“It was the weirdest thing when we ran out and saw the Broomloan Stand was a sea of blue”
What happened on 30 April, 1994, was never supposed to happen again.
On that afternoon, John Collins scored Celtic’s only goal against Rangers netted without an official club support in attendance to witness it. Yet, the C ovid -19 pandemic restrictions mean that when Saturday rolls around and the ancient adversaries battle it out at an empt y Celtic Park, Collins could cease to be the only player to net in such circumstances.
Collins’ free-kick earned Lou Macari’s men a commendable draw against a domestic rampant Rangers in an unprecedented environment. One created by Ibrox club owner David Murray banning Celtic supporters, a decision taken as the result of damage to seats at the stadium in previous derby fixtures.
It forced Collins to twist in on himself to celebrate the opener he had curled in at the top right-hand corner of Colin Scott’s net. To the midfielder it didn't feel right there was no side, no section, no slice of the 46,000-capacity Ibrox that housed like -minds to bound towards. A special goal, “yes”, because no player at the club had scored in the storied fixture in similar fashion. A “hollow” one too, though.
"The pleasure in scoring is seeing the joy and happiness on the faces of the people who live for your team; hearing them singing,” he said of his net-billowing moment, in what is now known simply as ‘the fan-ban game’. “They are the heartbeat of a football club but it was only my blood and the blood of my team-mates I could see pumping after the ball hit the net."
He also heard "a couple of mouthfuls of abuse aimed in my direction from R angers fans". It wasn't these oaths alone, though, that punctured thee erie silence that descended on the ground after his dead-ball expertise. There were the shouts of the teammates that engulfed him, and the cheers of isolated Celtic fans who had wangled tickets to sit among the home legions.
The inevitability that some – around 150– would go" undercover" to gain entry threatened to make Murray' s stand against the" want on vandalism" of destroyed seats in the away end at the previous Ibrox derby give way to other violence. In the end, that was restricted to coins being pelted at several police as they led Celtic supporters around the track after the fans had outed themselves at their team's goal.
"It was the weirdest thing when we ran out to warm up and the Broomloan Stand was a sea of blue ,” Collins said. “After that, mind you, I just focused to the exclusion of everything happening around about, as you must."
Exasperated by C el tic' s unwillingness to stump up £7,800 for the 384 seats bro - ken during their side's 2-1 win the previous October, Murray
decided to deny Celtic their standard 7,500 allocation from the final derby in January 1994. He detailed £20,000 of damage at the visiting end
across the previous six Ibrox derbies as he did so.
Rangers equalised when Alexei Mikhailichenko’s shot spun off the boot of Mark
McN ally and looped over Pat Bonner. But it was amoral victory for Celtic .“Everyone said we would get turned over big time,” said Collins.