Rangers are chasing their 33rd Scottish Cup victory, which would put them one behind Celtic’s record 34, and Falkirk are after their third.

Rangers are also after an 18th domestic double, their 110th domestic trophy, while also trying to retain the cup they won last year by beating Queen of the South.

Walter Smith is going for his 17th trophy as Rangers manager, and if he is successful, it would also be he 4th domestic double.

There are 6 players on top of the goalscoring charts for this year’s competition, two playing today, the players with 3 goals:
Scott Dalziel (Stenhousemuir)
Scott Arfield (Falkirk)
Kenny Miller (Rangers)
Ian Diack (Brechin City)
Simon Lynch (Airdre United)
Chris Swailes (Hamilton)

This is the 17th Scottish Cup tie between the two sides, with Rangers winning 12, drawing 3 and only losing 1 of the previous 16.

Falkirk won a Fourth Round replay in 1927, but have lost to Rangers the next 7 times the two have been drawn together, the last in 1999.

As noted in a previous blog post, the previous 3 times when Rangers beat St Mirren in the semi-final, they have went on to lose the final…

Last year’s title was won at Tannadice, by Celtic, and twice during Rangers’ nine in a row run did they win the league at Tannadice - in 1990 and the last in 1998 - so bizarrely the Dundee United fans are rather used to seeing the league won there, although the one title they did win themselves back in 1983, they won just down the street at Dens Park.

Rangers have had the better of the tie both in Glasgow and in Dundee, altough they haven’t won in Dundee since 2006 - United have won only 19 of the 82 ties in Dundee, and 12 of the 81 in Glasgow.

The games aren’t generally high scoring affairs, with 439 goals in the 163 games to-date giving a 2.7 average, and high scoring games aren’t commonplace.

Rangers have won by 6-1 (2001), 5-0 (1932) and 5-1 (1971) in Dundee, and winning 5-0 three times in Glasgow, the last in 2007.

Dundee United on the other hand have only twice won by three goals, a 3-0 in Dundee in 1978 and a 3-0 at Ibrox in 1993.

There have been 40 draws between the two sides in the League, but not many high score draws, the 3-3 draw this year at Ibrox being the highest in Glasgow, while 3-3 draws in both 2004 and 2008 in Dundee being the only times this has happened too.

Celtic home record in this tie if very one sided, having won 84 of the 138 home games until now, losing only 19 with 35 draws - although it was only two years ago, in April 2007 when Hearts last won in Glasgow - which is also their last win in the tie too.

The record in Edinburgh is also sided towards Celtic, but a lot closer - Celtic have 59 wins to Hearts 48, and 30 draws.

With 812 goals in the 275 games to date, this game comes in with just under a 3 goal a game average.

Celtic have had some good wins over Hearts at Parkhead, winning 6-0 twice (1908, 1981) and winning 6-1 and also 5-0 four times - Hearts best win in Glasgow was a 5-0 victory back in September 1895!

Over in Edinburgh, Hearts biggest margin of victory was a 4-0 win, while Celtic have won 5-1 and 5-1 (twice) away from home.

On 14th March 1958, at Tynecastle, the game between the two saw 8 goals in a 5-3 win for Hearts - this is the highest scoring game between the two sides.

Not many high scoring draws between the two, with 2-2 being the highest in Glasgow, and a 3-3 draw in 1907 being the highest in Edinburgh.

Ayr United are trying to get back into the First Division after five years in the Second Division since there relegation after the 2003-04 season.

Airdrie United on the other hand, are playing in their third First Division playoff final in a row - having been relegated losing the final to Stirling Albion in 2006-07, and failing to go up last season when Clyde retained their First Division status by beating them in the final - only then to be promoted by way of Gretna’s demise!

Airdrieonians were also denied promotion to the Premier League in 1996-97 by way of the short-lived playoff systems, when they lost over two legs to Hibs - those playoffs lasted for three years and saw one team (Dundee United) promoted while the other two times they Premier League team won over the two legs.

Cowdenbeath were relegated from the Second Division by way of the playoffs last season, and are aiming to bounce straight back - Stenhousemuir have been in the Third Division for three seasons, and failed to gain promotion by way of the playoffs in 2005-06 when they finished third but were knocked out in the first round.

This is the fourth season of the new playoffs, and while there are both supporters and detractors, there is no doubt that they will mean something for all four of these teams.

Playoffs are nothing new in Scottish football, given that the first ever season in 1890-91 went to a playoff for the league title - but since Dumbarton and Rangers drew 2-2 in the playoff, it was decided that the league should be shared.

Playoffs were also used in 1897-98, 1899-00 and 1905-06 to settle relegation from the First Division but I guess the most important playoff ever (to-date) was when Celtic won the 1904-05 league title, by beating Rangers in a playoff 2-1 - can you imagine if the teams finish even this season on points and the league suggested a playoff?

Celtic have had the better of the clash both home and away, winning 154 times, drawing 63 times and only losing 49 times in the previous meetings.

Hibs have won one game against Celtic in each of the last three seasons, including this season - the last time they won two games against Celtic in a season was the 1992-93 season and since the 1975-76 season, where the teams play each other 4 times a year, there has never been a season when all home games have been won (which is the case so far this season).

Hibernian’s biggest win over Celtic at home is 4-1, which they’ve done twice - in the 1902/03 season, they won 4-0 in Glasgow.

Celtic have had some high scoring wins in Edinburgh, winning 6-0, 5-0 (three times), and also 4-0 (five times).

At home, Celtic have scored 4 goals or more in 29 games - winning 6-0 three times, and hitting 7 against them in the highest scoring game between the two in the 1919/20 season, with a 7-3 win.

There has also been a 5-4 Celtic home win, and the highest scoring draw was a 4-4 in Edinburgh in January 1926.

Rangers have the edge both home and away in this fixture, winning 76 at home against 23 loses (27 draws) and also away from home with 43 wins and only 38 loses (47 draws) - in total it’s 119 wins, 74 draws and 61 loses so far for the Glasgow team.

The games recently have went Rangers way, as one season apart (2005-06) Rangers have had the better of Aberdeen for most of the last 20 years - in 1987-88 Aberdeen took 3 of the 4 games.

The games are relatively high scoring, with an average of 2.66 goals a game - 680 goals in the 254 games so far - with some high scoring games: Rangers have won 4-0 at home (4 times), as well as 6-2, 5-1 and 5-2, away from home they have won 5-0 and 5-1.

Aberdeen on the other hand have also had some high scoring victories, winning 6-1, 5-1 and 4-0 (three times) in Aberdeen, while having twice won 4-2 in Glasgow.

The draws haven’t been that high scoring, with the 74 draws broken down: twenty six 0-0 draws, thirty 1-1 draws, sixteen 2-2 draws and only two 3-3 draws.

With two drawn games already this season, the odds aren’t on another draw - there has never been a season where the two teams have drawn 3 times in the 4 games against each other.

This also keeps alive the sequence of 15 different winners of the Third Division, since it’s inception 15 seasons ago in 1994/95.

9 teams have won multiple promotions to the Second Division, but strangely no team has won the division twice - Forfar Athletic have won promotion three times - bizarrely winning promotion in three different positions (1st, 2nd and 3rd).

24 teams in total have played in the Third Division, the only two who have played in all 15 seasons are Albion Rovers and East Stirlingshire - Montrose have played in 14, Queen’s Park 12, and Cowdenbeath 11 - Elgin City (9 seasons) and Annan Athletic (1 season) have played in every season since their inception into the league system.

East Stirlingshire have never finished higher than their 3rd place finish this season, and have a chance for their first promotion since 1979/80 - they famously finished last in the division for 5 straight seasons (2002/03 to 2006/07) and were threatened with expulsion from the division if they did so again the following season!

Four teams have been promoted in the only seasons they have played in the division, with Livingston, Hamilton and Greenock Morton winning the league in their only season - Stranraer have played in the division twice, winning it in 2003/04 and being promoted (after Gretna’s demise) as runners-up in 2007/08.

Hibernian have won at least one game against Rangers in each of the last three seasons, having not taken a point off them for the three seasons before that.

Hibs have not had the better league record in meetings between the two teams since the 1989/90 season when they won 2, lost 1 and drew one - and haven’t gone undefeated against Rangers since the last time they only met twice, back in 1974/75.

There have been 764 goals in the games between the two, an average of over 2.8 goals a game, with the Rangers 10-0 win against Hibernian in 1898 they highest scoring game - they have also won 7-0 (twice), 6-0 (twice), 6-1 and 5-0 (both home and away)!

Hibs biggest win away from home was 5-2 (in 1902) and won 5-0 at home in January 1912 - the highest scoring draw was 3-3 in April 2007.

Celtic have had the better of Dundee Utd, both home and away, and haven’t lost to United since August 1999!

That’s 32 games with a win for United, during which Celtic won 21 games in a row between 1999 and late 2005.

This season there have been 3 draws between the two sides, and unless Celtic win, United will have there first season without a loss (when they’ve been in the same league!) since 1985/86.

United haven’t won at Celtic in the league since 26th December 1992, and with Celtic fighting to go back to the top of the league, the odds aren’t on anything but a Celtic win…

Before this season, Caley and the Accies had never met in the League, having missed each other due to promotion/relegation similarities over the seasons.

This will be the third game in Inverness, because of the way the SPL post-split fixtures came out, and Inverness have still to win against Hamilton.

The games have been low scoring (two 1-0 victories for Hamilton, and a 1-1 draw), so expecting a lot of goals might be out the question…