HAMPDEN isn’t exactly home sweet home for Scottish football. For many supporters, it is time to put up the for sale signs and to hit the road.

The issue isn’t location, location, location but the problems with the National Stadium can’t be fixed with a lick of paint.

The critics are becoming more vociferous in their condemnation of Hampden and at times is hard to argue against them.

But that doesn’t mean that we should knock it down and take our showpiece events to Ibrox, Parkhead or Murrayfield every year.

Both of the Betfred Cup semi-finals were played at Hampden this weekend and they were very different spectacles for those in attendance and those that tuned in.

There wasn’t a spare seat in the house when the blue and green halves of Glasgow met in Mount Florida yesterday. The Old Firm clash is one of the few fixtures that can show the stadium at its best.

Even Scotland games aren’t great these days, although that has as much to do with those on the park as off it.

On Saturday, there were scores and scores of empty seats and it was all rather low-key as just 16,183 Aberdeen and Morton fans turned up. It wasn’t an occasion befitting a semi-final and the match really should have been played at Tynecastle or Easter Road.

But you can understand why Morton were so keen to stride out at the National Stadium. It is a couple of decades since they last got to the final four of a cup competition and the chance for the Ton fans to see their side at Hampden is a rare one.

There are a generation of Scottish supporters that never got the chance to stand on the sweeping terraces, that have never felt the buzz of being part of a 70,000 or 80,000 crowd at what was once one of the most iconic venues in the game. Some of us aren’t that lucky, but there is still a sense of occasion when the big games are played on that hallowed turf.

For many, the mention of Hampden conjures up images of great Auld Enemy clashes, classic cup finals and of a time when Scotland’s best strutted their stuff to become legends of the game.

The huge crowds can no longer shuffle their way through the turnstiles and the Roar is a whimper more often than not these days.

It is not the best arena in Scotland and there are stadia with better atmospheres, views and facilities for punters and Press men alike. Unfortunately, we can’t go back to the drawing board and build it the way it should have been done when the old ground was redeveloped.

The case for sticking by it may be a bit misty-eyed and stuck in the past. But Hampden has a proud history and, while many are uncertain over its future, it is the home where many hearts are.

AND ANOTHER THING

ALAN Archibald is one of a number of up-and-coming managers in the Scottish game but the 38-year-old continues to fly under the radar.

He was linked with a move to Shrewsbury Town this week but will not be swapping the Premiership for League One. Not just now, at least.

Partick Thistle are not a club that will stand in someone’s way if they want to discover if the grass is greener away from Firhill.

One day, another club will surely come calling for Archibald and if he does go then he will leave with the best wishes of everyone in red and yellow.

After going from captain to manager and leading the Jags to the First Division title, he has kept them in the top flight and pushed for top six finishes on a couple of occasions.

You won’t hear him shout from the rooftops about how good a job he has done but his work to date and his potential in the dugout will attract admiring glances again.