On Soccer: Long used to their status of mild irritant to the "big boys" of the National League Premier Division, UCD have compounded their lack of popularity of late both by both qualifying for this evening's final of the League Cup and then winning the toss which decided the venue for the game.

They're unlikely people to come out with it, but in the circumstances, "no one likes us, we don't care", would be a fitting chant from the home side's supporters as they face a Derry City side who, it seems safe to say, have the quiet support of the game's officialdom.

In Merrion Square there is clear concern that a poor attendance and disappointing television spectacle could halt the momentum of the competition's recovery from a position where, just a few years ago, it had been all but written off completely.

In Belfield, there are mixed views, with Pete Mahon rather dismissive yesterday of the notion that the game shouldn't have gone there, but former chairman Brendan Dillon accepted there was a good deal of pressure to spare everyone's blushes by attracting the sort of crowd required to generate a sense of occasion.

The hosts are actually optimistic about selling the place out and plan to work hard at bringing back some of their one-off visitors. They were still some way short of filling the place yesterday, however, and, in any case, with the attendance officially limited to just 2,500 even that won't win over the critics.

City officials, for instance, reckon they could have three times that number at the Brandywell if they had been given the game.

The fact that there's a serious debate about the staging of the final, though, and that the numbers involved aren't completely laughable is in itself a reflection of the manner in which the competition has come back from the brink of extinction during the past few years.

At its low point, there was plenty wrong with the League Cup and not a huge amount that was obviously right. The group format, the fact that the geographical nature of the draw resulted in the same clubs meeting over and over again and the timing of the early rounds all, for a start, tended to undermine its appeal.

For most of the past couple of decades the group games seemed to enjoy a status only fractionally above that of pre-season friendlies. More damning, though, was the way in which even knock-out round matches were regularly shifted forward and back so as to take care of suspensions and then, when they did take place, they often featured seriously understrength teams.

Despite all of this there was actually a rather bizarre proposal during the 1990s to dramatically expand the competition. The idea was that the league would be cut to two rounds of games with the League Cup taking up the considerable slack.

Instead, the tournament has been revived by cutting the number of matches, adopting a straight knock-out format and playing the final as a one-off game. Attendances at all stages have since improved markedly as has the interest of the media. Sometimes, as they say, less really is more.

Another factor, of course, has been the substantial increase in prizemoney and, more recently, the allocation of a place in the Setanta Cup to the winners (though not to the runners-up if they are beaten by a team who also qualify by way of the league; the place will then go to the next placed side in the Premier Division).

On the funding front, €15,000 to the winners may not sound like a great deal of cash, but in a league where transfer fees never really have the look of telephone numbers unless the cent are included, it is not insignificant. When combined with the €2,500 each club will receive from Setanta, who are televising the game live, and an equal share of the gate receipts, the victors should walk away with €30,000 - down on the last couple of years, but welcome enough nevertheless.

The decision to allocate the additional place in next season's Setanta Cup is a major boost to the event and brings with it guaranteed prizemoney of another €25,000 or so plus gate receipts from group games and a crack at the much greater rewards that doing well in that competition would offer.

The benefits to the League Cup are obvious, but it is still a little tricky to figure out why Setanta went for this route of expansion rather than giving an extra place to the league. Mahon will, of course, be happy if his side win tonight, but the television executives would surely not be entirely thrilled by the prospect of UCD taking part in next season's all-Ireland event while, perhaps, Shelbourne look enviously on from the sidelines.

A win for Derry, whose arrival at a training base in north Wicklow yesterday underlined their desire to win tonight, would take care of all such concerns though.

Both of these clubs have lost finals in recent years and both feel they are overdue a little success.

A decent crowd and a big game, however, would be of wider significance even if there is, somewhere deep down, a little bit of apprehension that if this keeps going the way it has been, they'll be reviving the Shield next.