Scottish League Cup REVIEW 16 Aug 2026: Hearts Erupt Late, Stenny Stun Motherwell in League Cup Last 16

Heart of Midlothian needed a big second-half turnaround to beat Inverness Caledonian Thistle 6-2 at Tynecastle. Christian Borchgrevink’s header put the hosts ahead after 16 minutes, but the Championship visitors hit back through R. Duncan (54′) and Alfie Bavidge (56′) to lead 2-1 with an hour gone. R. Mato’s equaliser on 59 minutes turned the tie, and from there Hearts took over: C. Miller converted a penalty on 82 minutes to restore the lead, James Wilson made it 4-2 on 84, and C. Braga and Miller both scored on 90 to complete the 6-2 scoreline. It came after a grim opening to the season for Wouter Vrancken’s side, who had been thrashed 6-0 on aggregate by Sturm Graz in Champions League qualifying, lost their Premiership opener 2-1 to Aberdeen and gone down 6-1 to Benfica in the first leg of Europa League qualifying, with the head coach making five changes from that Benfica game for this tie. Inverness boss Scott Kellacher took pride from his side’s showing despite the scoreline, saying afterwards: "I can’t be any more proud of them, there is lots to take from it and we will learn, especially from the last 10 minutes."

Rangers ended a run of four competitive games without a win by putting five past holders St Mirren at Ibrox. Goals from R. Naderi (9′) and V. Dragojevic (18′) had them 2-0 up before C. R. Mochrie pulled one back for St Mirren on 30 minutes. D. Gassama and J. Penrice restored the two-goal cushion early in the second half to make it 4-1, and although Killian Phillips missed a penalty for St Mirren on 67 minutes, R. McCausland added a fifth on 74 to complete a 5-1 win.

Stenhousemuir produced the shock of the round, beating Motherwell 1-0 after extra time at Ochilview. The tie stayed goalless through 90 minutes and deep into the additional half hour before Euan O’Reilly struck in the 114th minute, pouncing after Motherwell failed to deal with a long throw from Ross Meechan to send the newly-promoted Championship side through. The defeat was the first suffered by Alfred Johansson since he took over as Motherwell manager this summer.

Hibernian needed just one goal to see off Partick Thistle at Easter Road, Owen Elding scoring early, his third of the campaign, to earn David Gray’s side a 1-0 win.