CUPS are meant to be filled afresh and to circulate. They are designed to go round. What happens on the park, though, can be a hard rectangular world. However, it takes only a little fond romance to creep into austere record books to give a shout for Arthurlie, who tomorrow play mighty Pollok in the final of the OVD Junior Cup.

Pollok won it last year. Since Arthurlie had their turn have passed 61 years. While the 'Lok have three times held the cup aloft, the triumph of the 'Lie totals one in 1937. When the teams met in the 1981 final, Pollok won 1-0 by a goal by Norrie Fulton after a poor clearance (Arthurlie's club history book asserts) by their otherwise heroic goalkeeper Denis Connachan. Perhaps, some atonement is now due, or even revenge. For shrewd observers insist that Pollok did not play particularly well and Arthurlie at their best could have won, although most of these shrewd observers belong to Barrhead.

Arthurlie are Barrhead's big team and play at the heart of the town. Their Dunterlie Park has a sward as smooth and shorn as a croquet lawn. Their terracing is ample and architectural enough for a Roman circus. Their thoroughly modern pavilion started life as a church hall in Bishopbriggs, which was transported across the city and reassembled. At old Dunterlie they could house a crowd of 10,000. ''Other teams see us as a big club, but we are only big on the park,'' insisted Jim Dunn, the president and a Geordie incomer, who among the normal burdens of his position sustains a persisting loyalty to Sunderland.

Much neutral sentiment will tomorrow side with Arthurlie because Barrhead has taken more dunts than many places. Away back, it was a

settlement of Bleachfield workers. It bred coal miners and skilled engineers. Until six years ago it created bathroom furniture. It did the plumbing on the Titanic. Lavvies in the Kremlin had Shanks of Barrhead engraved on them and may still do. Now a dog-food factory is the main employer. ''With all the good things that have gone, it is the Arthurlie who are giving the town something to think about again,'' George Collins, the club's programme editor, said.

Barrhead has a grand way with names. Both Arthurlie and Dunterlie were weaving hamlets which joined to form the original village. There is a town legend that Arthurlie took its title from the knightly King Arthur who once visited the area, presumably on business rather than for a holiday. Although it is not a tale told with much conviction, every heroic association helps on cup final day.

All week the town temperature has been rising. Janice Rooney, the club secretary, reckoned there could be 6000 on the road tomorrow to Fir Park. Street decorations were led by a bank, no less, on the town's broad thoroughfare of Main Street where it filled a window with festive balloons of the sky blue and white of Arthurlie's colours, which are gentile compared with the magpie hues of Pollok.

Barrhead is not the most gentile of small towns. When the victors of 1937 followed junior tradition to tour the cup through the pubs and clubs around their ground, they needed extra time. Yet townswomen play their part by more than making the tea. President Jim Dunn reckoned that every woman on the football and social club com-mittees did more work than any man. Janice Rooney, who became Arthurlie's secretary eight years ago, said: ''You get your characters, yes. But being brought up in

Barrhead, I have my eyes open.''

Arthurlie graduates include James Grady of champions Dundee and Johnny Kelly, who became the Barnsley Bomber, and twice played for Scotland. He has been known to cycle to away games. There are reported sightings of him louping the barrier round the home field for a short cut. He is 78. Part of the magic of this year's cup is how a country-wide tournament which started in the autumn with 167 clubs tomorrow focuses on two squads who play only five miles apart. Not to make too much of it, but their situations are different. For their people next door Pollok have the grand villas of Newlands. Across the road from Arthurlie is the yard of a scrap merchant and demolition man who is among the heftier of their

Supporters of both clubs enjoy feelings of neighbourliness which are (how to put this?) hearty and robust. In his most recent programme George Collins did not mess about. He wrote: ''Apart from the fact that we are a better team, we have the little matter of 1981 to avenge.''

Around Dunterlie there is a sweet smell of something in the air which could be more than a sniff of good hope. ''I can't remember '81 being like this,'' Jim Dunn mused.