THERE are thousands of people required to make a Rangers versus Celtic match at Hampden memorable. Stewart Fisher and Graeme Macpherson spoke to just a few of the protagonists.

The match official: Former referee Kenny Clark

"Whenever an Old Firm match is coming up, you always think I would like my name to be in the frame for this one. But that is the heart ruling the head, because when your name actually comes out, you start thinking 'oh my God, why am I in the middle of all this'. I was always able to sleep the night before games, although I lost sleep after matches when things hadn't gone too well.

"It is an early start, which always adds a surreal element to it - it is never part of your normal routine to be up at 8am on a Sunday morning to be ready for the game. For Old Firm matches in Glasgow, you generally drive yourself to whatever hotel you are to meet up at. It was soup and sandwiches if it was a 3 o'clock kick off, but on this occasion what will be provided will be fresh fruit and cereal, that sort of thing, maybe a bit of toast. It will probably be a city centre hotel then they will be driven over in a people carrier to the stadium and straight into the underground car park.

"From then, while I don't say there is a comfort zone as such, but there is familiarity to it, and Willie Collum is fortunately in that situation. He has done a number of Old Firm games and refereed at Hampden many times. I always took a comfort from looking at the team lines and thinking 'I have been involved in more Old Firm games than that guy, that guy or that guy'.

"It is not a case of marking cards, but we as referees would not be fulfilling our responsibilities if we didn't look ahead to games and think about the tactics which might be employed, both legitimate and illegitimate. Or where the flashpoints are likely to be. If I was looking at an Old Firm line up and I knew, for example, that Lorenzo Amoruso and Chris Sutton were going to be in direct contact with each other, then I knew I might have to alter my positioning slightly, be ten yards closer to them when the ball is played up.

“The same with Neil Lennon and Barry Ferguson or Alan Thompson or Fernando Ricksen. Referees have to be aware of that, or previous history between two players the last time around. You can't go into games like this other than with your eyes wide open. If you don't, you can be caught half a second short and that can make all the difference in an Old Firm game.

"You dump the bags in the changing room, then go out on the pitch to acclimatise, make sure all the nets and markings are in order. There shouldn't be any issues at Hampden but you always have to check them just in case. You then check all the communications equipment, then an hour before kick off the match commander will come in to have a chat with you.

"For a cup tie it is always important to know what the arrangements are for penalty kicks, where they are going to be taken. Sometimes in the past I have had the two managers coming in, and they toss a coin, to decide what end the penalty kicks are going to be taken at. At Hampden at an Old Firm match it will almost certainly be at the toss of a coin in the presence of the match commander at 2pm.

"You go out and do the warm up, get stretched, and get used, a wee bit, to the crowd noise, then come back off, do the final preparations, get all the proper gear and equipment on, then check the boots. I always went into dressing rooms to do that but because Martin O'Neill gave people the cold shoulder treatment I know that Hugh Dallas and Stuart Dougal got fed up with it. They eventually wouldn't go into the dressing room but I am a bit thrawn about these things and I would still go in - because I knew he didn't want me to go in. And I wasn't going to let him decide what I do and what I didn't do. Going in and maybe talking to players is all part of establishing a rapport and I wasn't going to have that undermined simply because Martin O'Neill wanted to play mind games with us.

“For a cup semi-final, particularly a live TV match, it is run to a tight schedule, so you make sure they are lined up in the tunnel at the right time and away we go.

"Refereeing, like everything else in sport, is a skill but you need a bit of luck at times and you do need a bit of co-operation from the players. The thing that makes life really difficult for the referee is when he has constantly having people challenging his authority, and squaring up to each other.

“You just hope they adopt the right attitude to things and you call the decisions right by being in the right place at the right time. Every referee is going out there hoping not to be noticed. You were always happy if you could come off and say, well 'at least we are not the headlines tomorrow'."

Ian Crocker, Sky Sports commentator

“I worked out recently that the last one was the 50th Old Firm game I had commentated on so it’s a fixture I know well by now. They still stick out as special occasions and I get a real buzz in the build-up to each one and then at the match itself.

“I spend Friday working on all my notes although, ironically, this is the one match where you don’t always get a chance to use them as it tends to be played at 100 mph and there’s barely chance to draw breath never mind fit in anything else.

“Then on the day of the game I always wake up early, about half 6. For a lunchtime kick-off like today I’ll get to the ground around 9am as I like to sit and look around the empty stadium for five minutes, knowing it’s going to be absolutely mental a few hours later. I’ll then hover around the tunnel hoping to pick up team news. Some managers give it you quite early, some don’t. Some will give it to you on the phone – Walter Smith was good for that when he was at Rangers – but normally you just get the steer an hour or so before kick-off.

“I’ll then get settled in my seat on the commentary gantry about 45 minutes before and make some last-minute adjustments to my notes. I then like to do nothing for the last 30 minutes before kick-off, just taking in the atmosphere while listening to the build-up in our studio.

“In advance you have a few lines in your head you would like to use in commentary but more often than not a goal doesn’t happen as you think it might or a player might not do as you expected. So more often than not it’s just ad-libbing with whatever comes to mind. Especially in an Old Firm game where you usually have no idea what is coming next.

“I always say that I’m one of the few neutrals on these occasions as I genuinely like covering both teams. Coming from Dorset on the south coast of England, following my local team Weymouth and then West Ham when I moved to London, I’ve never had a Scottish team. But as I’ve been commentating on Scottish football for nearly 20 years now people always think you favour one side or other but I’m genuinely happy sitting on the fence and letting everyone else worry about the result!

“I’ve done a few crackers over the years. The one in 1999 when it all kicked off was memorable even though it overstepped the mark. I remember looking at co-commentator Davie Provan when we came off air and we were both staring at each other open-mouthed.

“My favourite two were the 6-2 game back in 2000 when Celtic were three up after 11 minutes, and then the Scottish Cup final in 2002 when Peter Lovenkrands scored in the last minute to give Rangers to win. I remember saying as Neil McCann’s cross came in, “is there going to be a twist in the tail?” and Lovenkrands scored so it’s always nice when a line like that comes off. You’re trying to capture the moment the best you can and it’s humbling when folk come up to you later on and say they enjoyed your commentary.

“You get so wrapped up in a match and concentrating on what is going on you definitely feel tired afterwards, especially one as frantic as the Old Firm game. But they give you such a buzz. I don’t like re-watching old commentaries as I don’t like the sound of my own voice but I’ll sometimes go back over a few incidents and make sure I called it right at the time.

“With social media, people aren’t slow to tell you if you haven’t. It’s generally just good banter although sometimes fans take it a bit too far. But if the abuse comes in 50/50 from both sides then I know then that I must be doing something right!”

The Security Chief: Hampden Park Ltd Safety and Operations Manager, Brian Muir

"The Scottish FA are the hosts for a game like this, but they give me primacy over all safety and security issues throughout the match - although clearly if things get to the point where this is becoming a major crimes situation or a major security situation, then I will hand primacy over to the police match commander who can control things as well. Last year's Scottish Cup final is the only time we have had to do that in the seven years I have been here.

"Once we know these fixtures are coming there is a thing called the networking group, which sits on a regular basis and works on the high level stuff. There is a pre-operations meeting about a month out and then an operations meeting a few days out.

“These involve the clubs, police, fire, ambulance, and the merchandising, commercial, and communication departments at Hampden. In and around that I have various other meetings and I am in the control room on matchday, where obviously the police commander has his or her controllers and support staff and I have G4S staff who I direct. We also have medical and fire supervisors in there, communications staff, and people to control the PA stream and CCTV.

"The Scottish FA have their own security and integrity officer, Peter McLaughlin, but it tends to be the police who will speak to the players and clubs before the match, in this case match commander Alan Murray. I have done that before as a senior police officer, and the players' eyes just kind of glaze over.

“There is a thing called the Lord Advocate's Guideline. It is a pretty boring document and it is given to the players verbatim but the stance I used to take was saying 'look guys, it is a heat of the moment game, I get that, but please try to be aware of the effect your actions could have on the crowd'. There is also a police briefing of the refereeing team about an hour before kick off, flagging up issues like which fans are where, and where any risk groups might be located.

"It probably is the busiest weekend of my year - I will be starting around 7.30am on both Saturday and Sunday and working through to about early evening. After Saturday everything has to get cleared again for the Sunday, and it is my call to open the gates, so I have to make sure all the checks are done and make sure the stadium is absolutely safe. My name is on the safety certificate. My responsibility is only for the campus here, although I can affect what happens outside, if I had to evacuate the stadium or something like that.

"I don't find Celtic-Rangers more difficult or challenging than any other game, because the stadium is absolutely full, and to their credit, the vast majority of Rangers and Celtic fans are decent fans who absolutely know what they are doing. They know how to get to Hampden, and how to get away from it safely again. It is only the minority who are intent on noising up the opposition and making themselves known. They inconvenience others around them.

"What happens on the pitch can have a big effect but that notwithstanding, there are risk groups within both sets of fans, who like to sing certain songs, display certain banners and occasionally let off pyros, so we have to look at searching them, and getting intelligence from the SFA, police intelligence channels and the club's own safety organisations. That is all fed into the pot."

The fan: Phil Brown, Celtic supporter, East Belfast

"A typical day for a member of our club today starts with setting your alarm for 5am. We have to be there for 5.45am then it is a 45-minute bus trip for us to a place called Larne. After that, it is a two hour ferry crossing to the port of Cairnryan near Stranraer - the first sailing on a Sunday service is 7.30am - then another two-hour coach journey up and in to Glasgow. Now the difficulty for this game is that the 12 noon kick off means that you are really pushed for time and everything is basically a sprint. It will be the same for the Northern Irish Rangers fans too - making these 12 noon kick-offs is an absolute nightmare but we just need to persevere. The worst thing about it all is having to get over to Hampden, rather than Celtic Park.

"The way it works over here is that if Celtic are playing at home then Celtic fans are allocated the main boat from Belfast, but if Rangers are playing at Ibrox they go to the Rangers fans. And it alternates if Celtic are playing Rangers in domestic up matches. For example, the last semi-final when Dembele scored, Celtic fans got the boat from Belfast and Rangers fans took the Larne to Cairnryan crossing.

“So what happens tomorrow as far as I am aware the main ferry out of Belfast has been allocated to Northern Irish Rangers fans, and the smaller ferry from Larne for Celtic fans travelling over. It is all organised and signed off by the PSN&I [police service of Northern Ireland] just to keep the peace really.

"It is basically the same route back but what we sometimes do because we go down that coast road we could maybe stop off for a few pints in Girvan or somewhere like that or a fish supper before getting the bus back. Some buses will stop off at the Gallowgate, or maybe the Brazen Head, one of the big Celtic supporters' pubs in Glasgow, while others just head down the road."