Dumbarton

Five Betfred Cup group games will be shown live on BT Sport, two of them involving Hearts.

The first game to be screened will be Kilmarnock v St Mirren on Friday 13 July. Next up is Raith Rovers v Hearts on 21 July, with the game taking place at East Fife’s Bayview due to work at Stark’s Park.

Dundee v Dunfermline on 22 July is also live, as is Clyde v Motherwell on 28 July and Hearts’ v Inverness Caledonian Thistle the following day.

The Irn-Bru Cup will become a complete British and Irish affair after Uefa gave the SPFL approval
to include two teams from England’s Vanarama National League in next season’s knockout competition.

In deciding to say his farewells to Aberdeen, Daniel Harvie knows he may have to take a step back. But the hope is that it will afford him the platform to take two steps forward.

Hearts will be up against Tynecastle legend John Robertson in next season’s Betfred Cup after the draw for the group stage paired them with Inverness Caledonian Thistle.

Alloa left it late but they booked their place in the Championship with a 2-0 Play-Off final second leg success over a host Dumbarton side who led 1-0 after Wednesday night’s first meeting.

Dumbarton withstood a second-half bombardment by Arbroath to secure their place in the Championship play-off final against Alloa.

The first end-of-season managerial change has happened quickly, Morton and Jim Duffy parting company in the wake of Saturday’s 3-0 home defeat by Inverness Caledonian Thistle.

Dunfermline will go into their play-off encounter against Dundee United with burgeoning belief and the endorsement of Sir Alex Ferguson after sealing fourth place in the Championship with an assured victory over Dumbarton.

Falkirk eased to victory with a powerful second-half display as Dumbarton ran out of steam in their final home league fixture of the season, though they will be back at the Rock as they seek to retain their Championship status via the play-offs.

A Nathan Austin hat-trick helped resurgent Caley Thistle rout the struggling Sons in their biggest win of the season.

Second-bottom Dumbarton had to take the lead three times before they held on for victory and kept Dundee United sweating over a promotion play-off spot.

Dundee United brought a timely end to their Tannadice woes as they celebrated their first home league victory in three trying months. Csaba Laszlo’s side finally savoured that winning home feeling for the first time since sweeping past relegated Brechin 4-1 back on 2 January to breathe new life into their play-off hopes.

Second top Livingston strolled to a 3-0 win against a Dumbarton side destined to finish second bottom.

St Mirren took another step closer to a top-flight return as Dumbarton were left staring at the prospect of the play-offs as their route to Championship survival.

There was an element of Inverness Caley Thistle’s last-gasp victory over Dumbarton in the Irn Bru Cup final on Saturday that was down to following the road less travelled. Not many folk would care to make the testing car journey from the Highland capital to York and then back to South Queensferry as manager John Robertson did over the course of Friday and the early hours of the following morning. However, it proved ultimately to be a trophy-winning gamble.

Cup competitions have presented Inverness Caley Thistle with many a memorable moment in their short history and yesterday another was added to their folklore as a last-gasp goal from Carl Tremarco delivered them victory in the Irn-Bru Cup final at McDiarmid Park. As a game it conspicuously lacked the fizz associated with the competition sponsors, but for Tremarco who was sent-off during the Highland side’s 2015 Scottish Cup final win over Falkirk, it provided a moment of sublime redemption.

Dumbarton manager Stephen Aitken knows that facing Inverness Caledonian Thistle in today’s Irn-Bru Cup final at St Johnstone’s McDiarmid Park is a big game because his assistant Ian Durrant is getting butterflies in his stomach at the prospect.

Dumbarton earned their second win of the week over doomed Brechin to give themselves a boost ahead of Saturday’s Challenge Cup final.