1874–75 Scottish Cup

The 1874–75 Scottish Cup – officially the Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup – was the second edition of Scotland's most prestigious football knockout competition. Teams from Edinburgh, Renfrewshire and Lanarkshire entered the competition for the first time and with 12 new teams entering the competition, a total of 25 were included in the first round draw. The competition began with the first round match between Rangers and Oxford on 10 October 1874 and concluded with the final on 10 April 1875. After 27 matches and 56 goals scored, defending champions Queen's Park retained the trophy by defeating Dunbartonshire club Renton 3–0 at the original Hampden Park in the final.

Format

As with the inaugural competition, the second edition of the Scottish Cup took on the format of a traditional knockout tournament, however, an odd number of teams entering the competition necessitated the introduction of byes for the first time.

For the earlier rounds, the names of competing teams were placed into lots according to their districts and drawn into pairs. The home team for each tie was determined by the toss of a coin unless it was mutually agreed or only one of the two clubs drawn against one another had a private ground. In the event of a draw, the team who lost the toss would have the choice of ground for the replay. A similar procedure was used for subsequent rounds however, any club which had received a bye in the previous round would first be drawn against one of the winners of the previous round. The names of winning teams were placed into one lot for later rounds.