McInnes Faces Pressure as Rangers Host St Mirren in League Cup Clash
At Easter Road, Ochilview and Tynecastle, the cup narrative was already crackling into life long before Rangers and St Mirren stepped out at Ibrox.
Elding strikes as Hibs lead but lose their way
Hibernian hold a 1-0 advantage over Partick Thistle at the break, yet the scoreline tells only half the story.
Owen Elding provided the difference, finishing well to put Hibs in front and, for a spell, they looked comfortable. They moved the ball crisply, pressed with intent and seemed ready to pull away.
Then the edge slipped.
Passes slowed, touches loosened, and Thistle began to sense something. Hibs’ fluency drained away, replaced by a sloppiness that invited pressure and left the home crowd shifting uneasily in their seats.
Elding almost bailed them out again. A lovely turn and threaded ball from Kanayo Megwa inside the box carved out another opening for the forward, only for his effort to be blocked. Moments later he rattled the crossbar with a fierce strike, the kind of effort that leaves a stadium holding its breath.
Adam Mayor then smashed into the side-netting from a tight angle, while Nathan Lowe screamed for a square pass six yards out that never came. Thistle, for all Hibs’ early control, have every right to feel aggrieved not to be level.
Off the pitch, concern briefly overshadowed the contest as a supporter in distress received lengthy treatment from paramedics and Hibs medical staff before being taken from the stand. The message from Easter Road at half-time was simple: best wishes, and hope for good news.
All of it leaves a tense second half coming. Hibs have the lead. Thistle have the momentum. That balance rarely lasts.
Hearts on top but wasteful against Inverness
Across the city, Hearts take a 1-0 lead into the interval against Inverness Caledonian Thistle, and they’ve earned it.
Steven Naismith’s side controlled large chunks of the first half, yet they were jolted early when Alfie Bavidge volleyed in from an Alfie Stewart cross. The flag went up, the offside call stood, and Hearts breathed again.
Their own stroke of fortune arrived soon after. A penalty was initially awarded when Amadou Ba-Sy was fouled, only for VAR to rule the contact outside the box. No spot-kick, but no time to sulk either.
The response was ruthless. From the resulting free-kick, the ball crashed into the wall, looped out, and Christian Borchgrevink reacted quickest, nodding in the rebound to give Hearts the lead.
They should have stretched it.
A clever set-piece found Calvin Miller unmarked on the penalty spot with time to pick his finish. He completely miscued, a huge chance gone. Then Ba-Sy produced a superb touch and cut-back for Sabah Kerjota, who clipped the crossbar from six yards. Another big opportunity, another escape for Inverness.
Adam MacKinnon almost punished that wastefulness, collecting a loose ball from a cleared corner and firing just over, even after pausing to avoid referee Calum Scott’s path.
Hearts are ahead and largely in command, but their profligacy keeps Inverness alive. One more miss, and the mood inside Tynecastle could turn sharply.
Stenhousemuir unsettle scrappy Motherwell
At Ochilview, the story is different but just as intriguing. Stenhousemuir and Motherwell are goalless at half-time, yet it’s the Championship side who have imposed themselves.
Stenny started with purpose, pressing high and forcing errors from a Motherwell team packed with fringe players desperate to impress. Instead, they’ve looked anything but convincing.
Matty Connelly in the Motherwell goal has been the busier of the two keepers, while Darrien Jamieson has had virtually nothing to do at the other end. Every loose touch from the visitors seemed to invite another Stenhousemuir surge.
Motherwell tried to respond with a flurry of three corners, experimenting with short routines and drilled low deliveries. None of them worked, and Jamieson’s early flap at the first cross went unpunished.
The warning signs kept coming. Slow, casual play inside their own box almost cost Motherwell dearly as Lewis Hodgkiss ghosted in on an Andrew Shinnie cut-back, only for a foul in the build-up to spare the Premiership side. For now.
By the interval, “scrappy” barely covered it from a Motherwell perspective. Manager Alfred Johansson clearly felt the same. Ibrahim Said and Euan Wilson were hooked at half-time, with Alex Lowry and Emanuel Longelo thrown on to inject quality and urgency.
Only one team has truly looked like scoring so far. Unless those changes spark a reaction, the upset everyone expected to be elsewhere might just be brewing at Ochilview.
McInnes under pressure as St Mirren head to Ibrox
All of this unfolds against a fraught backdrop at Ibrox, where Derek McInnes stands squarely in the glare.
“We could just do with winning a game,” he admitted this week. He wasn’t exaggerating. Four games without a victory have left him with the worst start of any permanent Rangers manager in the modern era, and the mood in Govan turned poisonous after their Europa League qualifying exit in midweek.
Boos rang around the stadium. Patience thinned.
Now comes St Mirren, the League Cup holders, and a tie that feels far bigger than a straightforward cup tie should. The League Cup is the only major trophy McInnes has lifted in his managerial career, more than a decade ago with Aberdeen. He needs this competition, and he knows it.
Rangers fans demand silverware, not excuses. They want a team that looks like it can dominate domestically again, not one stumbling through August.
A home win today would not fix everything. It would not rewrite the start of the season or silence every doubter. But it would give McInnes a foothold, a platform, something to cling to as the pressure tightens.
Lose, and the noise around Ibrox will become deafening. How long can any Rangers manager survive that?
