Stairway to Heaven

At Tynecastle yesterday afternoon, supporters of Heart of Midlothian and Hibernian sat in an arena recognised as one of the most atmospheric in Scotland. However, today there is a poignant reminder of a time when going to a football match resulted in tragic circumstances.

For people of my generation, it’s hard to believe forty years have now passed since Scottish football’s darkest day. On 2 January 1971, Rangers played Celtic at Ibrox in the traditional New Year fixture. Celtic were the dominant force in Scottish football at that time and were one of the best sides in Europe. Under the leadership of Jock Stein, they had already won five successive Scottish league championships and were on their way to a sixth when they headed to Ibrox. To explain to younger readers, forty years ago the majority of football fans stood on terracing slopes when watching their favourites. If you were lucky enough to get to the ground early enough you could lean against one of the crush barriers to take the weight off your feet. However, many fans would choose to leave drinking establishments as late as possible in order to be fuelled by alcohol before the game. Hearts fans of my age will remember the open terracing behind the goals at Tynecastle being sparsely populated until around fifteen minutes before kick-off when the Tynecastle Arms, Diggers et al would empty rapidly and fans would head for ‘the game’.

The Old Firm game in January 1971 looked to be heading for a goalless draw when Celtic’s Jimmy Johnstone scored what looked like the winning goal with a couple of minutes to go. However, from the re-start Rangers went immediately up the field and equalised through Colin Stein. We all love scoring a last minute goal against our city rivals - Hearts have done it on more than one occasion against Hibernian. As fans left Ibrox in exuberant mood, some of the barriers on Stairway 13 gave way and led to a huge pile-up of people. Sixty-six people lost their life with another two hundred injured. Many of the dead were children including five school chums from Markinch. It was a tragedy that brought Glasgow and the whole of Scotland together.

I was approaching my ninth birthday at the time and had recently moved from Cumbernauld on the outskirts of Glasgow to Aberdeen. Being a young Hearts supporter I wouldn’t have been at Ibrox that day in any case but I did wonder if any of my pals from the new town had been caught up in the events. Thankfully, none of them were although there was a nine-year-old boy among the dead and many of those who died were teenagers. The devastation felt by their loved ones can only be imagined.

The disaster led to the redevelopment of Ibrox to the all-seated stadium it is today. Tragically, there would be more loss of life at football matches in later years at Bradford’s Valley Parade in 1985 and at Hillsborough in Sheffield in 1989 before the Taylor Report put safety as the number one criteria at football grounds around the country.

There has been a call recently for the restoration of terracings to football grounds. Now I’m something of a traditionalist and I remember the days of standing at Tynecastle with a degree of fondness. However, there is no question that all-seated stadia has made attending football matches safer than ever. I’ve been taking my five-year-old grandson Jack to Tynecastle this season and it helps immeasurably that we sit on the same seats for every game. We now have close circuit TV, stewards galore to assist and clearly signed posted directions. It’s a much different world to when I was taken to football with my father for the first time in the late 1960s when crowds of 40,000 would pack into Tynecastle and 80,000 would be at Ibrox and Celtic Park with 100,000 going to Hampden for cup finals and Scotland-England games.

Now we need a ticket to attend top flight football and some may argue there’s an added inconvenience of having to get the ticket and find your way to your seat as opposed to the days of the terracing when we simply turned up five minutes before kick off (although season ticket holders of a few years standing - if you’ll excuse the pun - can easily locate their seat even after a few pints of foaming ale) However, I would far rather do this knowing my safety and that of others won’t be compromised.

As we remember those who left us in such tragic circumstances forty years ago and whose families’ lives changed forever, that’s something we should give thanks for.