After yesterday’s article on the stewarding situation at Ibrox at the weekend, my mate sent me a picture, which he took half an hour into the game, after a fan had already run onto the pitch and after coins and other objects had been thrown at Celtic players.
We were 2-0 up at the time and looked like we might score for fun.
As my mate has pointed out, with the game poised as it was, we might well have scored again and been going in at half time at least one more goal to the good … there was a very real risk of a pitch invasion by their supporters.
This picture is, in its own way, even more alarming than the one I published last night.
It is damning.
Look at that and think for a moment what it says.
Stewards lined up in front of the away support, whose team is leading by miles, and who’s fans are singing “We’re only here for the party.”
A handful of stewards around the pitch in front of home supporters baying for blood, ready for revolt, after serious incidents have already taken place.
There is also a piece of video footage, which someone brought to my attention last night, which shows something that appears to be a golf ball being thrown at Stuart Armstrong.
Watch the Simunovic tackle.
Watch as Celtic go up the park.
Watch as something is launched from the crowd, bounces a couple of times and stops out on the pitch.
I’ve watched it a few times; there is no doubt that’s a ball of some sort.
Whoever brought that into the ground had one intention; to hurt a Celtic player.
The Daily Record and other papers are doing their level best to talk up a handful of incidents outside the ground as an “inspiration” to the city, but this is simply Level 5 style guff to detract from the real story, which is that tens of thousands of fans behaved like the worst scum and that a handful went much further.
One piece of astounding whatabouttery – appearing in The Express – even tried to find moral equivalence between a few of our fans letting off smoke bombs and the shocking behaviour of theirs with pitch incursions, racial abuse, sectarian singing and the throwing of objects.
I do not know what to say other than that this is shocking, but typical of our media.
But that picture speaks a thousand words, coming in a part of the game where our players were already very clearly at risk.
The SFA had better be asking real questions about this.
It’s not enough for them to sweep this one away with the trash.
Clubs need to prove they’ve taken all possible measures to ensure the safety of those who are out on the pitch.
Sevco, quite clearly, failed in that and cannot be allowed to make that claim and get away with it.