Inside Track: ‘Old Firm’ clash that had some protagonists ending up in court

Is there still a contingent from around these parts regularly travelling over to Scotland for Celtic’s matches? There was at one time, many of them members of the local Celtic Supporters’ Club.

In my time at this paper’s sports desk, the club used to have their notes published each week, a chap called Fee (his Christian name escapes me) the one who submitted them.

If there were locals at the ‘Old Firm’ clash with Rangers at Ibrox around this time 36 years ago, they’d have witnessed a mighty brawl, and more, on the field.

Players clashing in this fixture are not unusual, but this one was so ferocious the law was later called in. Before bringing a case to court, police had to spend hundreds of hours in preparation.

Trouble began early on with Celtic’s Frank McAvennie crashing into goalie, Chris Woods.

As the two went face-to-face, two other Rangers defenders, Terry Butcher and Graham Roberts, got involved. In the melee which followed, Roberts punched McAvennie from behind.

This part ended with Woods and McAvennie being shown red, Roberts escaping punishment and then taking over in goals. The stand-in found himself having to pick the ball out of the net twice, the second coming from Peter Grant, who, in celebration, blessed himself in front of the Rangers crowd.

Rangers’ response to this came late in the game with Roberts conducting the crowd in their sectarian chants. Before then, Butcher got a second yellow card and Rangers scored twice to make it a draw.

The referee’s final whistle didn’t end it; soon afterwards, the Glasgow public prosecutor took a hand, charging Woods, Roberts, Butcher and McAvennie with “behaviour likely to cause a breach of the peace”.

The outcome? McAvennie was found not guilty, and Roberts not proven. Butcher and Woods were found guilty and fined.

We’ll be saying goodbye to 2023 when the next ‘Old Firm’ clash of this season comes up. December 30th is the date, Parkhead the venue, and unless they fall into a rut in the meantime, Celtic should be looking over their shoulder at their great rivals, as they are now.

Both sides are now thickly populated by foreign players, some of whom only bless themselves before running on the park, others not knowing why chants from the terraces should have religious undertones.

Unlike the November 1st of 1987, this one should have more concentration on football than anything else.