The Monday Ballbag

Ah well.

In the end it was not to be; the football romantics dream of a Cup final involving two teams neither of whom play in Scotland's top flight will have to wait for another year.

Despite the distance (some 182 miles, one-way), Ross County took an estimated 8,000 supporters to Glasgow on Saturday to see them beat Celtic 2-0, which is approximately 3,000 more than live in the town of Dingwall itself.

An impressive showing I'm sure you'll agree, and one which was let down considerably by the fact that the Celtic support only accounted for the remaining 17,000 fans in the national stadium.

On Sunday, Raith sold their 7,000 tickets, making the remaining 10,000 in the crowd Dundee United fans. In short, 42,000 fans over two games, some 10,000 below Hampden's official capacity, which is not particularly impressive, despite the results.

So for the SFA the result at Hampden yesterday, the one which saw Dundee United and not Raith Rovers progress to a 15th May showdown with Ross County must have come as a blessed relief.

After all, at a time when dressing up the pig to make it as attractive to possible future sponsorship deals, TV revenue and other assorted marketing suitors is paramount, the last thing you want is a stadium with lots of empty seats on the final day of the World's second oldest Cup tournament, something that would certainly have happened had Raith Rovers, and not United won yesterday.

Mind you, the SFA's problems are far from over, because even with an SPL side in the final, based on the clumsiest arithmetic and allowing for Cup Final Fever, the game on the 15th will probably only attract 25,000 to 35,000 supporters.

While the SFA are fretting over what to do with a near-empty stadium on the 15th, for the football purists amongst us, getting any team outside of the top flight into a major Cup final is a tremendous thrill.

Two years ago Queen of the South gave an exhausted Rangers a run for their money in the final, and Ross County will be hoping that Dundee United be similarly exhausted after trying to catch up with Celtic in second place in the league, because with Dundee United second, the Staggies would be assured of European football - regardless of the result (UPDATE: I stand corrected. Ross County have to win the damn thing. Ah well).

This season we have seen the amazing progression of some of the teams from the lower divisions in the various Cups. The exploits of Raith Rovers and Ross County in the Scottish Cup and Dundee in the League Cup are well documented. Along the way these three have taken the scalps of Aberdeen, Hibernian and most notably, that of Celtic.

Montrose, Stirling Albion, Dunfermline and Ayr United all made it to the 5th Round of the Scottish Cup, while even St Mirren, a team stuck to the bottom of the SPL for most of the season made it to the final of the League Cup.

While most of us realise that expanding the League is not the magic answer to the problems of Scottish football, given certain results in our Cup competitions this year, has the argument for expansion been strengthened?

Would Dundee, Partick Thistle, Inverness Caley, and Dunfermline augment the current line-up? Assuming their grounds are SPL compliant (a factor which currently excludes both sides from a 16-team SPL) how would Ross County or Queen of the South, two teams to reach recent Cup finals, manage in the SPL? Would the League be more competitive or entertaining?

I don't know the answer to those questions, and something tells me we wont find out any time soon either, but there's no denying that Scottish football is in a state of transition.

You see, after this season's competition, I genuinely believe that an all-First Division Cup final is not far off. And for the first time in a very long time, that actually makes me feel very positive about Scottish football.