former top-class match official Kenny Clark

“You always think, ‘I would like my name to be in the frame for this one’. But that is the heart ruling the head, because when your name actually comes out, you start thinking ‘oh my God, why am I in the middle of all this’. I was always able to sleep the night before games, although I lost sleep after matches when things hadn’t gone too well.

It is an early start, which always adds a surreal element to it – it is never part of your normal routine to be up at 8am on a Sunday to be ready for the game.

“For Old Firm matches in Glasgow, you tend to drive yourself to whatever hotel you are to meet up at. It was soup and sandwiches if it was a 3pm kick-off, but on this occasion what will be provided will be fresh fruit and cereal, that sort of thing, maybe a bit of toast. It will probably be a city-centre hotel then they will be driven over in a people carrier to the stadium and straight into the underground car park.

I always took comfort from looking at the team lines and thinking, ‘I’ve been involved in more Old Firm games than that guy, or that guy’. It is not a case of marking cards, but we as referees would not be fulfilling our responsibilities if we didn’t look ahead to games and think about the tactics which might be employed, both legitimate and illegitimate.

Or where the flashpoints are likely to be. If I was looking at an Old Firm line-up and I knew, for example, that Lorenzo Amoruso and Chris Sutton were going to be in direct contact with each other, then I knew I might have to alter my positioning slightly. It was the same with Neil Lennon and Barry Ferguson or Alan Thompson or Fernando Ricksen. Refs have to be aware of that, or previous history between two players. You can’t go into games like this other than with your eyes wide open. If you don’t, you can be caught halfa-second short and that can make all the difference.

You dump the bags, then go out on the pitch to acclimatise, make sure all the nets and markings are in order. There shouldn’t be any issues at Hampden but you always have to check just in case. You then check the communications equipment, and an hour before kick-off the match commander will come in to have a chat. Sometimes I had the two managers coming in to toss a coin, to decide what end the penalties would be taken. At Hampden at an Old Firm match it will almost certainly be at the toss of a coin in the presence of the match commander at 2pm.

I always went into dressing rooms to check the boots but because Martin O’Neill gave people the cold shoulder treatment. I know that Hugh Dallas and Stuart Dougal got fed up with it. They eventually wouldn’t go into the dressing room but I am a bit thrawn about these things and I wasn’t going to let him decide what I did and didn’t do.

Refereeing, like everything else, is a skill, but you need a bit of luck at times and you do need a bit of co-operation from the players. You just hope they adopt the right attitude and you were always happy if you could come off and say, ‘wellat least we are not the headlines tomorrow’.”