RALLYING his troops last week, Glasgow City Council's leader quite correctly said they "should all be very proud of the part played" in the Commonwealth Games' phenomenal success.

But in claiming "this city will never be the same" has Gordon Matheson, and indeed much of civic Scotland, become so intoxicated with the party that the challenges of tomorrow have slipped the mind?

Waking up this morning, many Commonwealth dignitaries and visitors remain in town. The First World War commemoration keeps Glasgow in the international eye for at least one more day.

But gone is the seven-year countdown to and sense of anticipation of a global event on the horizon.

Having delivered hundreds of jobs, contracts for local firms and, we're told, kept the excesses of the global recession at bay from Glasgow a major economic driver has left the field of play now the Games are done. Gone, too, is that extra pre-Games cash so the city had on its best face for the world.

Meanwhile, the lights still need to go on, the potholes filled, community centre doors kept open and meals-on-wheels delivered.

The MTV Awards or the World Cup gymnastics might be hotly anticipated but the next really big show in town is the savage spending cuts unlike anything post-devolution Scotland has seen.

Unfair though it may be, in the minds of many, connections will be made between the reduction in, say, home help hours and the Games. Ironically, the success of Glasgow 2014 makes that link more likely.

Those inspired to shed some pounds by the stars of track, field and pool could find their good intentions strangled at birth as the cost of accessing facilities continues to rise. But there may well be a plan. Every cabinet member of the Labour administration running the city had VIP access to all events during the Commonwealth Games with the intention they drum up business for the city.

That may take time in delivering but an indication of how successful an endeavour that was would be welcome from every Labour executive committee member who attended.

So, too, the members of the SNP Scottish Government with similar "access all areas" passes, as well as those from the Chamber of Commerce, municipal sports body Glasgow Life and anyone else not just along for the ride.

The city has promised it will buck the trend of every multi-sport event ever previously held by delivering a tangible legacy. That, too, will take time.

Right now the physical legacy, the venues, is what we have and even here the challenge is to involve the average Glaswegian and not simply the affluent from suburbs and beyond who are the main audience at Velodrome or Emirates Arena events

Already there's whispers of 'arise Sir Gordon'. Or at least a New Year's Honour for his prominent role in a triumph near a decade in the making.

If he and those around him can maintain the positive momentum, who would begrudge it?