Just the ticket for crowd control

St Mirren came up with a unique idea in the fight to combat hooliganism.

With the all-ticket Love Street game against Rangers only a fortnight away, we reported in September 1977, the Paisley club announced their plan to beat the rowdies.

The club was to issue 25,000 tickets to the rival supporters and, in order to keep them segregated, they were to be printed in two different colours.

The home supporters were to be given tickets in one colour to allow them to enter by the Love Street end only.

The Light Blue legions would have a different coloured ticket to get into the Paisley ground from the Caledonia Street end only.

The Paisley club was believed to be the first in Scotland to take this step.

Chairman William Todd emphasised that it was only one method to prevent crowd disturbances at Love Street.

The First Division champions had already erected a huge metal fence underneath their covered enclosure to separate fans at matches.

New turnstiles to cope with increased crowds at Premier League games were among other moves made to prevent crowd trouble.

“We have given a lot of thought to the problem and this is the answer with which we have come up with.”said Mr Todd.

“We believe we are the first club in Scotland to try to have supporters segregated with different coloured ticket.s”