The 2011–12

Scottish League Cup The Scottish League Cup, also known as the Premier Sports Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a football competition open to all Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) clubs. First held in 1946–47, it is the oldest national League cup in ...

was the 66th season of Scotland's second-most prestigious

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

knockout competition, the Scottish League Cup, also known as the Scottish Communities League Cup for sponsorship reasons. It was won by

Kilmarnock Kilmarnock ( ; ; , ), meaning "the church of Mernóc", is a town and former burgh in East Ayrshire situated in southwest Scotland. The town has served as the administrative centre of East Ayrshire Council since 1996 and is the region's main ...

Format

The competition is a

single elimination A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, w ...

knock-out competition. In each round, fixtures are determined by random draw, with the First Round to Third Round seeded according to last season's league positions (higher 50% of finishers drawn v lower 50% of finishers, alternating which is at home with each tie drawn). Fixtures are played to a finish, with

extra time Overtime (OT) or extra time (ET) is an additional period of play to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played only if the game is required t ...

and then penalties used in the event of ties. The competition is open to all clubs in the

Scottish Premier League The Scottish Premier League (SPL) was the Scottish football league system, top-level league competition for professional Association football, football clubs in Scotland. The league was founded in 1998, when it broke away from the Scottish Foo ...

and

Scottish Football League The Scottish Football League (SFL) is a defunct league featuring professional and semi-professional football clubs mostly from Scotland.One club, Berwick Rangers, is based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is located approximately 4&nbs ...

. Clubs involved in European competitions are given a bye to the third round to avoid congestion of fixtures. *First round: The 30 sides from the previous season's Scottish Football League enter (including Dunfermline, promoted to the SPL). *Second round: The 15 winners of the First Round are joined by 7 of the 8 of last season's SPL sides not in Europe (including Hamilton, relegated to the First Division). *Third round: The 11 winners of the Second Round are joined by Kilmarnock plus the 4 SPL sides in Europe. *Quarter-finals: The 8 winners of the third round play. *Semi-finals: The 4 winners of the quarter-finals play. *Final: The 2 winners of the semi-finals play.

Adjustments from the previous editions

The Cup is now sponsored by the

Scottish Government The Scottish Government (, ) is the executive arm of the devolved government of Scotland. It was formed in 1999 as the Scottish Executive following the 1997 referendum on Scottish devolution, and is headquartered at St Andrew's House in ...

Schedule

*Round 1: Saturday 30 July *Round 2: Tuesday 23 & Wednesday 24 August *Round 3: Tuesday 20 & Wednesday 21 September *Quarter-finals: Tuesday 25 & Wednesday 26 October *Semi-finals: Saturday 28 & Sunday 29 January 2012,

Hampden Park Hampden Park ( ; Scottish Gaelic: ''Pàirc Hampden'') is a association football, football stadium in the Mount Florida area of Glasgow, Scotland, which is the national stadium of football in Scotland and home of the Scotland national football ...

, Glasgow *Final: Sunday 18 March,

, Glasgow

Fixtures and results

First round

The First round draw was conducted on Thursday 2 June 2011 at 2:15pm at Ravenscraig Sports Centre in

Motherwell Motherwell (, ) is a List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Shires of Scotland, Historically in the p ...

. All matches were played on Saturday 30 July 2011 at 15:00.

Second round

The Second round draw took place at 1:00pm on Tuesday 2 August at the Highland Football Academy,

Dingwall Dingwall (, ) is a town and a royal burgh in the Highland (council area), Highland council area of Scotland. It has a population of 5,491. It was an east-coast harbour that now lies inland. Dingwall Castle was once the biggest castle north ...

. The ties are due to be played on Tuesday 23/ Wednesday 24 August 2011.

Third round

The Third round draw was conducted on Monday 29 August. The top 5 teams of last years

will join the 11 winners from the second round. The 8 ties will be played on 20/21 September. Seeded Teams:

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

Dundee United Dundee United Football Club is a Scotland, Scottish professional association football, football club based in the city of Dundee. Formed in 1909, originally as Dundee Hibernian, the club changed to the present name in 1923. United are nickname ...

, Heart of Midlothian,

and Rangers and St Johnstone. Unseeded Teams:

Airdrie United Airdrieonians Football Club is a Scottish professional football team in Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, who are members of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) and play in the . They were formed in 2002 as Airdrie United Football Clu ...

, Ayr United, East Fife,

Falkirk Falkirk ( ; ; ) is a town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland, historically within the county of Stirlingshire. It lies in the Forth Valley, northwest of Edinburgh and northeast of Glasgow. Falkirk had a resident population of 32,422 at the ...

, Hibernian, Queen of the South, Ross County and St Mirren

Quarter-finals

The Quarter-finals draw was conducted on Thursday 22 September. The 4 ties will be played on 25/26 October.

Semi-finals

The draw for the semi-finals took place at Hampden Park on 1 November 2011 at 2pm. Celtic beat Falkirk 3–1, while Ayr United took on Kilmarnock in an historic Ayrshire derby. Kilmarnock won 1–0. The Ayrshire derby was the first such game to take place in such a late stage of a major tournament.

Final

References

External links

Official site

Results
Soccerway {{DEFAULTSORT:2011-12 Scottish League Cup Scottish League Cup seasons League Cup

Cup A cup is an open-top vessel (container) used to hold liquids for drinking, typically with a flattened hemispherical shape, and often with a capacity of about . Cups may be made of pottery (including porcelain), glass, metal, wood, stone, pol ...