THE OLD FIRM-men and women

January 2nd (or there abouts) is the day for the annual fixture of the Old Firm game; Glasgow Rangers v Glasgow Celtic. In 1939, a 118567 crowd squeezed into Rangers' Ibrox Ground to record the highest attendance for the derby.

Rangers won the match 2-1 and the league title, eventually, and Celtic, losers on the day, were league runners-up at the end of the season! They have never been far apart.

On the same date, 1971, at Ibrox, Jimmy Johnstone scored in the 89th minute for Celtic, making the score 0-1. 80,000 headed to the gates to "avoid the deparyting crush" but when Colin Stein equalised for Rangers, in the final seconds of injury time, pandemonium. The steep, Stairway 13, leading to a steep supporters' terrace, became a death trap as supporters tried to turn round to re-enter the terraces causing a "crush" and 66 supporters were killed an over 200 injured.

Stairway 13 has had several disasters with two fans being killed in September 1961, 8 injured in September 1967 and in January 1969 24 injured.

The first Old Firm "derby" was on 28th May 1888 in a friendly, which Celtic, at home, won 5-2. The heaviest defeat was on October 19th 1957, a 7-1 victory for Celtic in the League Cup and the last meeting prior to this was on October 17th 2020 a 0-2 win for Rangers in the Scottish Premier League.

The religious tradition, Rangers as Protestants/Pro-British and Celtic, very definitely, as Catholics, has been broken from time to time, notably in 1986, when manager Graham Souness, signed Mo Johnston from Celtic. 

Today, Rangers won 1-0 (an o.g. settled it) with an Englishman as manager. There have been 422 derbies with Rangers winning 164, Celtic 159 and the rest drawn.

The term "Old Firm" is regularly used by commentators around the game and the phrase has its origins with reference to the Scottish Cup Final in April 16th 1904, where a cartoon in the satirical magazine "The Scottish Ref", shows two rivals, with a man with a sandwich board stating "Patronise the Old Firm-Rangers and Celtic Ltd." This makes reference to the commercial benefits of the regularly played match, between the two great clubs, especially in a Scottish Cup Final. Celtic won 3-2, with a hat trick from Quinn and Speedie scored both for Rangers. (crowd 64,472).

With Glasgow being in the west of the central region of the country, there is reference made to Irish Scots (Celtic) and Ulster Scots (Rangers).

Others refer to commetators writing about the game being when "two old, firm, friends meet".

The two clubs were, of course, two of the original 11 clubs to form the Scottish League in 1890. Can you name them? Answer below in difficult to read print! Now locate these places!!

The Womens' clubs have had similar rivalry since their formation in 2007-8, although Glasgow City WFC have dominance in the domestic league competition.

Abercorn, Cambuslang, Cowlairs, Dumbarton, Celtic, Heart of Midlothian, Rangers, Renton, St Mirren, Third Lanark, Vale of Leven.