THIS time last year, we knew it would be good.

With the Ryder Cup and, in particular, the Commonwealth Games gracing Scotland's shores in 2014, we revelled in the prospect of a sporting year to remember. And it was; it really was.

Glasgow 2014 was a joyous, exhilarating, inspiring couple of weeks. Team Scotland obliterated all pre-Games predictions as they swept to fourth place in the medal table with a record-breaking 53 medals. And, off the back of the Games, every sport which was involved experienced a spike in interest. Since the close of the Games, the judo European Open and the gymnastics World Cup, both held in Glasgow, sold out in a matter of hours, an indisputable consequence of their Games exposure.

But that beast of many faces, legacy, is now the major issue. Glasgow 2014 is over and the challenge now is to build on the success of the Games. While the event itself could not have been any better executed, the uphill task that is creating a sustainable legacy must now be addressed. That the interest in minority sports has been retained throughout the remainder of 2014 is hardly surprising but the real question is: will it continue into 2015?

Next year will be interesting. The memory of the Commonwealth Games will fade and, as it diminishes, these sports which have been recent headline news will be pushed further and further down the agenda with, surprise, surprise, football picking up the slack.

There is one further crucial element which will make it all the more difficult for these Commonwealth sports to maintain a high profile: the Old Firm game is back. On February 1, Celtic and Rangers will meet for the first time in almost three years. Not since April 2012 has the highest profile, yet most poisonous, football game in Scotland been played. Football has remained by far the dominant sport in this country in the intervening period, but the absence of this fixture, coupled with the 2012 Olympics Games closely followed by Glasgow 2014, has given so-called minority sports space to breathe. Sports which often lack any media coverage at all, enjoyed full-page spreads, in-depth interviews with their top athletes and, most importantly, an increased awareness of their existence by the Scottish public. The danger in 2015 is that all the good work in building a profile for these sports will be smashed into smithereens. If that happens, it will be a sad, sad time.

I get it with football. I get the tribalism and the tradition and the invisible umbilical cord that attaches generation after generation of families to a particular team. What I do not get is the bile and spike in domestic violence cases attached to a Celtic-Rangers fixture. I do not get that continual and unabated coverage of the off-field wrangling at Rangers is a more interesting story than a Scottish athlete in a so-called minority sport winning medals on the world stage. I do not get that intelligent people lose all sense of reason when it comes to an Old Firm game.

A few months ago, when Rangers and Celtic were drawn together in the semi-finals of the Scottish Cup, Graham Spiers wrote on the HeraldScotland website: "They - our moral guardians - are flashing up their warning signs already. There's yet more singing to come. A few wives/women are set to take a few blows. Doctors and nurses are on a red alert." He continued: "Well, hurry up and bring it on."

Really? Is this truly the type of nation in which we want to live? A country in which a rise in cases of domestic violence is an acceptable by-product of a mere football game?

I watched a Reporting Scotland bulletin in the midst of Glasgow 2014 during which, two little boys were attempting something resembling judo in the background. Tell me that is not a good thing. Tell me that widening kids' horizons and broadening their interests is not an invaluable exercise. Tell me that the type of nation we want is not one which is so unhealthily fixated on a single fixture which has so many negative side-effects. I readily admit that I am heavily biased in favour of multi-sport events: the Commonwealth Games gave me some of my best moments as an athlete; Glasgow 2014 gave me my best experience as a journalist; and I will always look favourably on anything that gives minority sports a platform. Despite wearing rose-tinted spectacles, though, I fail to be convinced that a nation which showcases a range of sports rather than immortalising only football and its participants is a poorer country to belong to.

It remains to be seen whether 2015 continues to grow the legacy of the Commonwealth Games. In my mind, it must. If we want a more balanced, better-rounded sporting landscape, we cannot afford to slip back.