by John Reid

St. Mirren end their 26 year wait for a trophy and all the other Scottish news in this week’s round-up.

The first domestic silverware of the season went to St. Mirren as they defeated Hearts 3-2 in an epic league cup final to win their first trophy since 1987. Hearts – who on Saturday appointed Gary Locke as their permanent manager – opened the scoring in the 10th minute, when Ryan Stevenson’s shot was deflected past Craig Samson. Hearts then dominated the game, John Sutton hitting the post with a header and Medhi Taouil hitting a shot just past the post. But just before half-time the Buddies levelled, Gary Teale beating the offside trap and setting up Edison Goncalves to finish into the empty net. St. Mirren were level at half-time in a game they had hardly been in. Dramatically Saints then took the lead at the start of the second-half, a Paul Dummett cross hammered home in style by Steven Thomson. Hearts almost equalised when a Taouil cross hit Ngoo and went just past the post. But St. Mirren increased their lead in the 66th minute, a fine team move ending with Conor Newton firing the ball home. With time running out, Stevenson hit the bar when he really should have scored his second, but he made up for it with five minutes left, scoring to set up a frantic finale. Despite Hearts piling on pressure, St. Mirren held out to claim a famous cup victory, in a very exciting game, all credit must go to manager Danny Lennon and his players.

In other news, Craig Brown announced he was retiring from football management at the end of the season. With him and Archie Knox leaving Aberdeen, Ross County boss Derek Adams is favourite to replace him.

Brown’s first game since his announcement was an incredible game at Celtic Park, where Celtic game from 3-1 down to defeat Aberdeen 4-3, the winning goal a superb overhead kick from Georgios Samaras in the 94th minute.

Motherwell remain in second after they defeated Hibs 4-1 on Friday night, the highlights being a fine performance and goal from James McFadden and a wonderful scissor kick from Kallum Higginbotham.

Inverness edged past Ross County 2-1 in the Highland derby, the winner a disputed penalty scored by Billy McKay, which led to a ‘bust-up’ between managers Terry Butcher and Derek Adams.

In the Dundee derby, Dundee survived playing with ten men for 70 minutes to get a creditable point at Tannadice in a 1-1 draw. Gary Irvine was shown a straight red card after elbowing Richie Ryan in the 20th minute, but despite this Dundee took the lead through Ryan Conroy midway though the second half and it took until the 89th minute for United to equalise through Michael Gardyne.

It’s as you were in the first division, with leaders Morton and second placed Partick both winning, but Dunfermline’s future is still uncertain, with worries that the weekend’s draw with Raith could be their last ever game. Hopefully more will be known this week.

In the second division, leaders Queen of the South only drew – 1-1 at Arbroath, whilst in division three Rangers needed a Lee McCulloch penalty to defeat Elgin 1-0, Ian Black was sent off in that game too.

Next week there are games in the lower divisions but Gordon Strachan’s Scotland are the main news, as they take on Wales on Friday night at Hampden. We’ll have the fallout of that game on next week’s round-up.