The 2015 Scottish Cup Final was the 130th final of the

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,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 ...

competition in Scotland. The match took place at

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 ...

on 30 May 2015 and was contested by

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 ...

and

Inverness Caledonian Thistle Inverness Caledonian Thistle Football Club, commonly known as Caley Thistle, Inverness CT or just Inverness, is a professional football club based in Inverness, Scotland. The team competes in , the third tier of the Scottish Professional Footba ...

. Ten-man Inverness won the final 2–1 thanks to a late James Vincent goal. Inverness subsequently entered the

2015–16 UEFA Europa League The 2015–16 UEFA Europa League was the 45th season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the seventh season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League. The final was played between Liverpoo ...

in the

Second qualifying round The second (symbol: s) is a unit of time derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes, and finally to 60 seconds each (24 × 60 × 60 = 86400). The current and formal definition in the International System of Un ...

. As Inverness also finished 3rd in the

2014–15 Scottish Premiership The 2014–15 Scottish Premiership was the second season of the Scottish Premiership, the highest division of Scottish football. The season began on 9 August 2014 and ended on the 31 May 2015. Celtic were the defending champions. Twelve teams ...

, this enabled

St Johnstone St Johnstone Football Club is a professional association football club in Perth, Scotland. The team competes in the , the second division of Scottish football. The club's name is derived from St John's Toun (or Saint Johnstoun)—an old name o ...

to claim the final

slot (in previous years this place would have gone to Falkirk as runners-up, as it had in

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

, but the rules were changed from 2015 onwards).

Background

This was Falkirk's fifth Scottish Cup Final, having previously won twice (

1913 Events January * January – Joseph Stalin travels to Vienna to research his ''Marxism and the National Question''. This means that, during this month, Stalin, Hitler, Trotsky and Tito are all living in the city. * January 3 &ndash ...

against

Raith Rovers Raith Rovers Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the town of Kirkcaldy, Fife. The club was founded in 1883 and currently competes in the as a member of the Scottish Professional Football League. The club has won f ...

and

1957 Events January * January 1 – The Saarland joins West Germany. * January 3 – Hamilton Watch Company introduces the first electric watch. * January 5 – South African player Russell Endean becomes the first batsman to be Dismissal (cricke ...

against

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 ...

) and lost twice (

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

against Kilmarnock and

against

Rangers A ranger is typically someone in a law enforcement or military/paramilitary role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called "ranging" or "scouting". The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with prot ...

). It was Inverness' first appearance in the final, their best performances being reaching the semi-final in

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

and

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

, losing to

Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...

and

Dunfermline Athletic Dunfermline Athletic Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the city of Dunfermline, Fife. Founded in 1885, the club currently compete in the after winning the 2022–23 Scottish League One title. Dunfermline play at ...

respectively.

Route to the final

Falkirk

Falkirk, of the

Scottish Championship The Scottish Championship known as the William Hill (bookmaker), William Hill Championship for sponsorship reasons, is the second tier of the Scottish Professional Football League, the league competition for men's professional association footb ...

, entered the competition in the Fourth Round. They began their campaign against

Cowdenbeath Cowdenbeath () is a town and burgh in west Fife, Scotland. It is north-east of Dunfermline and north of the capital, Edinburgh. The town grew up around the extensive coalfields of the area and became a police burgh in 1890. According to a 20 ...

at the

Falkirk Stadium The Falkirk Stadium is an all-seater association football, football stadium in Falkirk, central Scotland, which is the home ground of Scottish Premiership club Falkirk F.C., Falkirk and Lowland Football League club East Stirlingshire F.C., East ...

. Craig Sibbald scored the goal that sealed the Bairns' passage into the next round. They then took on

Brechin City Brechin City Football Club is a Scottish football club based in the townDespite the name of the football club, Brechin is not an official city. Brechin was historically known as a city because it has a cathedral. of Brechin in Angus. The club w ...

, winning 2–1 courtesy of goals from

David McCracken David McCracken (born 16 October 1981) is a Scottish football player and coach, whose last role was as co-manager of Falkirk between 2019 and 2021. McCracken, who played as a central defender, was a Scotland under-21 internationalist, having ma ...

and David Smith. In the quarter-final Falkirk were drawn against Queen of the South. Craig Sibbald's goal sealed a 1–0 victory. In the semi-final at

on 18 April, Falkirk faced Hibernian. A late header from Sibbald sent Falkirk to their first Scottish Cup final since

Inverness Caledonian Thistle

Inverness, of the

Scottish Premiership The Scottish Premiership, also known as the William Hill (bookmaker), William Hill Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Scotland and the highest level of the Scottish football league system. Th ...

also entered the competition in the Fourth Round, coming from a goal down away at St Mirren to earn a replay which was comfortably won 4–0. In the Fifth Round, ''Caley'' eased their way past another Premiership side in

Partick Thistle Partick Thistle Football Club are a professional association football, football club from Glasgow, Scotland and currently plays in the . Despite their name, the club are based at Firhill Stadium in the Maryhill area of the city, and have not ...

at Firhill, winning 2–1 to earn a berth in the quarter-finals. On this occasion they were given a home tie against Championship club

, who were dispatched by a single goal at the

Caledonian Stadium Caledonian Stadium is a football ground in the Longman area of Inverness, Scotland, near the banks of the Moray Firth. It hosts home matches of Scottish League One club Inverness Caledonian Thistle. History Inverness Caledonian Thistle was fo ...

. This set up a semi-final with favourites

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 ...

. Despite going into the tie as underdogs and falling behind to an early strike by

Virgil van Dijk Virgil van Dijk (; born 8 July 1991) is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for and captains both club Liverpool and the Netherlands national team. Widely regarded as one of the best defenders of his generation and ...

, Inverness stunned the ''Hoops'' by winning 3–2 after extra-time courtesy of a late David Raven goal to book their place in the final for the first time.

Pre-match

The match was shown live on

BBC Scotland BBC Scotland is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcaster in Scotland. Its headquarters are in Glasgow, employing approximately 1,250 staff as of 2017, to produce 15,000 hours of television and radio programming per year. BBC Scotla ...

and on

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British broadcasting of sports events, subscription sports channels operated by the satellite television, satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television ...

Match

Summary

Inverness took the lead in the 38th minute when Marley Watkins ran onto an Aaron Doran pass to round goalkeeper Jamie MacDonald and slot low into the net.

Carl Tremarco Carl Philip Tremarco (born 11 October 1985) is an English retired professional footballer who played as a left-back. He was most recently the assistant head coach of Ross County, leaving that role in June 2025. Career Tremarco began his career ...

was sent off for Inverness in the 75th minute for bringing down Blair Alston as the last man. Falkirk leveled the game with ten minutes to go when Peter Grant headed to the net at the back post after a free-kick by Blair Alston on the left of the penalty area. With four minutes to go Inverness got the winning goal when James Vincent finished from six yards out after the goalkeeper had parried out a low shot from Watkins.

Details

Match rules * 90 minutes * 30 minutes of extra time if necessary * Penalty shoot-out if scores still level * Seven named substitutes * Maximum of three substitutions

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Scottish Cup Final 2015

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

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Falkirk F.C. matches 2010s in Glasgow Inverness Caledonian Thistle F.C. matches May 2015 sports events in the United Kingdom