look after Adam and other young Hearts players to keep their minutes up. Evidence shows that if young boys aren't playing football then they're not going to reach their maximum level. 'We want the likes of Macaulay [Tait], Lewis Neilson, Finlay Pollock and Adam to get those minutes in. I think it's important we do that. But Adam is back, he played on Tuesday [in a bounce game against County at Riccarton] and did great in the game. He's back to be available and see if he can get his place in the team.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Cup-tie issue in Premier Sports Cup Forrester would be cup-tied this weekend had he remained at St Johnstone, rendering him ineligible for their Premier Sports Cup match against Motherwell. He played for Hearts against Dumbarton in the group phase and is now challenging for a place in their team once again for the trip to Paisley. Steinwender is another player McInnes is considering for the role. 'He's happy to do it because the thing he's got is he's really mobile, really quick, really comfortable in wide areas,' stated the manager. 'When he plays as an outside centre-back, nobody is going to run him in that channel. He's comfortable and he's got really good mobility, Michael. It's not perfect in that sense. I'm blessed with really good centre-backs here. We've inherited some brilliant centre-backs and we've added Stu [Findlay] to that.' McInnes went on to speak about Hearts' budget and why he does not intend to recruit another full-back at the moment. His first-team squad numbers 29 players after midfielder Yan Dhanda joined Dundee on loan last week. 'I think there's this perception that we're spending millions and we can just go and sign another right back - and we can't,' he insisted. 'We still need to get players out. We've still got to address the balance of the squad in terms of numbers. 'We've prioritised other positions. We've brought Christian Borchgrevink into the club. We've got young Adam Forrester on a co-operation loan for a reason. We've not loaned him out to pull back some money because we wanted the flexibility of that. It's not just a case of, he's injured, he's out of there, just get another one in. It's not as easy as that. We have spent well as a club. We've spent thousands. We're not spending millions, we're spending thousands. We're identifying talent from lower leagues, players who are not at the top end of their careers yet. We're spending what we've got and we still need to address the budget. So, the answer to that [right-back question] is it's not an area we're looking at.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Tuesday's bounce match at Riccarton ended 8-1 in favour of the hosts, who gave many first-team squad members game time. Defenders Stephen Kingsley, Forrester and Steinwender played, as did midfielder Sander Kartum, winger Alexandros Kyziridis, plus strikers Elton Kabangu and James Wilson. Recent signings Tomas Magnusson and Pierre Landry Kabore also featured. Beni Baningime and Calem Nieuwenhof returning after injury was an extra bonus. 'My son said to me: 'Who was your best player?' It was hard, you couldn't pick anybody. I was actually delighted with a lot of them. They looked as if they enjoyed working hard, they looked as if they enjoyed the game. The lads who had played on Sunday did their gym work and came out to watch. I'm joking with them saying I've been picking the wrong team the whole time, because we were 6-0 up at half-time. 'It's good for the guys who have been starting to see that as well. There are boys pushing and asking the question. It does make it a bit more difficult for me in terms of picking a starting 11, and even a bench. There are going to be players who've actually been working hard and doing well getting left out of a squad. Getting Beni and Hoff back is good. They trained, did a wee bit last Saturday, then trained on Monday ahead of the bounce game and both came through the game. Both will be looking to be involved in the squad at the weekend. That only leaves us Kenny [Vargas], who's got a slight hip strain. He maybe can could be back after the weekend. Plus there's Finlay Pollock, Jamie McCart, Bochgrevink and Craig Gordon out.' Aberdeen to Hearts - transfers and huge squad in the SPFL Premiership McInnes managed a strong squad at Aberdeen earlier in his career but the current Hearts group is far greater in number. They have won six out of six competitive games under his tutelage so far, including two opening Premiership wins over Aberdeen and United. 'I've never worked with a squad this big, but I feel as though we've had good squads,' he remarked. 'Normally, you work with about 21 or 22 outfield players as a manager at clubs I've been at. You'd maybe get 15 or 16 who all expect to play. I think you need to have that, and then you'd maybe get a few who hope to play. It's easier to manage that type of situation. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'As it stands, we've got a lot of boys who are just putting their best foot forward trying to catch the eye every day. Every day is like an audition. Training on Wednesday was brilliant in terms of how competitive it was. It feels as though that every training session means something, as it should do. We spoke about enthusiasm and it's easy to be enthusiastic right now, but we're also still searching for that wee bit more quality and improvement. Those improvements can come from within, they can come from competition, they can come from playing regularly and finding a rhythm. Winning games certainly helps with all that.' Beating a strong Ross County side 8-1, even in a friendly, demonstrates the level of quality and competition available to Hearts. 'Yeah, I've seen that in training,' acknowledged McInnes. 'We took the game, for exactly the reason we had. We knew the B team had a game at night, we were wondering if we would just about have enough numbers and we didn't want to put 90 minutes into certain boys who weren't ready to play 90 minutes. We managed to get a few of the younger ones from the academy on as well. All in all, it was a good day for us in that sense, but you never get too hung up on bounce games.' Standards across various areas of the Hearts football department have been raised since McInnes arrived with coaches Paul Sheerin and Alan Archibald. The manager makes no apology for placing daily demands on players and expecting them to exhaust themselves in the pursuit of success. Levels are creeping up and supporters are intrigued by how far their team can go. 'That comes from the players as well,' said McInnes. 'I've always wanted to have that British core here, a Scottish core at Hearts. I think Hearts should have that. Those boys have been driving the standards. The new lads come in and it's like: 'This is what you need to do at Hearts, this is how we behave, this is how we work.' That's how I think it has to be going forward. It's a start, but it's a good start. We're not going to underplay it. Why should we? It's a good start, but we're well aware that it can easily change at a club at Hearts. You've just got to try and stay on it.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad There are plenty members of the dressing room with similar motivation. 'I've got captains in the dressing room and we've spoken about people who help. I want people to assist Lawrence [Shankland]. Lawrence takes a lot on his shoulders as a captain of a club like this and we've got senior players that can help with that. Frankie Kent, Craig Halkett, Stuart Findlay, Cammy Devlin, Jamie McCart - these boys are riddled with experience so it's actually been easy. 'The boys who have been brought in have been easy to integrate. You're never really sure, but they all speak English. It's not been something we're actively instructing lads: 'You need to do this, you need to do that.' It's all happened quite naturally and everybody seems comfortable with it. It does help when you're winning, everybody's job is easier at Hearts when you're winning games of football. The players have done well with that side of it. The Scottish/British core, I do think it's important we have that here. I don't want people coming in and just visiting, you know what I mean? It's important we've got those key players within that dressing room.' READ MORE: Tony Bloom explains who makes Hearts transfer calls READ MORE: Specific Hearts training to produce late goals
