Little Darvel exit the Scottish Cup.

 Little Darvel exit the Scottish Cup

Deep in the heart of Ayrshire in Scotland, little, humble and unpretentious Darvel of Scottish football's sixth tier were given their marching orders and told to leave this year's competition. Their brief flirtation with fame and celebrity status was over for another year and football's romantics and sweethearts waved a tearful farewell to the underdogs, the unheralded ones, the unnoticed part timers and the ones who would otherwise have received no recognition on the weekend's back pages.

Throughout recent decades Scottish football has played out against a bleak landscape of utter mediocrity and has now remained outside the mainstream of the world game for far too long for its own good. It is now over a quarter of a century since last Scotland took part in a World Cup and since then the void has been a hollow and embarrassingly empty one. True they did rub shoulders with the big boys at Euro 2020 and the goal-less draw with losing finalists England did represent some semblance of a minor achievement but even that game now seems no more than a minor feat in the much bigger picture of things.

Celtic have almost monopolised the top flight of Scottish football because their fierce rivals Rangers have either been penalised for fraudulent activities or just relegated to the lowest of leagues. Now though the Glasgow heavyweights are still going head to head with each other at the top of the Scottish Premier League. Celtic, inevitably it seems, are nine points clear and the tartan hordes who wear the traditional green and white hoops are staring down on their hot pursuers Rangers, nostrils flaring, breathing heavily down each other's shoulders and privately suspecting that they could be poised to win the Scottish Premier League for what would seem like the millionth time.

But last night Darvel, in a small corner of their Recreation Park, huddled together in the wintry setting of a Monday evening, clapping their hands together in unison and cheering from the rafters. Now most of us that none of us would ever have heard of Darvel since they had never remotely troubled the elite of British football and besides, had they lost last night's match, then they would have been quickly forgotten. But this was a giant killing on a quite modest scale because the gap between Darvel and Falkirk is a yawning chasm.

At the end Darvel's snug and intimate terraces, applauded their team as if they had actually won a Cup. In the end, a crowd of roughly 2,750 crammed tightly into their beautifully claustrophobic ground. By the 90th minute, Falkirk had soundly beaten their sixth tier opponents and the 5-1 scoreline probably told its own story. How dare did these bold upstarts from the lower orders of football's obvious hierarchy, come to challenge their so called superiors. In the previous round of the Scottish cup they had dumped high flying Aberdeen from the competition so this may not have been entirely unexpected.

But last night proved once again that even the happiest of fairy tales can end up with the saddest ending. Now Darvel return to the domestic bread and butter of their sixth Scottish division. There they will be once again be confronted with the likes of Airdrie, Alloa, Queen of the South, Clyde and Peterhead. It'll almost seem like a re-acquaintance with the harsh realities of football life, a sharp reminder of where they were before Cup glory came knocking on their door.

For those with a nostalgic turn of mind, the names of Airdrie, Alloa, Queen of the South, Clyde and Peterhead almost sound like a throwback to the days of when football pools coupons always ended with these unfashionable minnows and hidden away in the dark corridors of the game. And yet football has always needed teams like Darvel because Darvel are synonymous with everything at football's grassroots level. They seek negligible publicity, somehow resigned to their fate in the backwaters of the game. But Darvel are vitally important to the game, football's throbbing heartbeat, essential to the game's overall development since without their like Scottish football may never aspire to the loftier heights. Celtic and Rangers had better beware of sleeping giants. They may wake up one day.