IT’S doubtful those who vandalised the Rangers team bus last weekend knew the name Nigel Patrick Pickup.
For those not familiar with Nigel, who was from Liverpool, he had only turned nine-years-old when he lost his young life on stairway 13 at Ibrox Stadium, crushed to death along with 65 other ordinary folk who had gone along to a football match; this one being the traditional Ne’erday Old Firm fixture.
For anyone remotely aware of what happened on that awful night, they will know the Fife town of Markinch alone lost five school friends; four had lived on the same street.
It is presumed just about everyone was killed by compressive asphyxia which in layman’s terms means the body being denied oxygen. The last thoughts of those terrified children would have been for their mum, dad or any adult to save them as the bodies piled on top of one another in the crush.
Can you imagine that? I know I can’t and I don’t want to.
My own grandfather, a Celtic supporter, was at the game and utterly unaware of what had happened, as were the vast majority who had left after what had been a dramatic 1-1 draw. On his way to get a bus back to Motherwell he jumped over a wall and broke a bone in his leg.
Given that he was a tough man, he limped with his pal to the nearby Southern General Hospital only to discover it was overrun as the staff tried to deal with the injured and dead. This meant he was seriously late home and by this time the wider world knew there had been fatalities although details were sketchy.
There was no phone in the house so my worried gran sat at the window wondering if her husband was ever going to walk around the corner again. Eventually he did albeit with his leg in plaster. He was the lucky one. He never went back to Ibrox.
What went through the minds of the Aberdeen fans, and we have to presume this is what they will claim to be, who wrote “Ibrox 71” onto that bus. Maybe they think it’s just banter to mock dead children and their families. The appalling reference to the Ian Durrant injury is actually mild in comparison.
It’s times like this when it makes even a sandal wearing, granola eating leftie like me wish they would bring back the birch.
As a club, Aberdeen’s response fell way short of what was needed. Rangers put out a statement, which quite rightly said: "This sort of behaviour has no place in civilised society.”
Albeit an issue not in the same lowly league as the bus graffiti, there has been nothing said by the club about the Rangers fans at Pittodrie who were caught on camera throwing seats into the Aberdeen section, some of which connected with people. Same as a few weeks ago when offensive banners about Jock Stein and the fact the toilets were smashed up at Parkhead.
This act of mindless vandalism was filmed by a Rangers fan who then uploaded it onto social media and you have to wonder whether he did so as a boast or in a bid to bring justice to those who thought it fun to punch a ceiling. Let’s be honest, it’s probably the former.
As you will remember, some Celtic supporters that day hung blow-up dolls with rope wearing Rangers scarves over a stand. Even for this fixture it felt like a new low.
Celtic would not get involved in what they called a “tit-for-tat” public argument after the match but where was the condemnation for the effigies or the charming “Know Your Place Hun Scum” banner?
The club will “investigate and take it from there". Fair enough I suppose, but why is it impossible to come out and plainly say effigies of dead Rangers supporters is revolting?
All of this brings me to Tynecastle last Saturday when a Hearts fan berated the Ross County defender Andrew Davies for having the gall to be knocked out during the game, then receive treatment before it was decided it was too big a risk for him to carry on.
This idiot, who seemed to be with his young family, even got some laughs as he released a tirade of abuse at a fellow human being with a head injury. Davies was still compos mentis enough to call his aggressor “a fat xxxx”.
What is wrong with people who believe football gives them an excuse to act in a way, you would imagine, they would never dream of at any other time? Our clubs’ reluctance to get involved in such matters hardly helps but by the same token it is up to the individual to realise this is not the correct way for anyone to conduct themselves.
And as the SFA have now said no more action will be taken regarding the Scottish Cup Final, why should the morons change their ways.
Laughing at the dead, wishing other football fans dead, smashing up stadiums. How did we get here and why can’t they just enjoy the fact that going to the game is part of their lives?
There are 66 people long in their graves who had this simple pleasure taken away from them. We would all do well to remember that.
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