A terrible day we pray won’t happen again

I WAS on the pitch on the most disastrous day in Old Firm history when 66 people lost their lives in January 1971.

In the build-up there was an obvious tension emanating from the managerial staff. The fans were equally forceful.

My parish priest waited for me outside the church the previous Sunday and told me “how important a win was”. Even my mum told me a win would make her visits to the local shops a much more pleasant experience.

The match played out in very cold conditions on a fairly hard pitch. In the 89th minute Jimmy Johnstone headed home.

We were delighted, perhaps too much so, and lost our concentration. Whatever the reason, we left Colin Stein with an opportunity and he took it.

We were livid at only getting a draw. The Boss was in and out of the dressing room and eventually we were made aware of the fact there had been some trouble after the match.

Exactly what the trouble was, nobody quite explained. We were told to hurry and were rushed out to the bus and driven back to Celtic Park to pick up our cars.

I was still very annoyed at losing that goal in the 90th minute, didn’t turn the radio on and made the journey home in a quite seething mood.

When I walked into the house, my wife Elisabeth said: “God, that was dreadful!” I thought she meant the score. Gradually she explained what had happened and then we listened to the TV and radio for details.

Reporting for training became suddenly less important and The Boss and his staff had to work hard to keep our minds focused. We had a league match against Hibs coming up in eight days.

I managed to get the names of some victims who were from my area and visited their families, becoming quite overwhelmed as I listened to their stories. Then the players from both teams attended the memorial services in Glasgow cathedrals, sharing stories afterwards of what had been for all of us an awful experience.

It had been a dreadful afternoon. Let’s hope it never happens again.

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