Ibrox disaster: Rangers manager had lucky escape from the horror on Stairway 13

WALTER SMITH is a veteran of 75 Old Firm matches, first as assistant manager and then in charge of Rangers. But, like any other born and bred supporter of the Ibrox club, there is one date in the history of the fixture which stands out from the rest.

On 2 January 1971, the then 22-year-old Smith took the opportunity to travel to Ibrox with his brother Ian on their local supporters' bus from Carmyle in the east end of Glasgow.

A player at Dundee United at the time, Smith consoled himself at being left out of the Tannadice club's first-team plans that weekend by taking in the always eagerly anticipated New Year showdown of Rangers and Celtic.

The man who would go on to become one of the most successful Old Firm managers of all time found himself caught up in the chain of events which led to 66 Rangers supporters losing their lives in the crush on Stairway 13.

The 40th anniversary of the tragedy this Sunday will see Smith doing his utmost to guide Rangers to victory against their oldest rivals at Ibrox but the poignancy of the occasion is never lost on him.

"Jerry Kerr, the Dundee United manager at the time, had not picked me that weekend so I was at home in Glasgow and went to the Old Firm game," recalls Smith. "Coming from Carmyle, it was always the Rangers end of the ground where we congregated. My brother and I were both caught on Stairway 13 that day.

"It wasn't unusual back then for the crowds to feel the squeeze in that part of the ground. There was always a bit of a bottle-neck at the bottom of it and the crowds often had to stop. So I didn't think much of it at the time.

"I suppose nowadays people would be quite scared of it, but it didn't seem that frightening back then because crowd congestion was a fairly common occurrence. I can remember that close to me, the crowd sort of collapsed to the side, but I can never remember feeling in any sort of danger. I can't really remember feeling anyone around us was in any serious difficulty.

"My brother and I were about a third of the way down the stairs. I think the majority of the people who died were further down the stairs."

Smith left the ground unaware of the unfolding disaster and it was only when he began to piece the events together later that he realised how close he and his brother had come to serious involvement in the tragedy.

"We managed to scramble out over what I thought was the wooden fence on the right of the stairs as you went down," he added. "I thought it had collapsed and we'd climbed over it. But I saw photographs of it subsequently and it wasn't down. The wooden railings were still intact, while all the metal ones on the other side were bent and twisted.So we must have actually climbed over the top of other people in order to get out on to Edmiston Drive.

"I remember many years later, when I came to work at Rangers for the first time, the club doctor Donald Cruickshank telling me they had actually strengthened those fences at the side of Stairway 13 during the close season in 1970. Maybe if they had collapsed, there would have been an easier way out for people.

"My brother and I left Ibrox that day having no idea that anything like a disaster had occurred. We just got on our bus and headed home. It wasn't until we got back to Carmyle, where people were congregating and waiting to see if everyone was okay, that we realised.

"You just felt fortunate, having been as close as you were to something like that, that you got out without coming to any harm. It was a disastrous day for everyone, but we were the lucky ones."

As Rangers and the rest of Scottish football came to terms with the horrific scale of the tragedy, Smith found himself back at Ibrox two weeks later. This time, he was on the pitch as part of the Dundee United side who provided the opposition in the first match Rangers played following the disaster.

The 1-1 draw would normally have been regarded as an achievement by United but on a sombre occasion, preceded by two minutes' silence, the scoreline was irrelevant.

"It was a very subdued atmosphere, as you would expect," said Smith. "It was just a fortnight after the disaster and it was almost surreal playing football at Ibrox that day.

"The disaster is something that is still remembered so vividly by so many people and we will pay our respects to the people who perished so needlessly this weekend. From Rangers' point of view, it would be nice to win for them in the game itself. We'd like to give a good performance in remembrance of them."