Scottish Professional Football League

League Cup

Group C

Tuesday 25th July 2023

Kick Off 19.45 On Time!

Cove Rangers 0 Livingston 5, attendance 683

44’ 0-1

55’ 0-2

58’ 0-3

81’ 0-4

90’ + 2, 0-5

@ Balmoral Stadium

Wellington Circle Roundabout

Aberdeen

AB10 1ZT

£12 Admission

£3 Programme, 40 pages.

Tonight’s game meant I once again completed seeing a game on every ground in the Scottish Football League. It seems an age ago now, that I first achieved this when I saw a game at Forfar Athletic back in 1995. Wow, where have those 28 years gone?!

The day before visiting Forfar, I had been to see Cove Rangers play at home, which in those days was at their former Allan Park ground, which they left in 2015 and when they were still members of the Highland League. They moved here to the newly constructed Balmoral Stadium in 2018 and in 2019 gained promotion into the Scottish League, which was then followed by back to back promotions. It is fair to say the new stadium suits their needs, sensibly, for these parts, having a synthetic pitch, but I’d be surprised if it ever got on anyone’s ‘favourite grounds’ list. It is made up of five ‘temporary’ kit stands as well as the main stand, which is the only permanent structure and that only has just over 300 seats! Total capacity here is listed as 2,391.

The match was Championship versus Premiership as far as league placings go, but this was a group match in the League Cup, where there are groups of five teams and they play each other once, with luck of the draw deciding who you get home or away. Drawn games are decided by a penalty shoot out, where the winner gets an extra point. These two were unbeaten, Cove having beaten Brechin City and Clyde in their games, whilst Livingston had drawn with Hamilton Academical (but lost on penalties) and beaten Brechin City.

The first half was pretty even and had very few clear cut chances. Livingston broke the deadlock in the dying seconds of the half when a diagonal free kick was headed back across the six yard box and re-directed back into the far corner. The second goal was going to be crucial as far as the final outcome went. When it went the way of the visitors, ten minutes into the second half, it seemed to totally deflate Cove. Livingston totally overran them for the remainder of the game and it was a bit of a surprise that they only added three more goals, such was their dominance. Pick of the bunch was goal number four, curled into the top corner from 25 yards by Stephen Kelly.