Celtic fans have been painted as the villains of the piece following off the park incidents at Saturday’s Scottish Cup tie with Airdrie United/Clydebank.
This morning The Sun treats a statement issued by the little known Airdrie Supporters Trust as the definitive account of what happened at an away match that attracted twice as many ‘Airdrie’ fans as normally attend home games.
As one twitter user pointed out there was a familiar style to the statement.
You’ve spelt James Traynor wrong in the closing of that statement https://t.co/hmAlbiyjB9
— Tam Sellics son (@gibbogibby1) January 21, 2019
Apparently six coaches of Airdrie supporters were ambushed by Celtic fans who had prepared for their arrival with bottles and stones, apparently orchestrated from a nearby pub, presumably Turnstiles.
That sounds far fetched and accounts for a maximum of 300 supporters. Many of the remaining 1,500 Airdrie fans are believed to have traveled from Wigan, Larkhall, Bearsden and Kilwinning with little knowledge of the players they were supporting. ‘Airdrie United/Clydebank’ should have a record of everyone that they sold a ticket to.
It seems that sharing their far-right political beliefs rather than witnessing a cup upset was the main motivation for the majority of visiting supporters. In their last home match only 1,140 fans turned up to watch Raith Rovers..
Frankly Celtic supporters don’t give a damn for the Lanarkshire club and their supporters, the chants they came up with on Saturday are similar to the poison heard from supporters of the tribute act and Hearts.
On Saturday Celtic fans were only concerned by an unusual kick off time and the possibility of a few new faces in Brendan Rodgers’ side. No-one was preparing a stash of bottles to launch at 300 parents and kids, Police Scotland have video evidence of every move made around the stadium by Celtic supporters.
Perhaps listening into the songs of the visiting supporters and the motivations for most of the 1,800 who travelled to watch ‘their’ team suffer a near certain defeat will provide the real reasons for the troubles outside of the ground on Saturday.
Over the next ten 10 supporters of St Mirren, Hamilton and St Johnstone will visit Celtic Park, there isn’t the remotest prospect of any trouble to prompt a ‘carefully crafted’ statement from any of their supporter Trusts.
No arrests have yet been made following the stabbing of Osijek fans outside of Ibrox in July.