Q Sean Graham sends us this. “With Dundee United near the bottom of the Premier League and now in the Scottish Cup final, has any team won the Cup then been relegated in the same season?”

A The answer is no though a few have been relegated the following season - Motherwell 1952, 1953, Clyde 1955, 1956, Dundee United 1994, 1995. Closest to actually being relegated is probably Falkirk in 1957. On the same day as they won the Cup they were third bottom of the table, only out of a relegation spot on goal average, though they eventually finished 14th and four points clear of the drop. Hearts were second bottom of the eleven-club first division when they won the Scottish Cup in 1901 but there was no automatic promotion or relegation in those days.

East Fife were in the Second Division when they won in 1938 and Queen's Park were still non-league at the time of their 1893 triumph.

Q Pedro Ramalhete asks: “In some club websites I found that in the late 1800's there was a cup competition between the winners of the English and Scottish FA Cups, the World Cup or World Championship. What happened to this competition? When did it start and when did it finish? Do you have the list of the winners of this Cup? I know that Renton won this competition. What happened to them?”

A The only time this cup was played for was when Renton beat West Bromwich Albion 3-1 at Hampden in May 1888. The trophy is in the Scottish football museum and there is something about it plus an image of the Cup on this page. Renton were a village team that struggled to adapt to league football and resigned from the league in 1897. Their last match was in the Scottish Cup in 1921.

Q Bobby Smith's memory has been troubling him. “This query has been bothering me for years. Am I correct in saying Rangers drew 3-3 with Arbroath on the day Thistle beat the Celtic 4-1 in the League Cup Final?"

A No, Rangers beat Motherwell 4-0 at Ibrox on October 23rd 1971 - the day that Thistle beat Celtic 4-1 in the League Cup Final.

Q Another Red-Lichties related query from Fraser C. “When did Arbroath FC first produce a home match programme?”

A We fielded this to Douglas Stevenson of D&D Programmes - whose site is well worth a look. Douglas tells us that it was 1959-60, which was Arbroath's first post-war season in Division One.

Q Bari Khan is looking for some painful information. “I was wondering if you would be able to tell me the FIFA rankings of the Scottish national team over the past ten years i.e. 1995, 1996, 1997 etc...”

A The rankings are issued monthly rather than annually. The first was in August 1993 when Scotland were ranked 30. Since then the December rankings have been:

1993 24
1994 32
1995 26
1996 29
1997 37
1998 38
1999 20
2000 25
2001 50
2002 59
2003 54
2004 86

The latest ranking (March 2005) is joint 88th.