Ireland's debut in the Scottish challenge cup

League of Ireland clubs Bray Wanderers and Sligo Rovers took part in the Scottish challenge cup last weekend as debut guest teams. Bray Wanderers were drawn away to Scottish League Two side Elgin City while Sligo Rovers hosted Championship side Falkirk. It presented an opportunity for both clubs to pit themselves against sides they wouldn't ordinarily get the chance to play in a competitive fixture.
I'm reluctant to use one off games as a means to come to conclusions to the relative strengths and weaknesses of certain leagues over others but these games did provide us at least some glimpse into how our sides could fare in a competitive fixture against Scottish clubs. Irish sides haven't played a competitive fixture against a Scottish opponent in over ten years with Derry City's thumping aggregate victory over Gretna, who were at the time Division 2 (3rd tier champions), in the UEFA cup.
Last year I did a blog post on how I thought Irish sides would fare in the Scottish system, of course all hypothetical but to summarize I thought basically only the top two in Ireland would do reasonably well in the top division with the rest of our Premier division sides being of Scottish championship standard and below.

Embarrassment in Borough Briggs:
The first game last Saturday kicked off at 3pm with Bray Wanderers making the trip north to Elgin City. On paper and in the odds Bray were favorites here. The Wanderers had started the season very well but their campaign has now meandered into a what could've been season after the fiasco of financial problems in July. Elgin City meanwhile were third in League Two after four games. The first half came and went with both sides level at 0-0 by the interval. A lightning start to the second forty-five saw Elgin take the lead through Chris Dodd and that breakthrough forced Bray to go chasing a route back into the game. Elgin would add a second in stoppage time as Bray became desperate with Jordan Allen sticking the final nail into Bray's debut adventure. 2-0 the final score and the reaction was that of embarrassment from a Bray and League of Ireland point of view.

Sligo's unbeaten run ended:
Next up at 7:45pm was Sligo hosting Falkirk. Sligo struggling in the relegation battle albeit unbeaten in six games and Falkirk on the back of a disastrous start to their season lying in ninth.  This on paper was a much tougher assignment for Sligo than Bray had faced. Falkirk's average home crowd last season was just over 5,000, the third highest in the division behind Hibernian and Dundee United. Sligo's meanwhile was just over 1,700 in 2016 which was the fourth highest in Ireland. So going on figures such as those, Falkirk budget wise were much stronger.
On the game it took the Scottish visitors just nine minutes to make the breakthrough with Nathan Austin finishing after a slip in the Sligo defense. Seamus Sharkey leveled nine minutes later through a header from a corner. However Falkirk had one more sting though and retook the lead just before the half-hour mark with James Craigen slotting home. Sligo couldn't force another equalizer and like Bray before them exit the competition before they had a chance to get momentum together.

Verdict:
My thoughts before both clubs entered was that both were capable of going deep into this competition. With both teams knocked out in the debut campaign it doesn't look particularly good on the league that a team from the Scottish fourth tier could knock a top five side out while also keeping a clean sheet. Falkirk were always going to be a tough draw considering the other teams that Sligo could've been drawn against. The fact that the Sligo Falkirk game was a close fought battle is a little bit better from the League of Ireland point of view but overall this adventure has not been good.
Critics will point that Sligo are engulfed in a relegation battle and that this competition was a distraction will no doubt get an airing but Bray barring an incredible series of results will be safe come October and had the easier of the ties on paper ought to have looked for a decent run in this competition.
As I've mentioned earlier it's hard to draw conclusions on such a small sample size such as two games last weekend. I find the aspect of the SPFL including foreign sides into this competition interesting as this may become more and more the norm in the changing European footballing landscape in the coming years. What we can conclude after two games in this competition is that improvement is very much needed!.