Luke McCowan at Ibrox. Scottish Cup quarter final on Sunday 8 March 2026. Photograph by Vagelis Georgariou
HIGHLAND TOFFEE – 5.5/10 – Luke didn’t get much of a Luke-in for his torrid time on the park. Lukeing for too much time on the ball, he was guilty of being mugged in possession a couple of times that required bailing-out. He did toil away in that Calmac role but only succeeded in (hopefully) making Calmac’s perennial detractors acutely aware of how much we miss the skipper’s expertise and experience in setting tempo and midfield foundations with clever movement and short, sharp passing; which Luke was unable to emulate.
Reo Hatate at Ibrox. Scottish Cup quarter final on Sunday 8 March 2026. Photograph by Vagelis Georgariou
HAKUNA HATATE – 7.5/10 – Well, one of the last players on the bingo card for 120 minutes of slog and grit from this season, was Reo. But there he was – swamped, roughed, abused, but ultimately sticking it right up the silenced Zombies with a delicious ‘Whit?’ penalty celebration. This was the scrapping, footballing, matchwinning Reo Hatate of terrace song who seemed long lost and never more to be seen. Will he now prove to be the title run-in catalyst, much as Jamesy was two seasons ago?
Daizen Maeda celebrates as Benjamin chases. Scottish Cup quarter final on Sunday 8 March 2026. Photograph by Vagelis Georgariou
NEGAN – 5/10 – Well, you know he’s always going to be hanging around somewhere. Then again, Lord Lucan’s rumoured to be doing so too, but just more visibly than Negan…catches the boss between a rock and a hard place as to maintain his participation but there’s that habit of letting the ball bounce off him into the opponents net…Shocking thing today, and conversely his one redeeming contribution, was popping up in our six-yard box to hook a certainty away off the line.
Yang at Ibrox. Scottish Cup quarter final on Sunday 8 March 2026. Photograph by Vagelis Georgariou
YING – 5.5/10 – Well, no faulting the on and off (‘her’, and form…) Korean Jamesy for effort and commitment. Just a shame that we still don’t really know – on appearance 101 – if he’s capable of adding more flair to the dig. In his defence, today was all about hard graft. Which he gave.
Daizen scores before Andrew Dallas rules it out for a fake offside. Scottish Cup quarter final on Sunday 8 March 2026. Photograph by Vagelis Georgariou
LORD KATSUMOTO – 7.5/10 – Daizen on the hunt is a sight to behold. Bizarrely out of synch in the frozen North, Wednesday night, we had Mad Man Maeda of old charging down the Zombies and even being denied a long overdue goal for… ‘Reasons’, explained by VAR lines drawn on an Etch-A-Sketch (That was peak 70s tech, kids). On what may be his final visit to a favourite killing-field, he just emphasised that he’s a relentless bona fide ‘Skelper of some renown.
TUTANKHAMUN – 4/10 – Nah. The classic Mikey J Mordor outing. A lot of promise and expectation but ultimately, frustration. Better as an impact sub.
The Celtic support at Ibrox after Celtic won the Scottish Cup quarter final on Sunday 8 March 2026. Photograph by Vagelis Georgariou
