THE cup without a brand name provided another of its special nights of pandemonium as three of the new elite from the Scottish Premier League were sent home to think again by cheeky lesser lights.

Hibernian, who knocked out Aberdeen in their televised League Cup tie at Easter Road, would not wish to be judged so, but the two teams who produced the surprises of the night, Ross County, conquerors of Dundee United by 2-0, would not argue and Airdrie, who knocked out the holders, Celtic, 1-0, revel in such descriptions.

Celtic, even though they were without Henrik Larsson, Marc Rieper, Harald Brattbakk, and Alan Stubbs could not complain about the storm of booing from their own fans as they left the green green grass of Airdrie's new home, the Shyberry Excelsior Stadium.

The Parkhead performance was mediocre, to put it kindly, and continued their depressing time after being beaten 3-2 by Aberdeen on Sunday in the league. In fact, since the day the players decided to make a public protest at the bonus on offer for their Champions' League qualifying tie, the Parkhead club has presented a bleak face to the world, with one special exception.

That was their fine victory over Croatia Zagreb in the first leg of that European contest, but however splendid that was, the players' decision to follow a non-co-operation policy quickly overshadowed their display. Now, having lost their last two games, and with no apparent resolution of the dispute between them and the management, the fear of their fans is that they will go into free-fall with a defeat in Croatia.

The management, Fergus McCann and Jock Brown, have to share the blame for the decline in relations between them and the dressing-room and the Parkhead followers will be entitled to expect them to get the whole nonsense sorted out before the team heads out for the second leg. If the Celtic men, players and leaders, cannot get their act together soon, they will hear a lot more anger than that expressed following last night's defeat.

The fans are not really interested in the rights and wrongs, the whys and wherefores, but they do have a perfect justification in demanding its resolution. Head coach Dr Jozef Venglos, who must wonder what he has done to deserve all this, understandably pointed to the problems of bringing in new players to a team that had been settled.

He said: ''Airdrie worked hard and deserve credit and we just were not good enough. We were without international players and it is always difficult in those circumstances. It takes time for new players to adapt, but no excuses, we were not good enough.''

Hearts were deep in controversy too as they collected an extra-time win over Raith Rovers at Tynecastle. Substitute Rob McKinnon's shot after 106 minutes appeared to be carried over the line by Rovers goalkeeper Guido Van de Kamp and referee Willie Young awarded the goal - and sparked off outrage among the Kirkcaldy folk.

Ross County's hero was super sub Derek Adams, who came on to score the goals in extra-time that put the third division side into the draw for the next stage. Hibs manager Alex McLeish saluted Stevie Crawford after his late spot kick sent Aberdeen out and revealed that the player had volunteered for the job despite being well aware that Jim Leighton had saved two penalties already this season.