A 120-year-old firm favourite

Published on Saturday 20 December 2008 18:30

IT HAS become almost axiomatic for the birdbrained ignorami of Scottish football to chirrup that the Yuletide Old Firm derby just ain't what it used to be.

OK, so it's no longer on Ne'erday; it usually starts at 12.30pm instead of post-Hogmanay hangover time of 3pm; it no longer decides whether Rangers or Celtic is going to win the league; and, unlike the legends of yesteryear, today's players don't care too much for a conflict with its connections to religious tribalism.

What the gainsayers contend is that, compared to decades past, when players from both sides kicked each other silly and blood and booze ran in the streets around Ibrox and Parkhead as bigoted hooligans battled, the present day Old Firm derby is a rather wimpish affair.

There is a ring of truth in the arguments that next weekend's match at Ibrox is just another game for the top two teams in the SPL. Except that the evidence profoundly contradicts the suppositions.

It matters, this match. It really, really matters to fans, players and managers alike. It remains the sine qua non of Scottish football, the one colossus of a game in this country which the footballing world knows and appreciates as unique, not least because no two teams in any other city share such a duopoly of success.

Forget Liverpool, Madrid, Milan, London, Buenos Aires, Manchester, Rome, Lisbon, Turin, Belgrade, Istanbul, Sao Paulo, and the rest. This is still The Big One. Love it or hate it, the Old Firm match, especially at this time of year, remains the greatest local derby on the planet.

Yes, sectarianism has too often been the cause of the peculiar enmities which have filled casualty wards for a century. But is that the only defining factor in the uniqueness of the Old Firm match?

Fact: no other great city derby features two teams who have such a trophy-winning tradition. Between them, Celtic and Rangers have won 159 league titles and Scottish Cups. No other local derby features two teams with a three figure total of national league and cup wins between them.

It follows, then, that Rangers versus Celtic has a history and a tradition of its own, and not just because of bigotry. It's about success and failure, about bragging rights, who can wear the big cheesy grins at work, as much as it is about Billy and Dan.

Walter Smith, manager of Rangers, first attended an Old Firm Ne'erday match around 50 years ago. He couldn't remember the exact date but was sure of something about it. "Rangers won," he said emphatically, while dismissing the Liverpudlian derby with which he became familiar as Everton manager as almost a family affair compared to the Glaswegian equivalent.

He confirms the need for triumph is as vital as ever for players and coaches alike. "There is a different feeling, an edge to an Old Firm game," said Smith. "You have just got to win the game. With victory you don't have a great celebration, you're just kind of delighted that it's over and you have managed to win it. Losing is the worst aspect."

For differing reasons, both sets of fans will need no reminding that the last Old Firm match at Celtic Park ended in a 4-2 win for Rangers. It was a result that shocked the champions and their opponents' manager: "We played really well at Celtic Park, but if you had said to me we would be 4-1 up with minutes to go I would have said that would be totally unexpected. Welcome, but totally unexpected.

"Strange games like that can happen. I'm thinking of the 4-4 game and the games where we have scored five, and it's highly unlikely that Celtic will ever lose four goals at home, but the circumstances fell our way in that game."

But that match is forgotten, as is the position of the teams in the SPL, and the importance of the match is such that Christmas is cancelled, at least as a holiday, for the Rangers squad. The players will be at Murray Park on Christmas Day taking part in the normal preparations that they undergo 48 hours before a big match, and Smith expects no complaints.

"One thing about Old Firm games is that it is never difficult to keep players focused, regardless of when, where and what the circumstances are. The build-up to the game in the media and within your own friends and family keep it right to the fore, even at this Christmas and New Year period."

Another theory is that the number of foreign players taking part has diminished the passion in recent years. Not a bit of it, says Smith.

"Taking religious aspects out of it, which I think are dying out, though obviously they are still there and I am not naive enough to say they aren't, players still know it's one of the biggest local derby games in the world, and if they don't know what it means, they soon learn."

One Rangers player who couldn't agree more with Smith that foreigners soon discover the uniquely intense nature of Old Firm matches is Sasa Papac, the 28-year-old Bosnian defender who continues to absent himself from international football and whose contract at Ibrox has been extended to 2011, meaning he could yet play in a dozen or more Old Firm games. He recalled his first, in September, 2006, when Celtic won 2-0 at Parkhead.

"It took me by surprise, seeing the fans' feelings and how hard the players chased after every ball," said Papac. "Nothing compared to it, not even Bosnia versus Serbia, which was more fans against fans while on the pitch it was quite normal because the players knew each other. Dado Prso had told me before about the Old Firm games, but the feeling you get when you go out on to the pitch and see everything around you is something special."

A veteran of half-a-dozen Old Firm clashes, Papac has certainly learned the peculiar patois that surrounds the big Glasgow clashes – every match is different, form and league placings don't count, players give 110%, etc. "It doesn't matter who is in first or second or third place, every Old Firm game is a new game," said Papac.

Next Saturday, the Old Firm's 120-year-old rivalry will be renewed in Glasgow where the Christmas wish will be peace on earth and goodwill to all – except the other mob.