the Scottish Football League, and the competitions it presided over, were laid to rest in the summer when the 123-year-old governing body ceased to exist and was subsumed by the Scottish Premier League to create the Scottish Professional Football League.

Or so we thought.

Now, like some giant wake, one of the founder members of the SFL, Rangers, will take on the nation's oldest club, Queen's Park, in front of a full house at Ibrox. The prize? Last season's Reserve League Cup, which had been held over at the semi-final stage. Rangers and Queen's duly dispatched Stenhousemuir and Livingston respectively in August and have arranged to face each other in the final later this month after the SPFL had declined the opportunity to set up the game. Following discussions between the finalists, it is expected the match will be played at Ibrox on Thursday, October 30.

History sits quite naturally with Queen's Park, a fact highlighted yesterday when the club were forced to stop using the oldest football building in the world due to safety reasons. The changing rooms at the Lesser Hampden training complex - converted from a farmhouse in the 19th century - have been closed due to concerns over the roof. Portakabins, that very 21st-century artifact, have been erected.