Scottish War Emergency Cup

The Scottish War Emergency Cup was a temporary competition held at the start of the Second World War, due to the suspension of the Scottish Cup by the SFA. It was held between February and May in 1940, the competition involved all sixteen League clubs still operating at the time, Cowdenbeath later withdrew which meant Dunfermline Athletic received a bye in the first round. Rangers beat Dundee United 1–0 in the Final.^[1]^[2]

All match details are sourced to the Scottish Football Historical Archive.^[1]

First round

Dunfermline Athletic received a bye in the first round due to Cowdenbeath's withdrawal.

First legs

24 February 1940	Albion Rovers	3–3	Aberdeen
	Burke Dempsey		Ferguson Patillo	Attendance: 5,500

24 February 1940	Alloa	1–4	Rangers
	Gillan		Duncanson Thornton Waddell	Attendance: 7,000

24 February 1940	Celtic	4–2	Raith Rovers
	Crum Divers Gould		Murray Kinnear	Attendance: 6,200

24 February 1940	Clyde	3–1	East Fife
	Noble Wallace		Adams	Attendance: 4,500

24 February 1940	Dumbarton	4–3	Arbroath
	Dunn Milne Lang		Miller Mudie	Attendance: 4,500

24 February 1940	Dundee	1–1	Third Lanark
	McGillivray		Dewar	Attendance: 6,320

24 February 1940	Falkirk	5–0	Hibernian
	Dawson Keys Napier Carruthers			Attendance: 7,060

24 February 1940	Hamilton Academical	7–1	Stenhousemuir
	McIntyre Wilson McKerrell Harrison		Buchan	Attendance: 3,500

24 February 1940	St Johnstone	2–1	Heart of Midlothian
	Lorimer Hird		Brown	Attendance: 4,300

24 February 1940	Kilmarnock	1–0	Ayr United
	Gallacher			Attendance: 8,630

24 February 1940	King's Park	4–6	Motherwell
	Stewart McDowall Ferrier		McInally Wales McCulloch Wood Bremner	Attendance: 3,330

24 February 1940	Partick Thistle	2–4	Dundee United
	Morrison Picken		Gardiner Adamson Kerr	Attendance: 5,210

24 February 1940	Queen's Park	3–2	Airdrieonians
	Kyle Aitken Ferguson		Gillick Reid	Attendance: 7,650

24 February 1940	St Bernard's	1–5	Morton
	Philp		McGarry Calder Milne	Attendance: 5,070

24 February 1940	St Mirren	6–0	Queen of the South
	Linwood Caskie			Attendance: 10,000

Second legs

2 March 1940	Aberdeen	0–1 (3–4 agg.)	Albion Rovers
			Bell	Attendance: 8,841

2 March 1940	Airdrieonians	3–1 (5–4 agg.)	Queen's Park
	Flavell Mooney Reid		Mitchell	Attendance: 8,000

2 March 1940	Arbroath	0–2 (3–6 agg.)	Dumbarton
			Dunn	Attendance: 2,150

2 March 1940	Ayr United	2–2 (2–3 agg.)	Kilmarnock
	Marshall McKenzie		Collins Thomson	Attendance: 9,940

2 March 1940	Dundee United	1–1 (5–3 agg.)	Partick Thistle
	Fraser		Sharp	Attendance: 8,000

2 March 1940	East Fife	1–0 (2–3 agg.)	Clyde
	McLeod			Attendance: 3,100

2 March 1940	Heart of Midlothian	5–0 (6–2 agg.)	St Johnstone
	Phillips Briscoe Brook			Attendance: 7,974

2 March 1940	Hibernian	4–0 (4–5 agg.)	Falkirk
	Finnigan Nutley Cuthbertson			Attendance: 4,520

2 March 1940	Morton	5–0 (10–1 agg.)	St Bernard's
	Calder Turnbull Martin			Attendance: 3,400

2 March 1940	Motherwell	3–2 (9–6 agg.)	King's Park
	Ogilvie Bremner Wood		Binnie Black	Attendance: 2,792

2 March 1940	Queen of the South	4–1 (7–4 agg.)	St Mirren
	Connor Lang Law		Brady	Attendance: 3,800

2 March 1940	Raith Rovers	3–0 (5–4 agg.)	Celtic
	Lyons (o.g.) (o.g.) Hume Tulip			Attendance: 5,463

2 March 1940	Rangers	2–2 (6–3 agg.)	Alloa
	Venters Waddell		Rice Fitzsimmons	Attendance: 8,000

2 March 1940	Stenhousemuir	4–1 (5–8 agg.)	Hamilton Academical
	Buchan Rodi Allan		McIntyre

2 March 1940	Third Lanark	3–1 (4–2 agg.)	Dundee
	Sinclair Dewar Dykes		Adam

Second round

9 March 1940	Clyde	3–1	Dunfermline Athletic
	Agnew Beaton McLaren		Johnston	Attendance: 7,000

9 March 1940	Dumbarton	0–2	Airdrieonians
			Reid Flavell	Attendance: 5,500

9 March 1940	Dundee United	7–1	Third Lanark
	Gardiner Kerr Milne Adamson		Joyner	Attendance: 8,000

9 March 1940	Falkirk	0–0	Rangers
				Attendance: 16,000

9 March 1940	Hamilton Academical	0–2	St Mirren
			Deakin Brady	Attendance: 8,000

9 March 1940	Heart of Midlothian	2–1	Raith Rovers
	Phillips Walker		Kinnear	Attendance: 9,951

9 March 1940	Kilmarnock	2–1	Albion Rovers
	Collins McGrogan		McKinlay	Attendance: 7,586

9 March 1940	Morton	1–1	Motherwell
	Milne		Bremner	Attendance: 8,688

Replays

11 March 1940	Motherwell	5–2	Morton
	McCulloch Ogilvie Bremner		McPhie Keys	Attendance: 8,600

11 March 1940	Rangers	3–2	Falkirk
	Thornton Venters		Calder Fyfe	Attendance: 46,000

Quarter-finals

23 March 1940

Airdrieonians	0–0	Heart of Midlothian

Attendance: 14,000

23 March 1940

Dundee United	3–0	Kilmarnock
Milne Fraser Gardiner

Attendance: 14,000

23 March 1940

Motherwell	3–0	Clyde
Bremner McCulloch

Attendance: 12,673

23 March 1940

Rangers	3–1	St Mirren
Thornton McNee Smith		Brady

Attendance: 60,000

Replay

The match was abandoned after 117 minutes due to poor light.

1 April 1940

Heart of Midlothian	2–2 (a.e.t.)	Airdrieonians
Carruth Baxter		Reid Mooney

Attendance: 19,949

Second replay

1 April 1940

Heart of Midlothian	3–4	Airdrieonians
Walker (pen.) Phillips		Mooney Flavell Reid Farr

Attendance: 20,000

Semi-finals

13 April 1940

Rangers	4–1	Motherwell
Thornton Smith Venters		McCulloch

Hampden Park, Glasgow

Attendance: 50,000

13 April 1940

Dundee United	0–0	Airdrieonians

Easter Road, Edinburgh

Attendance: 22,000

Replay

17 April 1940

Dundee United	3–1	Airdrieonians
Glen Adamson Dunsmore		Reid

Easter Road, Edinburgh

Attendance: 22,000

Final

4 May 1940

Rangers	1–0	Dundee United
Smith	^[2]

Hampden Park, Glasgow

Attendance: 75,000

Referee: W Webb

Teams


Dundee United:^[3]
GK		Charlie Thomson
RB		Alex Miller
LB		Tommy Dunsmore
RH		Arthur Baxter
CH		Jimmy Littlejohn
LH		Jimmy Robertson
RW		Alex Glen
IR		Bobby Gardiner
CF		Arthur Milne
IL		Tommy Adamson
LW		Norman Fraser
Manager:
Jimmy Allan


Rangers:
GK		Jerry Dawson
RB		Dougie Gray
LB		Jock Shaw
RH		Bobby Bolt
CH		Willie Woodburn
LH		Tom McKillop
RW		Willie Waddell
IR		Willie Thornton
CF		Jimmy Smith
IL		Alex Venters
LW		Adam Little
Manager:
Bill Struth

References

^ ^a ^b "Scottish War Emergency Cup". Scottish Football Historical Archive. Brian McColl. Retrieved 10 August 2018.
^ ^a ^b "Smith's late goal". The Glasgow Herald. 6 May 1940. p. 10. Retrieved 10 August 2018.
^ Rangers 1 Dundee Utd 0 | Emergency War Cup (Final), Arab Archive

[McColl-1] "Scottish War Emergency Cup". Scottish Football Historical Archive. Brian McColl. Retrieved 10 August 2018.

[FinalReport-2] "Smith's late goal". The Glasgow Herald. 6 May 1940. p. 10. Retrieved 10 August 2018.

[3] Rangers 1 Dundee Utd 0 | Emergency War Cup (Final), Arab Archive

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[2]

[3]

v t e 1939–40 in Scottish football
« 1938–39 1940–41 »
Domestic leagues	Scottish League Division One Division Two Emergency League Western Division Eastern Division
Domestic cups	Scottish War Emergency Cup Glasgow Cup ('39, '40) Junior Cup
Related to national team	Results
Club seasons
Division One	Aberdeen Albion Rovers Alloa Athletic Arbroath Ayr United Celtic Clyde Cowdenbeath Falkirk Hamilton Academical Heart of Midlothian Hibernian Kilmarnock Motherwell Partick Thistle Queen of the South Rangers St. Johnstone St. Mirren Third Lanark
Division Two	Airdrieonians Brechin City Dumbarton Dundee Dundee United Dunfermline Athletic East Fife East Stirlingshire Edinburgh City Forfar Athletic King's Park Leith Athletic Montrose Morton Queen's Park Raith Rovers St Bernard's Stenhousemuir
Western Division	Airdrieonians Albion Rovers Ayr United Celtic Clyde Dumbarton Hamilton Academical Kilmarnock Morton Motherwell Partick Thistle Queen of the South Queen's Park Rangers St. Mirren Third Lanark
Eastern Division	Aberdeen Alloa Athletic Arbroath Cowdenbeath Dundee Dundee United Dunfermline Athletic East Fife Falkirk Heart of Midlothian Hibernian King's Park Raith Rovers St Bernard's St. Johnstone Stenhousemuir