Celtic vs Rangers is the contest for this year’s Betfred Cup final for the first time in eight years.
And, predictably, that’s brought about the highly-popular theory that the winner will gain some form of psychological advantage in the title race. Well, in the words of a particularly popular Scottish character – “birthday caird p***”.
You can’t be blamed if you’ve forgotten how this works. It’s been that long since Rangers have been challenging us for anything. However, there’s always been this idea that the winner of the League Cup gains this mythical advantage.
Yet, if you’re to look back throughout history, there have been plenty of occasions where the winner doesn’t go on to win the league title. Just cast your mind back to when we last beat Rangers in this tournament on cup-final day.
Remember Darren O’Dea and Aiden McGeady goals secured a priceless 2-0 win for Gordon Strachan’s side against Walter Smith’s? Unfortunately, Rangers went on to win the league, with next to no momentum taken from the cup win. In fact, after beating Rangers in that contest back in 2009, we drew our next game against Dundee United 2-2.
Winning the League Cup doesn’t mean you’re favourites for league success
Even the last cup final between the two sides in 2011 which Rangers won. Yes, Rangers did win the league, but only after Celtic let it slip in the final few matchdays after controlling much of the title-race after that 2-1 Hampden defeat.
In 2002-03, when Rangers again beat us 2-1, they only went on to win the title on goal difference. You can hardly say the League Cup win played a huge part in getting them over the line.
The League Cup final is a great day for the supporters. If your team wins it, even better. It makes for a special occasion, but it has absolutely no relevance to the title-race.
You can even flip it. When we lost 2-1 back in 2011, we came into it on the back of beating Rangers at Ibrox and Celtic Park (x2). Their Hampden success came totally out of the blue. Surely, going by the logic that those wins should’ve set us up nicely, we shouldn’t have lost that contest at Hampden?
There’s nothing to stop the winner on December 8th from losing their next match. In fact, history shows that quick slip-ups happen pretty regularly. Be it down to complacency or anything else, teams don’t always build on their Betfred Cup success.
Winning against Rangers to make it 10 consecutive domestic trophies for the club would be beautiful. But would it mean anything for the title race? Absolutely zilch.
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