⚽ The Kick-Off - Monday 26th January 2026
Weekend round-up. Livingston to complain about an alleged racist remark in Aberdeen game. Hibs' Josh Mulligan to be out for a significant period. Goals for Conway, McBurnie & Lewis Ferguson.
📒 Random Scottish Football Fact #236: Motherwell have registered nine clean sheets in a row at Fir Park.
WEEKEND ROUND-UP
➡️ WILLIAM HILL PREMIERSHIP
Rangers have cut Hearts’ lead to four points. Celtic are down to third and remain six points behind the leaders. Falkirk have closed the gap on fifth-placed Hibs to two points.
Aberdeen 6-2 Livingston
Dundee United P-P St Mirren
Falkirk 4-1 Hibernian
Heart of Midlothian 2-2 Celtic
Motherwell 4-0 Kilmarnock
Rangers 3-0 Dundee
View the Premiership table here
➡️ WILLIAM HILL CHAMPIONSHIP
Partick Thistle have moved to within two points of leaders St Johnstone, although the Perth club have a game in hand. At the bottom, Ross County have leapfrogged Queen’s Park into ninth. The Staggies are now just one point behind Airdrieonians in eighth and have two games in hand.
Airdrieonians 0-1 Ross County
Arbroath 1-1 Greenock Morton
Partick Thistle 2-1 Ayr United
Raith Rovers 4-1 Queen’s Park
St Johnstone 0-1 Dunfermline Athletic
View the Championship table here
➡️ WILLIAM HILL LEAGUE ONE
All of the top three sides won on Saturday. Inverness are top on goal difference from Stenhousemuir. Queen of the South are three points further back. East Fife have now lost five league games in a row. Hamilton have opened the gap between them and Cove Rangers in ninth to five points.
East Fife 1-5 Queen of the South
Hamilton Academical 2-0 Cove Rangers
Inverness Caledonian Thistle 3-1 Alloa Athletic
Kelty Hearts 0-2 Stenhousemuir
Montrose P-P Peterhead
View the League One table here
➡️ WILLIAM HILL LEAGUE TWO
Defeats for both The Spartans and East Kilbride have seen third-placed Clyde close the gap on leaders Spartans to six points. Both Elgin City and Annan Athletic came from two down late on to rescue a point away from home. Edinburgh City remain five points adrift at the bottom.
Clyde 2-1 The Spartans
Dumbarton 2-2 Elgin City
East Kilbride 0-2 Stranraer
Edinburgh City 2-1 Annan Athletic
Forfar Athletic 0-1 Stirling Albion
View the League Two table here
➡️ SWPL 1
Leaders Glasgow City are five points clear of Celtic. Rangers are in third with Hearts in fourth.
Aberdeen 2-1 Motherwell
Celtic 1-0 Montrose
Glasgow City 1-1 Rangers
Heart of Midlothian 4-0 Partick Thistle
Hibernian 5-0 Hamilton Academical
⚽️ THE LATE GOALS SOCIETY
(goals scored in the 85th minute or later)
Topi Keskinen (Aberdeen - 85’ & 90+2’), Cláudio Braga (Heart of Midlothian - 87’), Grant Hanley OG (Falkirk - 90’), Danilo (Rangers - 90+1’), Djeidi Gassama (Rangers - 90+4’)
Kieran Phillips (Ross County - 87’)
Jordan Allan (Queen of the South - 90’)
Mark Stowe (The Spartans - 90+3’), Josh Dixon (Annan Athletic - 90+5’)
Mya Christie (Aberdeen Women - 85’), Calliste Brookshire (Rangers Women - 85’), Monica Forsyth (Heart of Midlothian Women - 90+1’)
🔴 THE RED CARD CLUB
Auston Trusty (Celtic), David Martindale (Livingston), Jack Milne (Aberdeen), Jeremy Bokila (Livingston), Tom Lowery (Kilmarnock), Alan Trouten (East Fife), Jack Bryden (Kelty Hearts)
NEWS
🦁 Livingston are set to report Aberdeen and Jack Milne to the Scottish FA for an alleged racist remark during Saturday’s match at Pittodrie.
Milne “vehemently denies” the allegations. - Sean Wallace, The Press & Journal
🤝 Aberdeen and Cove Rangers have entered a co-operation agreement. The Premiership club originally had an agreement with Kelty Hearts in League One but have now ended that to strike up a partnership with local club Cove.
Joseph Teasdale, Cooper Masson, and Lewis Carrol, who were all on loan at Kelty Hearts, have now moved to Balmoral Park. - Aberdeen FC website
🟢 Hibs' Josh Mulligan facing a 'significant period' out with ankle injury. - Patrick McPartlin, Hibs Observer
🎟️ First Minister John Swinney has said he will ‘actively consider’ capping Scottish football away tickets at £25. - Alistair Gordon, Edinburgh Evening News
🗣️ Arbroath, Forfar Athletic, and Greenock Morton all issued statements this weekend following fan trouble after their games.
Read the Arbroath statement here
Read the Forfar Athletic statement here
Read the Greenock Morton statement here
⚽️ Lewis Ferguson scored his first goal of the season for Bologna yesterday. The midfielder opened the scoring for his club, but Bologna went on to lose 3-2 away at Genoa.
Scott McTominay played the full game of Napoli’s 3-0 defeat away to Juventus. - view the Serie A table
⚽️ Middlesbrough’s Tommy Conway scored a double in Boro’s 4-0 away win at Preston North End.
Oli McBurnie scored his 12th goal of the season for Hull City on Saturday. He scored the opener from the penalty spot in Hull’s 2-1 win over Swansea City.
Callum Paterson scored his first career hat-trick in MK Dons’ 5-1 win over Shrewsbury in EFL League Two.
➡️ Three games survived the weather in the Breedon Highland League this weekend.
Brora Rangers moved into second following their 4-1 home win over Buckie Thistle. Brora are three points behind leaders Formartine United but have two games in hand.
Huntly beat Deveronvale 2-0 while Forres Mechanics drew 1-1 with Banks o’Dee in the other games. - view the Highland League table here
In the R Davidson Highland League Cup Quarter Final, Brechin City scored a 90th-minute winner to beat Nairn County 3-2 to progress to the semi-final.
➡️ It was a full card in the Park’s Motor Group Lowland League, and Bonnyrigg Rose went top following their 5-1 away win over Civil Service Strollers.
Clydebank suffered a shock 3-1 home defeat at the hands of Cumbernauld Colts. Third-placed Broxburn Athletic could only draw 2-2 with second-bottom Gretna 2008. - view the Lowland League table here
📝 Stenhousemuir captain Gregor Buchanan has signed a contract extension. - Stenhousemuir FC website
🆕 Dundonian coach Kurt Herd has been named head coach of the Dominican national team. - Alan Temple, The Courier
⚽️ Dingwall FC are hoping to enter a team into the North Caledonian League next season. An open meeting is due to take place in the town a week from today to try to recruit volunteers to help run the club. - Andrew Henderson, Ross-shire Journal
LATEST TRANSFERS
Permanent Transfers
Aaron Brown - Ayr United to Dumbarton - Dumbarton FC website
Adam Devine - Unattached to Airdrieonians - Airdrieonians website
Fergus Owens - Hamilton Academical to Greenock Morton - Greenock Morton website
Kieran Dowell - Rangers to Hull City - BBC
Per Kristian Bråtveit - Strømsgodset to Aberdeen - Aberdeen FC website
Tobi Joseph - Workshop Town to Dumbarton - Dumbarton FC website
Loan Signings
Charlie McArthur - Newcastle United to Airdrieonians - Airdrieonians website
Cooper Masson - Aberdeen to Cove Rangers - Aberdeen FC website
Corey Armour - Kilmarnock to Queen of the South - Queen of the South website
Gregor Crookston - Heart of Midlothian to Hamilton Academical - Hamilton Academical website
Joseph Teasdale - Aberdeen to Cove Rangers - Aberdeen FC website
Lewis Carrol - Aberdeen to Cove Rangers - Aberdeen FC website
Marc Leonard - Birmingham City to Heart of Midlothian - Heart of Midlothian website
Robbie Thompson - Inverness Caledonian Thistle to Elgin City - Elgin City on X
Toyosi Olusanya - Houston Dynamo to Aberdeen - Aberdeen FC website
End of Loans
Adam Montgomery - returns to Celtic from Livingston - Livingston FC website
Cooper Masson - returns to Aberdeen from Kelty Hearts - Aberdeen FC website
Joseph Teasdale - returns to Aberdeen from Kelty Hearts - Aberdeen FC website
Lewis Carrol - returns to Aberdeen from Kelty Hearts - Aberdeen FC website
Theo McCormick - returns to St Mirren from Dumbarton - Dumbarton FC website
Zander Craik - returns to Kilmarnock from Annan Athletic - Annan Athletic website
Released
Rocco Hickey-Fugaccia - released by Arbroath - Arbroath FC on X
✍️ Ryan Fraser has made a permanent move to Australia. The winger has signed for Western Sydney Wanderers from Southampton and made an instant impact.
He scored a 92-minute winner against Perth Glory to endear himself to the Western Sydney fans.
The 31-year-old has won 26 caps for Scotland. - Western Sydney Wanderers website
🌎 Days until Haiti v Scotland at the World Cup: 138
SCOTTISH FOOTBALL FIXTURES TODAY
➡️ Club Academy Scotland Elite Under-19 League
Dundee United v Celtic
Hibernian v Motherwell
🙏🏼 Thank you for reading today’s Scottish Football Kick-Off. 🗣️ If you like getting this email, please recommend it to a friend, work colleague or family member or consider becoming a paid subscriber. The Scottish Football Kick-Off is reader supported. 📱 Latest subscriber number: 2616 🆓 The daily kick-off will always be free.





