This has probably got to be the joke of the century. It was supposed to have been a great day out for ICT and all it�s supporters, a big Scottish F.A. Cup tie against one the big guns of the Scottish game, a glamour tie at Parkhead against the mighty Celtic.
Under normal circumstances getting to and from Glasgow at the time of this fixture would not have been a problem, however, this fixture came at a time when part of West Coast Mainline railway was closed between Preston and Carlisle. A replacement bus service was in operation between Preston and Carlisle. This meant that journey times to Scotland would be somewhat extended and trains would be diverted via alternative routes or we would have to us the bus service. So, instead of catching a train at 08:05 we had to catch the earlier one at 06:05. This also meant that, after the match, we would not be able to return home without the need for an overnight B&B somewhere. We had decided that the best course of action was to get back as far South as possible and in this case it was Doncaster.
Planning was down to it�s usual fine art, seats were booked on all the express trains and B&B was booked in Doncaster. The only thing that could possibly go wrong was for the train to break down or other railway difficulties. I remember at the time of this fixture the weather was quite rough. We�d had a lot of rain and some very strong winds. These rough weather conditions worried me slightly with the fact that we might not even reach Glasgow before kick-off. No problems were encountered all the way up to Glasgow and we arrive at Central station on time at 12:20. It was only a short ride down to the ground and we chatted to some of the Celtic supporters on the way to ground.
We then joined the cheerful ICT support but we were not being let into the ground due to a �problem�. None of the stewards would or could tell us what the problem was and it was clear to see that something was amiss. The stewards then disappeared from sight leaving us all bemused with what was going on. Several of the supporters were listening to the radio and some said that the match may be postponed due to a defect within the ground. First suggestions that were being muted was the match would now take place another ground.
It was about 14:45 when it was announced that the match had been postponed. What followed then was a scene of utter confusion and anger. Some children were seen to be very upset as were some of the adults. How it didn�t turn into a full blown riot I�ll never know. A truly, truly disgusting state of affairs.
With the match now officially off we then had get ourselves organised and try to get home. A quick phone call was made to check out trains times to see if we could actually get home. This proved possible by changing at Carlisle into the bus service to Preston. From there we�d change again a Stafford and so on. Before venturing back home we had to cancel the booked B&B of course.
There were some very annoyed people on the train back into Glasgow and the Celtic supporters were very disgusted with their officials. Many of them had also travelled miles to get to this match. As many will know these events were the subject of much letter writing and the name of Celtic was probably at it�s lowest point by now.
Incidentally, we got back home just after mid-night.
