STV Sports writer Fraser Cardow agreed to submit an article for Your Shout. You can read Fraser's Blog Here on the STV website

They call it the beautiful game. Apparently it's all about the fans; the supporters are the most important thing. Teams like to get the ball down and play passing, flowing football, so they say.

After Rangers won the CIS Insurance Cup final, Dundee Utd and impartial fans must have been gutted. The Terrors played the kind of football everyone hopes to see; fluid, passing and attractive.

But they ultimately lost because they were blunted by the incoherent rag-tag football which has dazzled so many of Rangers' opponents this season. Indeed, Walter Smith has acknowledged that there are many things about his team this year that are unattractive, but effective. 

But what do the fans want? Would they be happy for their team to play beautifully and lose? Would they prefer slick losses or ugly wins? How far does their conscience for 'real football' take them? Surely the Dundee United support would have traded up some of their one-twos and flicks for that trophy.

It takes a brave soul to persevere with slick football in Scotland. John Hughes has said on more than one occasion that he might have to revert to Scottish type and abandon the flowing football experiment that he has been so painfully nurturing at Falkirk Stadium. But Hughes seems determined to create his brave new world out there in Falkirk, and with a massive youth development programme hopefully he'll soon have the players he needs to make his dreams a reality.

Celtic are another example. Gordon Strachan's team play some fantastic football, but for the Parkhead faithful it often feels like all smoke and no magic. What's the point of knocking the ball around for 90 minutes if you can't score? Well, it’s the beautiful game. Surely that's ok, isn't it? Apparently not. It seems football is just like sex. The build-up can go on for ages, but without scoring, well, there's just no point.

So teams resort to more physical grit and determination; to the long ball and the big target man.

But there's a contradiction in there. If ugly, long ball, Scottish style football was really more effective than one touch Samba, surely we should be world champs. We would be the best in the world. But we’re not.

So really, we should be striving. Like Dundee United, Hibs, Celtic and Falkirk, we should be encouraging our teams to play the ball, skin the man and avoid the punt. But that means we need to be prepared to cut them some slack when they don't quite get it right.

Look at the Old Firm just now: Strachan is taking heat for his stylish losses while Smith basks in the glory of his clumsy, lucky wins.

Which would you prefer?