THE 1961-62 Scottish football season began with rowdy scenes at the Third Lanark-Rangers game, at Cathkin.
Rangers had, of course, always been a big draw, but on this occasion they were also the holders of the Scottish league title and the League Cup.
The main trouble began 15 minutes before kick-off, when some 5,000 people outside the ground protested about the closing of the gates.
“There was booing and shouting”, reported the Evening Times, “and a large number of people tore down pieces of the corrugated sheeting enclosing the ground. They jumped on to the roofs of motor cars, denting them badly and causing other damage to the vehicles, and clambered into the ground.”
Police reinforcements dispersed the crowd, but five minutes before kick-off three turnstiles were opened and some 300 people were allowed in. One man whose car had been damaged said: “They behaved like savages rather than people going to football matches,”
During the game, hundreds of fans invaded the field when Rangers’ striker Davie Wilson scored. The police chased them off, with six mounted police officers shepherding them back on to the terracing.
When Wilson scored again - the game finished 2-0 - the mounted officers even had to take their horses onto the pitch, the paper reported.
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