On Thursday night, we saw the end to an era. While Scottish clubs may not have been dominating forces of European football for quite some time, they have always been present always until now. As Hearts, Rangers and Celtic got knocked out of Europa League qualifying - to Tottenham (5-0), NK Maribor (3-2) and FC Sion (3-1) respectively – it meant the European competitions would be commencing for the first time without any Scottish involvement.

Hearts were fighting a lost cause before the tie even began as they were put up against a team clearly superior in every respect and despite losing 5-0 at Tynecastle, showed good effort and persistence in attaining a goalless draw at White Hart Lane against, admittedly, a weakened Tottenham side. The Glasgow teams however, were both expected to see away their opponents with some ease but after the first legs it was clear they were going to have to play well to progress. Unfortunately, they did the complete opposite. After a shocking performance losing at home to St Johnstone the previous weekend which Lennon had grilled the team for, Celtic continued their terrible form, conceding a penalty in the first five minutes with Majstorovic being sent for an early bath for his troubles. It was downhill from there, losing 3-1 eventually. Rangers’ forwards continually missed good opportunities and good only muster a home draw putting them out after they had lost the away leg.

However, all three teams recovered for the weekend. Celtic picked up all three points in Paisley with a 2-0 victory over St Mirren, thanks to a brace from Gary Hooper to take them within a point of Rangers and Motherwell at the top of the table. Ally McCoist finally earned his first home win as manager of Rangers with a 2-0 win over Aberdeen, which they were lucky to get as an Aberdeen side who have failed to impress so far this season played some very good football, especially in the second half. In the first Edinburgh derby of the season, Hearts won 2-0 against fierce rivals Hibs who are struggling at the bottom of the table with only three points from their first five games of the season.

Elsewhere in the league, there were some high scoring games, with SPL new boys Dunfermline losing 4-2 at home to high-flyers Motherwell and St Johnstone and Dundee Utd drawing 3-3 in a dramatic United late comeback. Inverness CT clocked their first win of the season at home to Kilmarnock with a 2-1 victory. In a week where there haven’t been many positive things to say concerning Scottish football, there is one: hopefully, we won’t have to live through another game with Celtic’s hideous third kit!