Ibrox Ghosts The Big Game

We take trip to Govan to see how locals coped without Derby

- Gabriel Mckay

If you closed your eyes you could almost imagine you can hear it on the wind, the excitable chatter and chanting of an assembling crowd.

If you tried hard enough you could perhaps conjure up the smell of frying onions and errant cigarette smoke.

If you squinted through your mind’s eye you could even see the seas of green and blue separated by a solid block of luminous yellow.

Open your eyes though and the scene fades like celluloid in the sun. On what should have been derby day the only sound rippling around Ibrox is the wind, the only sight two men standing in front of the gates as though waiting. Waiting for the game that never was.

These are the sights and sounds of a ghost football match.

When the announcement was made that Scottish football would be shut down indefinitely the thoughts of most fans immediately turned to the games they’d miss. In ordinary circumstances Rangers would be taking on Celtic, the streets packed and the police on high alert. There’s nothing for them to worry about today.

Once the decision to call off the games had sunk in, the inevitable “what’s next?” followed. Questions of sporting integrity, finances and contracts. What few considered is the impact on everything about a match that doesn’t involve 22 blokes on a pitch.