Times Talker: Was Hearts' defeat to Brora Rangers the biggest upset in Scottish Cup history?

The Scottish Championship leaders were on the end of a 2-1 defeat against ring-rusty Highland League side Brora Rangers to crash out of the Scottish Cup.

Brora had not played since beating Camelon in the first round on January 11 and had only played three Highland League games in the past 12 months.

But they twice went ahead against a Hearts side who had finished runners-up in the competition in each of the past two years and are 16 points clear in the league.

Was last night's upset the biggest in Scottish Cup history? Two of our writers have had their say.

Aidan Smith believes there have been bigger upsets in the past...

A huge upset? Yes. The biggest in Scottish Cup history? I don’t think so. What must be remembered is that Brora Rangers are really a League Two outfit at least. The Highland League side run riot in their respective division and were only denied a place in Scotland’s fourth tier after the play-offs were scrapped last season due to the coronavirus pandemic.

I reckon if The Cattachs had been promoted they would be flying high in League Two and they would certainly be battling it out for the top spots in the division. That being said it is still an embarrassing result for Robbie Neilson’s Hearts. With strength and depth at their disposal the Jambos should have easily defeated Brora. Anything can happen in the cup as we all know, but this was simply an unacceptable defeat for the Tynecastle side.

Hearts may be top of the Scottish Championship but their style of football has not been great this season. They have a strong and talented group of players but they are yet to perform as a team. With this in mind I think they would have majorly struggled to survive in the Premiership had they still been in the top division this term. A huge summer awaits and it will be interesting to see how Hearts fare on their return to the Premiership next season.

Anyway, back to the biggest cup upset of all time. For me it still has to be Berwick Rangers against Rangers in 1967. The Glasgow giants went on to compete in the European Cup final later that year, yet they were knocked out by The Borderers in front of 13,365 at Shielfield Park thanks to Sammy Reid's first half goal. Celtic’s defeat to part-time Inverness in February 2000 must also be mentioned. Caley defeated the Hoops 1-3 at Parkhead and that loss spelled the end for John Barnes as Celtic manager.

James Cairney reckons last night's result was the biggest upset in Scottish Cup history...

This simply has to go down as the biggest Scottish Cup shock of all time. Never mind the 30 league places that separate Hearts and Brora Rangers in the pyramid – the real travesty here is that Robbie Neilson’s men somehow contrived to lose against players that had barely trained. 

The Highland League outfit were last in action on 11 January, when a 2-1 win over Camelon Juniors booked their passage to the second round of the Cup. The men from the capital, meanwhile, played 11 times in that same period. 

Not only that, but you can count the number of training sessions Brora have had since that victory on one hand, while Hearts – the club with the fourth biggest budget in Scotland, I might add – weren’t affected by the lower league shutdown. 

For me, this is what separates this upset from other famous shocks. When Clyde stunned Celtic to win 2-1 back in 2006, they were at least playing against players that were fit. The same can be said of Inverness’ famous triumph over the same opponents in 2000. 

Those defeats were chastening, sure, but at least they were understandable. The Glasgow giants had an off-day while the opposition players put in the biggest 90-minute shift of their lives. It happens. 

But for a squad littered with current internationalists, with players who earn more in a month than the entire Brora team do in a year, to come up short against part-time opposition who had barely kicked a ball in two months? That’s truly remarkable – but for all the wrong reasons.