News that Forfar Athletic’s upcoming SPFL League 1 match against Rangers at Ibrox has been moved may bring a wry smile and a shake of the head to some retired police officers.
The Loons’ trip west has been changed on the advice of police from Wednesday, March 6, to Tuesday, April 15, because Celtic are also playing that night against Partick Thistle at Firhill.
Now, being very generous with figures, I doubt if more than 45,000 fans will attend these two games.
Old-school Glasgow bobbies will remember the night they coped admirably with two major European semi-finals in the city on the same night with a combined attendance of over 155,000!
On April 19, 1972, 75,000 crammed into Parkhead for a European Cup semi-final second-leg tie as Celtic drew 0-0 with Italian giants Inter Milan, before going out on penalties (John ‘Dixie’ Deans famously missing from the spot).
Across the city, Ibrox was bulging with 80,000 spectators as Rangers beat German outfit Bayern Munich 2-0 (3-1 agg) to reach the European Cup-Winners’ Cup Final.
With all the infrastructure and technology available to police nowadays, you would think they would cope with such a ‘measly’ figure as 45,000 compared with what their 1970s colleagues had to deal with.
In these times, the only ‘additional’ help for situations like this would have been police horses.
For the record, the Old Firm line-ups that night were . . .
Rangers McCloy; Jardine, Mathieson; Parlane, Jackson, Smith; McLean, D Johnstone, Stein, MacDonald, W Johnston. Scorers were Jardine and Parlane.
Celtic Williams; Craig, McCluskey; Murdoch, McNeill, Connolly; Johnstone, Dalglish (Deans), Macari, Callaghan, Lennox.
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