Scottish League Cup roundup: Rangers out, Ross County hit seven

Rangers have crashed out of the Scottish League Cup in the third round after a 3-1 home defeat to St Johnstone.

The Scottish Championship leaders had won 11 matches in a row to start the season before the tie at Ibrox, but they fell behind when Murray Davidson gathered Steven MacLean's flick to turn home his first goal of the season.

MacLean somehow missed the target from four yards before Simon Lappin smashed in a second for the visitors from 18 yards on the half-hour mark to double the lead, and it was 3-0 within a minute of the restart when Michael O'Halloran latched onto a long ball to slot home.

James Tavernier's slaloming solo effort gave the home side hope with half an hour to play but it could not prevent the 27-time League Cup champions succumbing to their first defeat of the season.

Last season's Scottish Cup finalists Falkirk also suffered a galling loss as they were thrashed 7-0 by Ross County, who extended their unbeaten run to seven games.

Liam Boyce hit his seventh, eighth and ninth goals of the season with a first-half hat-trick in the space of 11 minutes, before Raffaele de Vita added a fourth, and Jonathan Franks, Brian Graham and Darren Holden completed the rout.

Last season's League Cup finalists Dundee United recovered from a dreadful error from goalkeeper Luis Zwick to beat League One Dunfermline 3-1 after extra time.

After Callum Morris had headed the equaliser, Scott Fraser rifled home six minutes into overtime and Blair Spittal scored a fine individual effort three minutes later to ensure that United were the team to progress.

Scottish League One champions Greenock Morton also won in extra time, shocking Premier League side Motherwell with a 3-2 victory following a 1-1 draw after Scott McDonald had cancelled out Alex Samuel's goal in injury time.

Samuel netted his second goal of the game and Michael Tidser finished tidily for the hosts, and though Louis Moult cracked in his fifth goal of the season late on, Morton held on for victory.

Struggling Premier League side Inverness Caledonian Thistle progressed to the fourth round with a routine win over Championship bottom side Livingston as Miles Storey opened the scoring after 11 minutes before Danny Devine headed home Greg Tansey's free kick to double the Scottish Cup champions' lead before half time.

Results in full (half-time scores in brackets): Rangers 1-3 St Johnstone (0-2); Dundee United 3-1 Dunfermline (AET) (1-1); Livingston 0-2 Inverness Caledonian Thistle (0-2); Greenock Morton 3-2 Motherwell (AET) (1-0); Ross County 7-0 Falkirk (3-0)