2005 Scottish Challenge Cup final

The 2005 Scottish Challenge Cup final, also known as the Bell's Cup final for sponsorship reasons, was an association football match between St Mirren and Hamilton Academical on 6 November 2005 at Excelsior Stadium in Airdrie.^[1] It was the 15th final of the Scottish Challenge Cup since it was first organised in 1990 to celebrate the centenary of the Scottish Football League.

2005 Scottish Challenge Cup final

The match programme cover
Event	2005–06 Scottish Challenge Cup
St Mirren Hamilton Academical 2 1
Date	6 November 2005
Venue	Excelsior Stadium, Airdrie
Referee	S. Dougal
Attendance	9,613
← 2004 2006 →

St Mirren emerged winners after defeating Hamilton Academical 2–1 with goals from Simon Lappin and John Sutton^[2] to win the tournament for the first time after being losing finalists in 1993.

Route to the final

See also: 2005–06 Scottish Challenge Cup

St Mirren

Round	Opposition	Score
First round	Forfar Athletic (h)	1–0 (a.e.t.)
Second round	Queen of the South (a)	2–1
Quarter-final	Stenhousemuir (h)	3–2
Semi-final	Greenock Morton (h)	0–0 (a.e.t.) (4–2 pen.)

The first round draw paired St Mirren with Forfar Athletic at Love Street with the home team winning 1–0 after extra time.^[3] The second round was a trip to Dumfries to face Queen of the South at Palmerston Park with The Buddies producing 2–1 win^[4] to progress to the quarter-finals. The opponents drawn were Stenhousemuir at home in the quarter-finals and St Mirren won 3–2.^[5] The reward for reaching the semi-final was a home game at against Renfrewshire rivals, Greenock Morton with St Mirren edging out the opponents to win 4–2 on penalties after 0–0 after extra time.^[6] St Mirren reached the Scottish Challenge Cup final for the second time, since losing the 1993 final against Falkirk.

Hamilton Academical

Round	Opposition	Score
First round	Queen's Park (a)	3–0
Second round	Ross County (a)	1–0
Quarter-final	Dundee (h)	2–0
Semi-final	St Johnstone (a)	2–1

Hamilton Academical were drawn against Queen's Park at home in the first round and Hamilton came out 3–0 winners^[3] The second round draw saw Accies drawn against Ross County away from home with Hamilton emerging 1–0 winners.^[4] The quarter-final draw brought Dundee to New Douglas Park which saw Hamilton produce a 2–0^[5] and awarded Accies their third consecutive clean sheet of the tournament to progress to the semi-finals. The opposition provided in the semi-final draw was St Johnstone and another away game which saw Hamilton triumph with a 2–1 victors^[6] to proceed to the Scottish Challenge Cup final for the third time in the club's history since winning both the 1991 and 1992 tournaments.

Match

St Mirren	2–1	Hamilton Academical
Lappin 22' Sutton 80'	Report	Tunbridge 47'

5 November 2005

15:00 GMT

Excelsior Stadium, Airdrie

Attendance: 9,613

Referee: Stuart Dougal^[7]

St Mirren

Hamilton Academical

St Mirren: GK 1 Chris Smith RWB 2 David van Zanten CB 3 Kirk Broadfoot CM 4 Andy Millen  76' CB 5 Kevin McGowne (c) CB 6 John Potter CM 7 Hugh Murray CM 8 Charlie Adam  69' CF 9 Stewart Kean CF 10 John Sutton LWB 11 Simon Lappin Substitutes: FW 12 Billy Mehmet  69' DF 14 Alan Reid MF 15 Mark Corcoran MF 16 Mark Reilly  76' GK 17 Craig Hinchliffe Manager: Gus MacPherson

Hamilton Academical: GK 1 David McEwan CB 2 Stuart Balmer  81' LB 3 Derek Fleming RB 4 Steven Thomson (c) CB 5 Mark McLaughlin CM 6 Alex Neil LM 7 Scott Tunbridge CM 8 Marvyn Wilson CF 9 Graeme Jones  38' RM 10 Scott MacKenzie CF 11 Pat Keogh  77' Substitutes: DF 12 John Robertson  81' MF 14 Brown Ferguson FW 15 Mark Gilhaney  77' FW 16 Brian Carrigan  38' GK 17 Raymond Jellema Manager: Billy Reid

MATCH RULES 90 minutes 30 minutes of extra time if necessary Penalty shoot-out if scores still level Five named substitutes Maximum of 3 substitutions