The 2015–16 Scottish League Cup was the 70th season of Scotland's second-most prestigious football knockout competition. It is also known as The Scottish League Cup presented by Utilita for sponsorship reasons.
Ross County defeated Hibernian 2–1 in the final on 13 March.
This was Ross County's second major trophy final ever, having previously lost the 2010 Scottish Cup Final, and their first major Scottish honour.
Despite losing this final, Hibs would recover from the blow and end up winning the Scottish Cup two months later, ending a 114-year drought.
This edition of the tournament also marked the first time in the competition's history in which there were six different champions in the most recent six editions, with Celtic, Aberdeen, St. Mirren, Kilmarnock and Rangers having been the five previous champions.
Format The competition is a single elimination knock-out competition. In each round, fixtures are determined by random draw, with the first to third rounds seeded according to last season's league positions (higher 50% of finishers drawn v lower 50% of finishers, alternating which is at home with each tie drawn).
Fixtures are played to a finish, with extra time and then penalties used in the event of draws. The competition is open to all clubs in the Scottish Professional Football League. Clubs involved in European competitions are given a bye to the third round to avoid congestion of fixtures.
Qualified teams
The following teams qualified and competed in the 2015–16 Scottish League Cup.
Scottish Premiership teams There are 12 teams from the 2014–15 Scottish Premiership.
Aberdeen Celtic Dundee Dundee United Hamilton Academical Inverness CT Kilmarnock Motherwell Partick Thistle Ross County St Johnstone St Mirren
Scottish Championship teams There are 10 teams from the 2014–15 Scottish Championship.
Alloa Athletic Cowdenbeath Dumbarton Falkirk Heart of Midlothian Hibernian Livingston Queen of the South Raith Rovers Rangers
Scottish League One teams There are 10 teams from the 2014–15 Scottish League One.
Airdrieonians Ayr United Brechin City Dunfermline Athletic Forfar Athletic Greenock Morton Peterhead Stenhousemuir Stirling Albion Stranraer
Scottish League Two teams There are 10 teams from the 2014–15 Scottish League Two.
Albion Rovers Annan Athletic Arbroath Berwick Rangers Clyde East Fife East Stirlingshire Elgin City Montrose Queen's Park
First round
The first round draw took place on Monday 6 July 2015 at 2:30pm BST at the Hampden Park Stadium. The 30 clubs that participated in the Championship, League One and League Two in the 2014–15 season entered the competition at this stage. The 12 clubs that participated in the 2014–15 Scottish Premiership received a bye.
Draw and Seeding
Pot 1Pot 2Scottish Championship: 01. Heart of Midlothian 02. Hibernian 03. Rangers 04. Queen of the South 05. Falkirk 06. Raith Rovers 07. Dumbarton 08. Livingston 09. Alloa Athletic 10. Cowdenbeath
Scottish League One: 11. Greenock Morton 12. Stranraer 13. Forfar Athletic 14. Brechin City 15. AirdrieoniansScottish League One: 16. Peterhead 17. Dunfermline Athletic 18. Ayr United 19. Stenhousemuir 20. Stirling Albion
Scottish League Two: 21. Albion Rovers 22. Queen's Park 23. Arbroath 24. East Fife 25. Annan Athletic 26. Clyde 27. Elgin City 28. Berwick Rangers 29. East Stirlingshire 30. Montrose
Matches
Second round
The second round draw took place on Monday 3 August 2015 at 2:30pm BST at the Hampden Park Stadium. The clubs that finished in the bottom 7 places of last season's Premiership entered at this stage joining the 15 first round winners.
Draw and Seeding Pot 1Pot 2Scottish Premiership: 01. Dundee 02. Hamilton Academical 03. Partick Thistle 04. Ross County 05. Kilmarnock 06. Motherwell 07. St Mirren
Scottish Championship: 08. Heart of Midlothian 09. Hibernian 10. Rangers 11. Queen of the SouthScottish Championship: 12. Falkirk 13. Raith Rovers 14. Livingston
Scottish League One: 15. Greenock Morton 16. Stranraer 17. Forfar Athletic 18. Airdrieonians 19. Dunfermline Athletic 20. Ayr United
Scottish League Two: 21. East Fife 22. Berwick Rangers
Matches
Third round The third round draw took place on Thursday 27 August 2015 at 2:30pm BST at the Hampden Park Stadium. The 4 clubs that participated in the 2014–15 Scottish Premiership season and qualified for European competition entered the competition at this stage along with Dundee United, the highest placed non-Europe qualifying side.
Draw and Seeding Pot 1Pot 2Scottish Premiership: 01. Celtic 02. Aberdeen 03. Inverness Caledonian Thistle 04. St Johnstone 05. Dundee United 06. Ross County 07. Kilmarnock 08. MotherwellScottish Championship: 09. Heart of Midlothian 10. Hibernian 11. Rangers 12. Falkirk 13. Raith Rovers 14. Livingston
Scottish League One: 15. Greenock Morton 16. Dunfermline Athletic
Matches
Quarter-finals
Draw and Seeding
The quarter-final draw took place on Monday 28 September 2015 at 2:30pm at Hampden Park, all teams were placed in the same pot.
Pot 1Scottish Premiership: 01. Celtic 02. Inverness Caledonian Thistle 03. St Johnstone 04. Dundee United 05. Ross County 06. Heart of Midlothian
Scottish Championship: 07. Hibernian
Scottish League One: 08. Greenock Morton
Matches
Semi-finals
Draw and seeding
The semi-final draw took place on Monday 9 November 2015 at 2:00pm at Hampden Park, all teams were placed in the same pot.
Pot 1Scottish Premiership: 01. Celtic 02. St Johnstone 03. Ross County
Scottish Championship: 04. Hibernian
Matches
Final
Statistics
Top goalscorers
RankPlayerClubGoals1 Liam Boyce Ross County4 Jason Cummings Hibernian Faissal El Bakhtaoui Dunfermline Athletic4 Michael Gardyne Ross County3 James Tavernier Rangers 5 18 players2
References
External links Scottish Professional Football League – League Cup official website