A highly charged, emotional day at Ibrox ended in a hugely disappointing defeat for Rangers, writes Nicholas Thomson.

At the end of a difficult week off the park for Ally McCoist’s side, focus was supposed to return to football. However, as has been the case on more than one occasion this season, too many of his players let him down.

More than 50,000 fans created a pre-match atmosphere similar to that reserved only for Old-Firm or major European games, and the home supporters were almost rewarded early on when Maurice Edu’s shot was cleared off the line by Liam Kelly.

That was it in terms of clear-cut chances for the ‘Gers in the first half as Kilmarnock rallied and went on to dominate the remainder of the period.

They flooded forward impressively at times and put the home defence under immense pressure for large parts of the first 45.

By Grant Milne:

 

A solitary second half strike from Graham Johnston saw Fraserburgh knock Keith out of the Morrison Motors (Turriff) Aberdeenshire Shield first round tie at the Bellslea Park; the only game to beat the weather.

Fraserburgh made a number of changes to their starting line up with Graham Johnston returning from suspension and he was joined by a posse of youngsters with Zac Conway, Scott Barbour and Sean Bremner the "front four".  Keith had Odmar Faeroe back in the middle of the park joining Craig Phillips and Andy Macaskill to make it three out of four youngsters in the middle of the park.  Indeed the average age of the eight midfield players on show was less than 23, even with Dean Donaldson in there.

The first shot on target of the game came halfway through the first half when a right footed Andy MacAskill free kick curled around the wall struck the crossbar and spun high into the air, when it did come back down Cammy Keith rose highest but his downward header was well taken by young keeper Joe Barbour - making only his second top-team appearance for the club.

Derek Adams and his County side were left to rue an injury time penalty miss, as the fixtures now pile up for the first division side, writes Holly McCormack.

Richard Brittain turned from saint to sinner as he blasted wide the spot kick which would have ensured progress into the next round.

It was no trouble for the former Buddie in the first half when he took advantage of an earlier spot-kick after Craig Samson fouled Stuart Kettlewell as he sprinted towards goal.

The Buddie's quickly levelled though, David Van Zanten whipped in a dangerous cross into the path of Stephen Thompson who headed home past Michael Fraser.

Just moments later, Paul McGowan had a wonderful opportunity to edge the Paisley side ahead. Picking his spot, his stinging 25-yard volley was palmed away by Fraser. Having upped the tempo just before the break, Aaron Mooy then floated the ball deep inside the box but Marc McAusland headed over.

Having knocked St Mirren out of the league cup on penalties last season in Dingwall, Adams knows that will need to be a priority as the team prepare for the replay but he has no doubt that Brittain can step up again.

 

Celtic ran out winners by three goals to one in the second Scottish Communities League Cup semi-final of the weekend. Alan Potts was at Hampden and ran the rule over the players on show.