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BIG CUP, BIG KICK-OFF, BIG ROW

The Scottish season started only last weekend, while the one in England doesn’t kick off until Saturday, but Big Cup has already been going for several months, is what it feels like. The Queen’s Celtic were back at work ages ago, and have been hard at it over two qualifying rounds, scraping past Basingstoke Town then a team from the Dog & Duck (the darts team, to be specific, the lads who play five-a-side had blistering headaches). So well done to Ronny Deila and his men for a successful fast start. They’ve been rewarded for their efforts with a final qualifying tie against Malmo, 1979 finalists and reigning champions of Sweden. Not the worst draw, given Malmo currently lie a modest sixth in the Allsvenskan, and a trip to Scandinavia is much less of a schlep than, say, Kazakhstan. But this is a club that put Pope’s O’Rangers out of these qualifiers in 2011, and won 7-0 at Hibs in Big Vase a couple of years later. We’d suggest Deila is facing his own personal Artmedia Bratislava, but he’s already got one of those in Maribor.

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