Celtic: ‘Saddened’ Martin O’Neill fears impact on derby away fans at Rangers games

Rangers had hosted Celtic the previous Sunday in their 2-2 Scottish Premiership draw, when away fans made up around 2,500 of the 50,000 crowd. Rangers are due to visit the 60,000-seater Celtic Park once more in the league this season. The last time the sides met at Celtic Park in January, approaching 2,400 Rangers supporters attended.

“I was a really big advocate, from a distance, of feeling that without away fans, without the full allocation of away fans, I thought the Old Firm game, still a fantastic fixture, had lost some of its lustre,” Celtic manager O’Neill told TalkSport.

“And I thought the noise emanating from Ibrox, both last Sunday and the Sunday before that, even though we’d only 2,500 people, was something I have not heard for a long, long time.

“Maybe Celtic playing Liverpool way back in 2003, have I heard a noise emanating from a stadium like that.

“So, there’s something really magical about it and I’m really, obviously, quite saddened by the events. Saddened seems almost like you’re minimising or downplaying things.

“But overall it’s a shame because I think the things that I was hoping that would happen, and happened for a long time, may now not happen anymore.”