Why Airdrie win is being celebrated in Saudi Arabia as bizarre TNS and Al-Hilal feud explained

It's not very often a lower league Scottish team sees their result heralded in Saudi Arabia - but that's exactly what's happening after Airdrie downed The New Saints to win the SPFL Trust Trophy.

Rhys McCabe led his team to the trophy at the Falkirk Stadium on Sunday night with Nikolay Todorov's second half penalty sealing a tight 2-1 win over the Cymru Premier champions. At 31, the former Rangers star became the youngest ever manager to win the Challenge Cup, but it's not his achievement being celebrated in the Middle East.

TNS have been embroiled in a bizarre feud with Al-Hilal which centres around the Guinness World Record for most wins in a row. The Welsh team laid claim to a record-equalling run when they won their 27th on the spin against Newtown - only to later be told that it doesn't officially qualify since their fourth round tie with East Fife was settled by penalties. Only games won in regulation or extra-time officially count as far as the record keepers are concerned and TNS had to release a statement walking back the accomplishment.

That's where the Saudis come into the picture. Al-Hilal shattered it legitimately with their 28th successive win against Al-Ittihad earlier this month and extended it to 29 last weekend.

And their punters couldn't resist a bit of gloating when TNS finally lost a game against Airdrie in Falkirk. A win would have made it 34 on the spin (if you count penalties) but they came up short and both teams' social media mentions soon flooded by Saudi fans.

Airdrie's full-time tweet had more than 500 replies and was retweeted 250 times within the first hour while TNS' also gathered hundreds of engagements. Most were Saudi accounts with blue checkmarks, with comments like 'We are the fans