A FEW of the numbers tossed up at the Scotland game were nice to savour:

58 per cent possession? That was unusually good by Scottish standards. Twelve attempts on goal to Georgia's four? That was positive too. One goal to nil, three points, all highly satisfying. But near the end of the first home qualifier in Euro 2016 a figure emerged which raised a few eyebrows. The crowd was announced as just 34,719. Not so good.

Before we wade in to criticise, some perspective must be acknowledged. Of the 17 qualifiers played across Europe on Saturday only the games involving the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Romania drew bigger attendances than ours. There can be a rush to indulge in hand-wringing about "poor" crowds at international or club games in Scotland when, in fact, the turnouts are in line with - and very often in excess of - what is happening elsewhere.

Given the size of the population Scotland punches above its weight to be pulling in almost 35,000 against teams with no box office appeal. It's more than Italy managed at home to Azerbaijan. But let's not kid ourselves it was an impressive turnout. Scotland have been building something under Gordon Strachan for 16 months. Two wins over Croatia, a fine performance at Wembley, a sprinkling of competitive and friendly wins, an excellent goal when taking the game to world champions Germany last month, an undeniable sense of momentum and energy: add all of that to a Saturday afternoon game at a big stadium - Scotland's first home fixture in 11 months - and the place should have been nudging a sell-out. Instead there were more than 15,000 empty seats.

Why? Ticket prices. From the moment the details were announced in July the SFA has been criticised for asking for £35 as the cheapest public sale price for each qualifying game, including the visit of tiddlers Gibraltar next year, and most at up to £45. There was further hostility to the price of the £250 "season ticket" covering all five qualifiers and the England friendly next month.

The cheapest adult ticket for that England match at Parkhead is £50 and the majority are £60. SFA chief executive Stewart Regan has said the price hikes for all the games were "fair and equitable" and said they compared favourably to rugby Six Nations games, the FA Cup final and, erm, a David Guetta gig at Bellahouston. The SFA also flagged up the logistical costs of playing games across three grounds because of the Commonwealth Games. The burden clearly has been passed on to supporters. Saturday's crowd proved that thousands simply did not agree with the SFA's view of a fair price.

What crowds will there be for the year's two remaining home games against the Republic of Ireland and England? The public sale of tickets for those begins on Wednesday. Scotland fans have stuck with the team through thin and thin for 16 years. What a shame if the current, promising side plays in front of rows of empty seats.

And Another Thing

There are lots of Rangers supporters who disapproved of Saturday's "flash mob" protests at Sports Direct shops, designed to make a point against Mike Ashley. A mob is never a particularly appetising spectacle, flash or no flash. The events were peaceful and there were smiling faces in the media coverage of those who took part. Whether it was much fun for the young, low-paid staff who had their work disrupted by an hour of harassment is another matter. They were on the receiving end, not Ashley himself. If he heard about the protests at all, he won't have lost a minute's sleep about them.

The Sons of Struth and Union of Fans groups have been the essential voices of opposition and scrutiny of Rangers' deeply dysfunctional board. They have spoken up and asked the pertinent, penetrating questions as Dave King and others have fallen silent. But flash mobs, and making a nuisance of themselves on the outer edges of Ashley's vast retail empire, aren't the way to go.

And Finally...

The best of luck to Neil Lennon at Bolton. It will be fascinating to see how he does. Bolton Wanderers are bottom of the Sky Bet Championship with five points and one win in 11 this season. The club has £168m of debt and fans are up in arms about how it's been run by chairman Phil Gartside. On the radio yesterday Lennon's excitement at landing the job was obvious and he praised Bolton's structures, training facilities and players, half a dozen of whom he said he'd tried to take to Celtic. He sounded like what he was: desperate to get back into the game.

Curiously, he said he never really spoke about money with Gartside before taking the job. Lennon can easily save Bolton from relegation to League One (a manager who beat Barcelona in 2012 doesn't want to be facing Fleetwood, Doncaster and Crawley in 2015). They are only five points from getting out of the bottom three. But Bolton have been a financial basket case for years, with a reckless, short-sighted attitude to money. They should have been selling themselves to him during those talks, not the other way round. Lennon has Barclays Premier League ambitions and to preserve his reputation and potential he needs to get out of the Championship as soon as possible.

He has taken a job which, for now at least, puts him closer to the third tier than the top.