Was the Sunde really worth it -
The possibility that any individual will own up to having the idea is barely discernible. The search for anyone admitting that they actually thought it was a good one will probably be fruitless too.
But we’ll ask anyway. Who on earth thought that a home friendly with Celtic was just what Sunderland needed?
This is not wisdom after the event. We didn’t say anything beforehand, lest we be accused of pre-empting things. Not that it would have made the slightest difference to Saturday’s events.
The game produced drunken violence, flares and some hideous sectarianism. This came as a surprise to precisely no one.
Looking at the fun and games that some Celtic fans were indulging in revived memories of their grandads doing much the same during a visit to Roker Park in 1965.
Then there was the 1993 visit of Rangers, tantamount to the same thing for those who tend to put all their bigots in one basket.
The atmosphere was already perfectly horrible that day when Sunderland exacerbated matters by stupidly taking the lead; although the police were relieved that Rangers went on to win 3-1.
We can’t claim that history didn’t provide any warning.
How did those dressed in green and white hoops casually enter the home sections? This laissez-faire approach led directly to the punch-up I saw in the east stand that greeted the first goal.
Matters in the city were augmented by the arrival of some mentally negligible jailbird and his equally cerebral acolytes at a meeting in a Sunderland off-licence where they formed Britain’s least formidable quiz team.
Yes, an off-licence. Classy. Perhaps all the caves were booked up. Still, the weirdo in question wasn’t so dumb that he didn’t know which city to appear in, what to wear – and on which date.
Something of this nature was always going to happen. We knew this as soon as SAFC “revealed” (the world and his dog knew weeks before) that this game would be staged.
We also have to wonder how the police allowed the offlicence party to happen in the first place; or why they agreed to the fixture at all.
We must caveat this by saying that the majority of Celtic fans are not bigots f t
l f t