Is Irvine Meadow's Cup Run An Own Goal By The Juniors?

Irvine Meadow’s good performance in defeat at Easter Road on Saturday ended the third year of participation by Junior clubs in the Scottish Cup. By Scottish football standards the decision to allow Junior clubs to play in the national competition was revolutionary – three years on, it is worth reflecting on the decision.

At the time the idea was mooted the purposes were two-fold. Firstly, as part of a revamp of the Cup involving scrapping the Qualifying Cup tournaments, it as hoped that including Junior sides would help raise the profile of the early rounds. Secondly, the aim was to forge closer links between Junior and Senior non-league football with a view to integrating the two within a pyramid system.

As far as the first of those aims goes there is little doubt that the addition of Junior clubs has made the early rounds of the Cup a more attractive proposition. The old Qualifying Cups were barely reported at all outwith the most anorakish of websites and publications. The revamped Rounds One, Two and Three, with staged entry for lower division Scottish League clubs, have had much more publicity than the Qualifying Cup ever got.

The relative success of the Junior clubs has helped this. In 2007/8 Linlithgow Rose fought their way through to Round Four before going out to eventual runners-up Queen of the South. In reaching the same stage in the current season Irvine Meadow became the first Junior club to defeat a Scottish League side. In 2008/9 Lochee United held Second Division Ayr United to a draw. Helped by friendly draws, north participants Culter and Banks o’Dee have both made good progress.

The high level of publicity for Junior sides is helped by the fact that it is the elite of the grade that enters. The Champions of the three regions and the Scottish Junior Cup holders will inevitably be amongst the best-supported and resourced Junior sides around. It is little wonder that they have been too strong for some of the sides that enter from the lower reaches of the Senior Non Leagues.

However, in relation to the second aim of bringing Junior and Senior football closer together, there is little sign of progress. Plans for the development of a pyramid system in Scottish football are foundering as the Junior FA are resistant to becoming involved. Yet their top clubs, several dozen of them, are as strong in playing and economic terms as the top dozen Senior non league clubs. It seems that a pyramid, if it goes ahead, will not involve the Juniors.

At the same time, voices within Junior clubs are suggesting that the success of Irvine, Auchinleck, Pollok and Linlithgow should be the catalyst for allowing more Junior clubs into the Scottish Cup. Other teams are casting envious eyes on the money generated by these clubs and want a share of it. However, Senior non league clubs are less happy as their chances of a potential ‘pot of gold’ are diminished as the top Junior clubs bulldoze their way through the early rounds at their expense.

The ideal solution would be for more Junior clubs to ‘do a Girvan’. Formerly a Senior club playing in the backwoods of the South of Scotland League, Girvan switched to Ayrshire Junior football but kept their membership of the SFA. There would be nothing to stop ambitious Junior clubs from applying for Associate Membership of the SFA – of successful they would get to play in the Scottish Cup every year. Linlithgow, Irvine and Auchinleck, to name but three, are close to having the facilities necessary to make the move. They could still play in the Junior leagues but they would benefit from the SFA’s largesse to member clubs and have the opportunity to embark on a Scottish Cup run every year. It seems strange that Linlithgow, as an example, who made a lot of money in their Cup run, did not invest it in the improvements necessary to achieve SFA membership. They’ve not been back in the Scottish Cup since 2007/8 and the chances of them ‘qualifying’ every year are slim.

The criteria for Associate Membership of the SFA are strict but they are not unreasonable or unattainable. If Junior clubs demonstrated a little lateral thinking they could enjoy the best of both worlds – retaining their Junior status yet benefiting from Scottish Cup participation.

Another school of thought suggests that the Scottish Cup, Scottish Junior Cup and indeed the Scottish Amateur Cup could be restructured along the lines of the three major competitions in England, the FA Cup, FA Trophy and FA Vase. The Scottish Cup would be open to virtually all, with a massive First Round draw on a regional basis. The Scottish League and Premier League clubs would come in at a much later stage. The Scottish Junior Cup would be for non league clubs, both Senior and Junior, with a decent level of facilities. The Scottish Amateur Cup would continue as it is, with some of the Senior and Junior clubs with poorer facilities dropping into it.

Sounds good on paper. But the problem with Cup competitions in Scotland is one of scheduling. Because very few non league clubs have floodlights, midweek replays are impossible. The quality of pitches is not good. Consequently, postponements and fixture congestion become a real problem. This season, Vale of Clyde and Johnstone Burgh are still attempting to play a Junior Cup tie originally scheduled for October. Because it has been arranged for every Saturday since then, neither has played a single match in that time.

Of course, there is no sign that the Scottish Junior and Amateur Associations would be open to this sort of change. These grades are permeated by a culture of self-preservation and isolation. It may have served them well in the past but it is less helpful now.

Finally, to return to Irvine Meadow’s trip to Hibernian on Saturday. They took more than 2000 fans with them, gave a good performance, and will have banked upwards of £50,000 from their Scottish Cup run. Outsiders may think that this is a great boost for Junior football and can only help their cause in achieving more Scottish Cup places.

The truth is quite the opposite. Treasurers and Committee men at Highland League, East of Scotland League and South of Scotland League clubs will be thinking ‘that could have been us’. But rather than planning how to defeat the Juniors on the field, they will be more likely to plan how they can exclude them from the competition entirely.