Graeme MacPherson is incorrect in saying East Fife is the only side outwith of Scottish football's top flight to win the Scottish Cup (The Herald, May 26). Queen' s Park won the Scottish Cup twice (1890 and 1893) and were runners-up twice (1892 and 1900) during their decade-long boycott of the Scottish League on the grounds they felt its commitment to amateur football, as opposed to professional, was a sham, and that it was going to be a money-making racket to suit the Old Firm.

The fact that two strong sides - Hibernian and St Bernard's of Edinburgh - were initially debarred from the league (one for "sectarianism" and the other for professionalism) and two weak Glasgow sides - Cowlairs and Cambuslang - put in what ought to have been their places, and that gate receipts were to be entirely kept by the home side (thus throttling little Renton, the Scottish Cup-winning village team that was one of the biggest crowd pullers in Glasgow, showed the wisdom of their early cynicism.

The farcical history of Scottish club football since shows each half of the Old Firm has won more than three times as many trophies as all the non-Old Firm sides put together. Perhaps, more poignant, is the fact that of the "founding fathers" of both the Scottish Football Association and the Scottish League, only Queen's Park (other than their derby rivals and former League Champions Third Lanark and thrice cup-winners Vale of Leven - now both outwith the league) exists in any shape or form. It shows that the Spiders were right.

Mark Boyle, 15 Linn Park Gardens, Johnstone.

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