Watching the Rangers crowd go through the gears from the back of the main stand at Ibrox, 20 minutes before a potentially title-deciding Old Firm encounter, is special. Equally unique was watching a 50,000+ strong home crowd perform an emergency stop of total silence 21 seconds into the game.
A freak opening goal for Celtic set up an Old Firm derby for the ages, and the sight and sound of a revved up Rangers crowd being switched off in a single second will stick in the memory as one of the oddest things I’ve ever witnessed inside a football stadium.
Tit for tat fan restrictions on away contingents have meant no away supporters at all have been allowed into Old Firm games for over a year now. Visiting team goals in Old Firms without away fans creates a noise vacuum that brings the atmosphere to an eerie halt. It's an odd experience, and is a negative for this famous fixture.
With one Old Firm left this season, and Rangers one point behind Celtic with a game in hand, we have the bizarre situation of the Scottish title being in the hands of both clubs.
FourFourTwo’s found itself in Glasgow on a trip arranged by SportsBreaks.com who offer package trips to some of the biggest football matches in Europe. Travel, accommodation and match tickets (often the stumbling block for big games like the Old Firm) are taken care of in one single cost.
Sportsbreaks even managed to arrange our train tickets during a rail strike, they booked a brilliant hotel for us, and our match tickets were high in the Sandy Jardine stand, surrounded by diehard Rangers fans meaning we got a proper taste of the Old Firm.
Arriving in Glasgow 24 hours before the match, we checked into our hotel and booked an Uber into town with thoughts of food, drink and watching that day’s 5.30pm kick off: Arsenal vs Chelsea.
Our driver ‘Kevin’ turned out to be former Sunderland, Coventry, Kilmarnock (and briefly Rangers) striker Kevin Kyle. Brilliantly bizarre.
Kyle held court for the 15-minute journey and told us he would be watching the game the next day at his local golf club, quietly supporting the Glasgow team he didn’t play for during his 14-year career.
Our trip quickly took a further turn for the surreal one hour later, when former Bradford, Newcastle, Leeds, Middlesbrough and Barnsley striker John Hendrie randomly approached FourFourTwo out of nowhere inside a busy pub, saying: “Excuse me pal, does this place still do karaoke?”
“Erm… no idea. But aren’t you John Hendrie?” Turns out the Lennoxtown-born striker was in Glasgow with friends and family for the game and kindly invited FourFourTwo to join his party for a drink before they left for an evening meal, and possibly afterwards a bar that did karaoke.
By midnight, FourFourTwo is tucked up in our lovely hotel room ahead of Sunday’s midday kick-off. The following morning, after an early full Scottish breakfast, we are speeding along the Paisley Road to Ibrox, tinged with disappointment that today’s Uber driver doesn’t have any international caps.
After being dropped off outside one of the roughest pubs we have ever set eyes on, we do a pre-match lap of Ibrox to soak in the atmosphere. It’s tense. Even the arrival of Celtic’s team bus can’t rouse the milling crowd beyond a handful of blue flares and lukewarm booing.
FourFourTwo’s Editor and Deputy Editor remain divided on the subject of half-and-half scarfs, and perhaps unsurprisingly there are none available for purchase at this fixture. Though dedicated Queen Elizabeth II scarves were on sale.
Even staunch Rangers supporters might admit that Ibrox is showing signs of tiredness from the outside. Its grey roof gives a part comprehensive school, part industrial incinerator look, but the impressive red brick facade of the main stand, and four glass corners offset the decaying brutalism. A radical redesign in 1981 was based on Dortmund’s Westfalensadion, and having visited that venue this season too, I would agree it’s like a younger sibling in style.
Inside, wind is playing havoc with the Ranger’s Ultra’s tifo behind Celtic’s goal, but order is restored in time for the now traditional blasting of Tina Turner’s iconic hit ‘The Best’, skipped straight to chorus for maximum singalong effect. Blue flare smoke completely obscures our view of the pitch, but not for long in the gale force Glasweigan hooley that has been blowing all morning.
Certainly not long enough for us to miss Rangers’ captain James Tavernier smash a clearance off Celtic’s winger Daizen Maeda and beyond his keeper Jack Butland in what must be the most bizarre start to an Old Firm in almost 500 encounters.
The tone was set for a brilliantly bonkers 90 minutes. Celtic raced to a 2-0 lead after 34 minutes when Matt O’Reilly paneka’d a penalty into the net (how’s your nerves as a Celtic player at Ibrox with not one away fan in attendance?).
Around us, Rangers supporters entered meltdown: “Every f**kin year, Rangers! This isnae working, get it changed!” screams one fan behind us. The air was turning toxic.
The Gers were flapping as violently as the Union Jacks on their main stand roof but Philippe Clement’s men responded early enough in the second half to make their supporters believe they were still in the game.
Tavernier made up for his horror start with a stunningly accurate penalty conversion, Cyriel Dessers thought he’d stabbed in the equaliser, only for VAR to make its third intervention of the day and correctly bring back play for a foul by Tom Lawrence in the build-up.
Rangers huffed and puffed in the swirling wind and Clement’s changes helped, Abdallah Sima’s deflected equaliser on 86 minutes did count and as we strapped in for a Rangers push to place one hand on the title, Celtic poured cold water on the blue cauldron.
Jaws dropped when Adam Idah’s shot went through Rangers’ defenders and keeper Butland a single minute after Rangers had made it 2-2. Hoops players were literally falling over themselves in celebration, but there was one more blue twist in the game.
Substitute Rabbi Matondo cut inside to score the goal of the game on 90+3. Relief was audible when the full-time whistle went, 90 minutes of torture was over for Rangers fans inside the stadium, and Celtic supporters watching on TV.
Religion often defines this fixture, from a neutral perspective it was a match made in heaven.
Sportsbreaks.com is a leading sports supporter travel brand offering ticket-inclusive packages to many of the world’s top sporting events, including world- class football match breaks with some of Europe’s top teams.
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