Martin O’Neill fears the scenes at Ibrox on Sunday could bring an end to full away allocations in the Glasgow derby.
The Hoops’ interim boss oversaw a chaotic Scottish Cup quarter-final tie that ended in a penalty shootout victory after Tomas Cvancara held his nerve from the spot.
What followed after the final kick has dominated the conversation.
Some of the 7,500 Celtic supporters in the Broomloan Stand spilt onto the pitch in celebration. Within moments, Rangers supporters from the Copland Stand also entered the field, and the situation escalated.
A member of Celtic’s coaching staff was attacked while stewards on duty were also assaulted. Police Scotland has confirmed nine arrests so far as investigations continue into how the situation was allowed to unfold.
For O’Neill, the aftermath has been deeply disappointing because he believes the return of significant away allocations had helped restore something that had been missing from the fixture for years.
Speaking to talkSPORT, O’Neill admitted the atmosphere across the recent derby meetings had been unlike anything he had heard for years.
“I thought the noise on Sunday, and the Sunday before where we only had two and a half thousand people there (at Ibrox) was not something I’ve heard in a long time, maybe (since) Celtic played Liverpool away back in 2003 have I heard a noise emanating from a stadium like that.
“So there is something magical about it and I am obviously quite saddened by the events. It’s a shame because I think the things that I was hoping would happen which hadn’t happened for a long time won’t happen again with the full (away) allocations at Ibrox and Celtic Park perhaps being taken away.
“There is obviously going to be a lot of toing and froing here about what happened. It’s not for me to go into proper analysis about it, but I’m not pushing it to the side.
“It really was amazing on both Sundays, and to replicate it at Celtic Park with a full crowd of Rangers fans, I think something will be lost from the Old Firm fixture if that atmosphere throughout the game is anything to go by.”
O’Neill was careful with his wording as the fallout from Sunday continues to gather pace.
There has already been widespread condemnation of the scenes at full-time, particularly after the scenes involving a Celtic staff member.
The fear now is that the progress made on restoring meaningful away allocations could quickly unravel.
For years, the derby was played in front of tiny travelling supports, or no away support at all. The return of a larger allocation, for the first time since 2018, had brought a different edge back to the fixture.
Sunday showed both sides of that.
The atmosphere inside Ibrox was ferocious. For long spells, it felt like the derby had its proper atmosphere again.
But the chaos after the final whistle has shifted the focus entirely.
If the response from the authorities leads to another reduction in away tickets, many will feel something significant has been lost from the fixture once again.
