Catchart Circle

Not sold out - crowd given as 46,773. South Upper was not opened so I guess the tickets printed were close to being sold.

Just saw the CEO of the FAs National Football Museum on Breakfast TV advising there are plans to have 50-50 representation of both the men and womens game within the next three years. Nothing wrong with encouraging young girls to take up the game, but sorry whether in England or anywhere else womens footiball does not have anything like the history of the mens game. I assume our own Museum at Hampden will follow suit.

Think you may have the wrong date? Was in the Mitchell library yesterday with cause to research 1972 on a non football matter. So I took the opportunity to check and there was nothing in the 21st April Scottish journals (a Friday) or the following days where there ought to have been a match report of some sort.

I have it on good authority that they are relocating to its sister pub on match days - The Iron HorseShoe.

They were running out of most of the draft beers yesterday evening so I guess they pretty much judged it correctly. Bit sad to see it come to an end and was glad to raise a final glass and say farewell to a well established piece of Glasgows past.

I would like to think that those on here of a certain age would agree that Football Handbook was magic!

I am so upset 😢😢😢

I guess it is because the stakes are higher and they are confident of selling out among their own fans. They are unbeaten in the last two years at home. Stadium capacity is 28,000 incidentally. For the 0-4 game there were just over 24,000 in total which was good considering the home side had no chance of progressing. I am assuming the figure was the same in 2009 when our 2,200 was the entire lower tier.of one end.

You came on here all guns blazing, stating as fact the following `I've already said we've taken more than 3,000 to Oslo the twice I've been.' Wanderer then provided the official sales figure of 2,200 for the last game which blew your claim completely out of the water but you didn't like that much. Having been put in your place you then had an opportunity to say `well OK but it did seem like more than that.' But rather than back down you instead have chosen to dig an even deeper hole for yourself with each post containing more innaccuracies. You further let yourself down with comments such as `So do you ever accept you are talking shite?' when presented with facts. I stand by my opinion 1,350 would be about right for a `normal' game in Oslo - 1,500 would suffice unless qualification was at stake. I don't know what sort of calculator you use but if it is the same one you had in Oslo then there will be close to 80,000 crammed into 52,000 seats for the Israel game so the health and safety guys ought to be concerned! As for - as you so elequently put it - `talking shite' I'll leave that for others to decide. But again I refuse to stoop to your level of personal insults and bad language - other than quoting yourself!

I would exercise a note of caution for anyone depending on this charter guys. It will be dependent on numbers and may not take off atall (no pun meant) if past experience is anything to go by. I was booked on a day trip to Kaunus for the game in 2003. Around a month or so before the game I received a letter from the tour company with a refund advising that due to insufficient numbers it was not financially viable for them to go ahead. Of course the passenger list could have been added to in that month but it would have been worse to wait until the last minute and least I was able to make alternative travel plans. Ramsey World Travel originally had three charters for the game in Moldova - one flight each from Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen. Again due to numbers two were cancelled and we were all put on a single flight from Glasgow. So I would say don't put all your eggs in one basket and research a back up plan just in case - which could of course prove more expensive.

I refuse to lower myself to your level of insults but you do come accross as rather arrogant resorting to insulting language rather than admitting to being in the wrong. You leapt in with your claim there were over 3,000 Scots fans at the 2009 match. When it was pointed out by another poster that the official SFA sales were 2,200 you refused to revise this figure. By implication you therefore estimate there were around half of this number - 1,000 - again at the game. Nonsense there would have been 2,600 TOPS. So WRONG You also state as fact regarding the 2009 match in Oslo - 'we were effectively out of qualification by then.' We weren't as I sumarised in my last post which you rfused to acknowledge and dismissed as `shite.' To illustrate this, the following game at home to Belarus was a sell out with 51,105 - some support for a meaningless game eh? So sorry but WRONG again. You further claim `You used two friendlies' when I used the 2013 and 2009 matches to produce an average. I did not - one was a friendly and one a quailfier. So again you are WRONG. Scotland have never taken over 3,000 fans to Norway - fact. Don't you ever admit to being wrong about anything?

Well there is nothing like manipulating the facts to suit your agenda. If you are going to dismiss the friendly then by the same token the crowd at the 2009 game should be disregarded as this was exceptional as a win would have kept us in with a shout of qualification with two games remaining. You seem to be placing too much emphasis on the crowd at the 4-0 loss. I have seen Scotland in Norway seven times since 1979 and that was by far in excess of any crowd we had taken there but I would dispute your inflated figure of 3.000. 2,500 would be more likely in my view if the official SFA sales were 2,200. If we add these two extremes crowds (along with Molde) together then there would be a rough total of around 3,300 giving an average of 1,650 which would probably be about right. Incidentally your observation that qualification was all but over for the game in September 2005 is just wrong. The 2-1 win kept us very much in with a shout with - again - two games remaining. The home loss in the next game against Belarus killed off our hopes. Again I would disagree with your assessment of the travelling fans for 2005 game,

There was less than ten of us in Oslo in '92 - admittedly a friendly though. Probably less than 1k the last time we played in Norway also in 2013.

Eh .... the only sides we have beaten in the last twelve months are Cyprus, Kazakhstan and San Marino. We have also lost to Kazakhstan in that period and our defence has looked vulnerable in each of Clarkes games. Israel have as much to play for us we have and may be better prepared as their squad will be together for a week ahead of the match. Having said that I would still make us favourites with a full house but it would be extremely foolish to take the win for granted. Remember the Killie fans who booked up for the next round of the Europa.

Had we been away first - great for travel plans - we would likely take around 3,000. However with the short turnaround from the Israel game and extortionate last minute flight costs this would put a lot off going and I suspect 2,000 would be adequate in those circumstances.

1,350 would normally be adequate for a game in Norway given how expensive it is. However it is potentially the biggest game Scotland have taken part in for years so I suspect around 2,000 would have been enough. However I am more concerned about the Israel game first which some seem to think is a formality. If we win that I will have a few days to worry about a ticket for the next game.

Ironically the two were related. Just like the plays offs in 1999 the build up was way over the top - not quite on the level of pre Argentina but heading there. I recall being in a night club on the Thursday - two days ahead of the game - and witnessing a group of women there in clearly newly bought Scotland shirts singing a repeated chorus of `We're gonnae beat Italy...' At the risk of sounding sexist I have no idea as to these ladies knowledge of football but this illustrates how the media getting carried away can raise the expectations of the general public. I was solely tempted to tell them that the Italians were actually quite good and that we had just lost to Georgia a few weeks earlier - the result which did our hopes more damage than anything that went on at Hampden. There was a feeling among some that Scotland were sure to win and the disapointment of the defeat along with the mix of vast quantities of alcohol manifested itself in the undereported post match trouble.

Unfotunately that is not the case - https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/celtic-against-postponing-games-help-21261176

What preparation do we do for march Regular exercise would be good, but then again it all depends where you are marching to I guess?

Ideally there would be a pre March friendly but it would likely be of no benefit as it would be plagued by call offs from the usual suspects with so many important League and European games ahead. So it would not really benefit Clarke if he was seeking to select the same side as for the Israel game.

And the trouble was all whitewashed by the Scottish media - not a mention of it in the Sunday papers or TV news. The later kick off time was a massive factor in this.

https://www.glasgowlive.co.uk/news/glasgow-news/developers-push-plan-build-hotel-16905154

Unfortunately the days of season tickets for the South Upper are gone until attendances improve dramatically. The only ways to secure a South Upper ticket are- A to shell out for a debenture B Gamble on waiting until sales are going well then check for availability regularly. The gamble is that if they don't go on sale you will have to take what is left from the rest of the ground. C or do what I do and purchase a seat for your second option then continue to monitor availability and if they become available snap one up and resell your original ticket. The gamble here is that you may be stuck with two tickets but that is unlikely for the forthcoming game. I cannot see any circumstances where the SFA would open the South Upper at the expense of closing another section for the simple reason it is the only completely blind spot for the TV cameras. Even the South Lower can be seen on replays and it does not look good for Scottish football if obvious pictures of empty stands are broadcast all over Europe. Here is a serious suggestion to Rich or anyone else in the same boat. As the tickets have yet to be dispatched why not telephone the SSC and voice your displeasure at the situation? Then offer to pay the extra £5 to upgrade to a South Upper ticket - they might even agree - but don't hang about!

I can assure you there is hospitality in the Upper South - I was there at the 2012 Scottish Cup Final and my seat was right in the middle of the upper tier. The Sky Boxes are up there too although the occupants don't take up any of the seating.

Sad news tonight, he would have been 97 in March. I did have some dealings with Bobby. I contacted him a few years back as I was writing an article for a fanzine and his number was actually in the 'phone book. He was very approachable and we spoke a few times before he invited me to his home in Helensburgh. Really pleasant guy whose memory was remarkable.He described his view of the winning goal in the Victory International as if it had been scored the previous week. Another thing I remember about that visit was that the programme from Wembley `67 was on his coffee table. Not sure if it was permanently on display or just coincidence! Spoke to him less regularly over the past couple of years but - thankfully - I did call him around Novermber and we had a chat. He told me he had just had an operation on an ear but that was still active. He was, incidentally, the oldest living Rangers player. Not sure who takes over that mantle now. RIP Bobby you were a true gentleman.