A brief history of briefs - a Celtic ticket hunters memoirs.

In a departure from the current affairs in the Celtic world of a mammoth 18 point gap and 1 point away from the league title win or the continued comical demise of the second biggest institution in Scotland (Copyright: David Murray), I am taking an indulgent walk down memory lane to a time that was more Angel Delight and Ice Cream than Jelly and Ice Cream.

I am talking Tickets rather than Ticketus and whilst a lot of this may be familiar to those of a certain age, to the younger fan this might all seem very quaint. With the recent rush for tickets for the St Johnstone match and now the Kilmarnock game with everyone wanting to be there when we finally cross the line it got me thinking back to the first time I witnessed a title win in person and the process of getting tickets.

My first proper season of being without a chaperone at the football and going it alone with my mates was the 1987-88 season and I was fourteen. At the time getting to every home game was the maximum aim of my life’s ambition. If I could add a few away games and a few visits to hampden along the way then that was a bonus, however not being affiliated to a supporters bus I was at the mercy of the dreaded public sales so knew my limits. I travelled to the game by train which was a 20 minute journey, alighting at dalmarnock around 1.20 as we had a favourite position to safeguard in the jungle.

Such was the boredom of standing from just after 1.30pm for a 3,00pm kick off that we even had a chant for Brian Scott as he was the first one out to warm up with the keeper either allen mcknight or pat bonner. “Brian Scott, Brian Scott, Brian Scott” to the tune of “here we go”. For the record, Brian Scott was the Celtic Physio at the time.       

In the days of pay at the gate when I first attended Celtic Park for a juvenile going in the boys and OAP’s gate it was a charge of £1.50. Like now when it came to ticketed matches there were no reduced prices and the full adult admission of £2.50 for the terracing was required. Ticketed matches at Celtic Park in those days were usually reserved for the visits of the team from the South Side of the City.

However with Hearts challenging for the title in 1987/88 their visit on 12 December 1987 was made an all ticket match. Their first visit in August had attracted a crowd of 29,000,  but with the reality setting in that they were to be our main challenge for the title this time round there were over 42,000 to see Celtic claw back a two goal deficit courtesy of a late strike by Paul McStay. With the crowd being 18,000 below the capacity the ticket only policy was perhaps unjustified but maybe the increased income was the real motivator.

The means by which tickets were sold in these days would be alien to the new generation of Celtic Supporters. Adverts were placed in the newspapers of the day and in the weekly Celtic View advising of the arrangements, generally from the Celtic shop at the ground. Celtic also at the time had shops in West Nile Street and just beside Queen Street Station, these were tiny shops with virtually all the merchandising held behind the counter so you couldn’t really browse anything, like a football version of the old haddows shops where everything was behind a cage at the counter. Sometimes these shops had an allocation of tickets to sell but not many as the floor space only allowed four people in at a time so the queues were always snaking up the street. To be certain of getting a ticket the best tactic was to get it from the ground.

By and large the tickets for the big matches were sold out with a match day through the turnstiles at the Celtic end so that the queues could stretch into the car park area and along London Road. These were very often held on a Sunday, although I do remember someone having the bright idea of having them on a Friday morning at 10am for a European tie which meant people had to miss work / uni / school. They never thought of opening the turnstiles early when in general 90% of the people were there from 8am. Queuing for these tickets were mind numbing affairs and you could take four hours to get to the turnstile to eventually get your ticket.

 The Queue that year for the cup final tickets held on a Sunday Morning was one such occasion where the crowds were immense, they were probably selling upwards of 40,000 tickets that day at an average charge of £4.50 all paid for in cash, no cheques or credit cards accepted in those days. I always managed to pick the right queue to join and got a ticket but there were always people left to go home empty handed. I used to imagine messers McGinn and Kelly counting the cash by hand into little piles on their desk long into the night after the queues had disappeared.    

Another occasion of queuing for tickets at parkhead sticks in my mind, it was the day after we had been defeated 5-1 by Rangers at Ibrox at the start of the 1988/89 season, the biggest and most deflating defeat I had witnessed as a Celtic fan at that time. We were due to play Dundee United away in the Skol Cup the following Wednesday and despite the result I was determined to go, probably as much to try and get it out of my system with another match as soon as possible. The queue that day was as big as for any other ticket sale and the experience of being amongst your own discussing and debating the previous days match was quite a cathartic experience.

During the sale Jack Mcginn was spotted getting out of his car at the entrance and there was a barrage of shouting and frustration directed towards him from the queue as he scuttled inside. As the shouting died down I spotted this elderly fan who’s face was turning a peculiar shade of purple as he pointed his finger at the entrance and couldn’t seem to get his words out until he spluttered “and yer pies are fuc#in rotten too” We lost the tie to Dundee Utd 2-0.

I can lay claim with some conviction to being one of the first 10 people to be in the Jungle on the day we won the league against Dundee in the centenary season. It’s not a massive claim but a claim none the less. I can remember the details of that season more vividly than any other and it was a great season to be starting out your journey as a supporter; the special club badge; the exhibition at the people palace; the show at the pavilion and special tribute programmes on BBC and STV marking the Centenary. I would have had on my 501 jeans and my centenary hooped strip that day as I set off for the train half an hour earlier than usual and little did I know as I tucked into my can of irn bru and hedgehog flavour crisps that it would be 10 long years before I was to experience this feeling again.

The strange thing about this game was that entry to the match itself was “Pay at the Gate” given that previous games like the hearts one that season out with the Rangers games had been all ticket. The previous Saturday Celtic had failed to pick up the points required to clinch the title due to a 2-1 defeat at tynecastle which meant the title could be won at Celtic Park against Dundee. The club stated that they had insufficient time between the matches to produce, distribute and sell 60,000 tickets which is probably true; however the cynic amongst us looking back would think this suited Celtic as it meant the turnstiles could click until the old ground reached bursting point.

Bursting point was reached by 2.45pm as the crowd were allowed to sit behind the goal at the Celtic end behind makeshift cordons; although an official attendance of 60,400 was recorded some observers commented that there could have been in excess of 70,000 in the ground that day. This was less than 12 months before the tragedy at Hillsborough and on reflection now looking back; to have a few thousand people on the pitch level rather than in the terracings illustrated the disregard that was given to the stipulated ground capacity on that day.

Why was I one of the first in the ground that day? Well because of another antiquated system they sometimes implemented for selling tickets. Having lost to Hearts the week before all thoughts turned to Celtic Park and the game against Dundee, but I had an eye on the worst case scenario of not winning that day and the title roadshow running on to Fir Park, Motherwell the following week. Tickets for this match were to be sold on a first come, first served basis through the turnstiles at the Dundee match so it was that I joined a queue of a hand full of people on Janefield street at 1.15pm on the day of the match awaiting the opening of the turnstiles at 1.30pm.

The streets surrounding the ground were deserted as those with half a brain and more confidence in the result than me were sitting in the pub or watching Saint and Greavsie. I remember as we were stood waiting to pay our £4 (not bad for two games!) a metal door in one of the gates opened and a steward came out and walked along the line telling us that the directors had warned us to stay off the pitch at the end of the match. Quite a hard thing to impose when you have allowed a few thousand extra folk in to pay for the privilege of standing pitch side behind the goals I would have thought.  

Whilst the ways and means of acquiring tickets for matches may have changed and the price for a match ticket may have rocketed, the one thing that remains the same over the course of history is the Celtic fans clammer for tickets. For the lucky ones who managed to pick up extra tickets at Celtic Park yesterday morning it will be another occasion to remember along with the other famous title winning days, it’s been too long since the last one but hopefully for Neil Lennon and Celtic it’s the first of a long line of championships to come.