The 2016–17 Scottish League Cup group stage was played from 15 July to 31 July 2016. A total of 40 teams competed in the group stage. The winners of each of the 8 groups, as well as the 4 best runners-up progressed to the second round (last 16) of the 2016–17 Scottish League Cup.
Format The group stage is made up of 9 teams from the 2015–16 Scottish Premiership, 9 from the 2015–16 Scottish Championship, 10 from each of the 2015–16 Scottish League One and 2015–16 Scottish League Two, as well as the winners of the 2015–16 Highland Football League and 2015–16 Lowland Football League, and will see these 40 teams divided into two sections: 4 groups of 20 teams from the North section and 4 groups of 20 teams from the South sections. Each section comprises four top seeded teams, four second seeded teams and 12 unseeded teams, with each group being made up of 1 top seed, 1 second seed and 3 unseeded sides. The draw for the group stages took place on 27 May 2016 at 7:30pm BST at the BT Sport Studio in London and was shown live on BT Sport Europe.
Teams Teams in Bold qualified for the second round
Seeding North Top seedsSecond seedsUnseeded01. St Johnstone 02. Ross County 03. Inverness CT 04. Dundee09. Dundee United 10. Falkirk 11. Raith Rovers 12. Dumbarton17. Dunfermline Athletic 18. Alloa Athletic 19. Peterhead 20. Brechin City 21. East Fife 22. Cowdenbeath
23. Forfar Athletic 24. Elgin City 25. Stirling Albion 26. Arbroath 27. Montrose 28. Cove Rangers
South Top seedsSecond seedsUnseeded05. Motherwell 06. Partick Thistle 07. Hamilton Academical 08. Kilmarnock13. Rangers 14. Greenock Morton 15. St Mirren 16. Queen of the South29. Ayr United 30. Livingston 31. Stranraer 32. Airdrieonians 33. Albion Rovers 34. Stenhousemuir
35. Queen's Park 36. Clyde 37. Annan Athletic 38. Berwick Rangers 39. Edinburgh City 40. East Stirlingshire
North All times are BST (UTC+1).
Group A
Matches
Group B
Matches
Group C
Matches
Group D
Matches
South All times are BST (UTC+1).
Group E
Matches
Group F
Matches
Group G
Matches
Group H
Matches
Best runners-up
Qualified teams
Team Qualified as Qualified on Notes Rangers Seeded for the Second Round draw Peterhead St Johnstone Alloa Athletic Seeded for the Second Round draw Partick Thistle Seeded for the Second Round draw Hamilton Academical Morton Seeded for the Second Round draw Inverness CT Motherwell Queen of the South Ayr United Dundee United
Top goalscorers RankPlayerClubGoals1 Brian GrahamRoss County6 Greg StewartDundee3 Scott BodenInverness CT4 Andy GegganDunfermline Athletic Blair HendersonStirling Albion Rory McAllisterPeterhead Simon MurrayDundee United Iain VigursInverness CT Martyn WaghornRangers10 Adam BrownAirdrieonians3 Souleymane CoulibalyKilmarnock Kane HemmingsDundee Marvin JohnsonMotherwell Steven MacLeanSt Johnstone Alex SchalkRoss County Greig SpenceAlloa Athletic Danny SwansonSt Johnstone Carl TremarcoInverness CT
References
External links Scottish Professional Football League – League Cup official website