The 2021 Scottish Cup final was the 136th final of the

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,2020–21 Scottish Cup, the most prestigious knockout

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 was played on 22 May 2021 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 ...

, Glasgow. St Johnstone completed a cup double by winning it.

Route to the final

St Johnstone

As a Premiership club, St Johnstone entered the competition in the third round (last 32). Their first opponent was a Tayside derby at Dens Park against

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

side

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 ...

. An early goal from Guy Melamed and Zander Clark saving a penalty gave Saints a 1-0 win. In the fourth round they were drawn against League One club Clyde at home. Early goals from Melamed and Michael O'Halloran gave Saints a comfortable 2–0 win. The quarter-final saw the team travel to

Ibrox Stadium Ibrox Stadium is a football stadium on the south side of the River Clyde in the Ibrox area of Glasgow, Scotland. The home of Scottish Premiership team Rangers, Ibrox is the third-largest football stadium in Scotland, with an all-seated ca ...

for a match against league champions Rangers. A goalless 90 minutes forced the match into extra-time. James Tavernier appeared to have won the tie for Rangers with a goal late in the second half of extra time, but St Johnstone forced a

penalty shootout The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

by equalising during added-on time at the end of extra time. Their goal was scored after a header by

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

Clark, who had come forward for a corner kick, was redirected into the goal by striker Chris Kane. Clark then saved two Rangers penalties in the shootout, which Saints won 4–2. St Johnstone were then paired with Premiership club St Mirren in the semi-finals. After a goalless first half, Chris Kane and a Glenn Middleton free-kick gave the Perth side a 2–0 lead midway through the second half. Despite a header from Conor McCarthy pulling a goal back for the Paisley side, St Johnstone held on to win 2–1.

Hibernian

As another Premiership side, Hibernian started in the third round of the Scottish Cup. In that round they played at

side Queen of the South. Goals from Christian Doidge (2) and Martin Boyle gave Hibs a 3–1 victory, with James Maxwell scoring a consolation goal for Queens. Hibs were drawn away again in the fourth round, against League Two side

Stranraer Stranraer ( , in Scotland also ; ), also known as The Toon or The Cleyhole, is a town in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, on Loch Ryan and the northern side of the isthmus joining the Rhins of Galloway to the mainland. Stranraer is Dumfries ...

. Goals from Doidge, Kevin Nisbet and Boyle (2) gave Hibs a 4–0 victory The quarter finals had Hibernian drawn at home ( Easter Road) with Premiership side

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 ...

. Second half goals from Doidge and Jackson Irvine gave Hibs a 2–0 lead, but late goals by Ricki Lamie and Tony Watt forced extra time. The additional period finished goalless, forcing a penalty shootout that Hibs won 4–2. This meant they took on Dundee United in the semi-final at

. Goals from Nisbet and Doidge, the latter of which was scored from an offside position, gave Hibs a 2–0 win.

Background

Hosting

The final had been originally scheduled for 8 May 2021, but was delayed to 22 May due to rescheduling of earlier rounds caused by the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. The pandemic and building works ahead of the Euro 2020 tournament led to the Scottish FA initially stating that spectators would not be allowed into Hampden, control of which is being passed to

UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

on 14 May for Euro 2020.

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 ...

chairman Dave Cormack told

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 ...

on 10 May that he would make their

Pittodrie Stadium Pittodrie Stadium, commonly referred to as Pittodrie, from which the surrounding residential area has taken its name, is an all-seater stadium in Aberdeen, Scotland. Used primarily for Association football, football, it has been the home ground o ...

available for the final, as it could admit at least 500 fans. Rangers,

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 ...

, Hearts and the

Scottish Rugby Union The Scottish Rugby Union (SRU; ) is the Sport governing body, governing body of rugby union in Scotland. Now marketed as Scottish Rugby, it is the second-oldest Rugby Union, having been founded in 1873. The SRU oversees the national league sys ...

had earlier rejected approaches from the Scottish FA for the use of their stadiums. On 11 May it was reported that UEFA had accepted a request from the Scottish FA to admit fans to Hampden.

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 ...

rules regarding the pandemic for areas in Level 2 mean that permission would be needed for any crowd in excess of 500. 600 fans were initially permitted, but this decision was reversed after the government decided to keep Glasgow in Level 3.

European place

St Johnstone entered the third qualifying round of the 2021–22 UEFA Europa League.

Previous appearances

Going into the 2021 final, St Johnstone had won the Scottish Cup once in their only previous appearance in a final (

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

). Hibernian had won the Scottish Cup three times from 14 appearances in the final. Their most recent victory and appearance in the final was in

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

. It was the first meeting of the clubs in a Scottish Cup Final.

Match

Summary

In the 32nd minute David Wotherspoon crossed from the left to the far post where Shaun Rooney headed to the left corner of the net from five yards out for the only goal of the match. With fifteen minutes to go Hibernian's Paul McGinn brought down Chris Kane in the penalty area, but goalkeeper Matt Macey saved the penalty from Glenn Middleton and the follow-up from Chris Kane.

Details

Match rules * 90 minutes * 30 minutes of extra time if necessary * Penalty shoot-out if scores still level * Nine named substitutes * Maximum of five substitutions in normal time (a sixth substitute is permitted in extra time)

Media coverage

and Premier Sports obtained the rights to broadcast the final, in what is the third season of a six-year deal in the United Kingdom to broadcast Scottish Cup matches.

References

External links

Man of the match
{{St Johnstone F.C. matches

Final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

Scottish Cup finals Scottish Cup Final Scottish Cup Final 2021 Scottish Cup Final 2021 2020s in Glasgow