Martin O’Neill keen to see full complement of Celtic fans at Ibrox cup clash

Martin O’Neill wants Celtic to get the full ticket allocation they are entitled to for their upcoming cup tie at Rangers.

The Scottish Gas Scottish Cup quarter-final draw opened up the chance for a traditional full stand of Celtic fans at Ibrox when the game takes place around the weekend of March 7-8.

Scottish Cup rules state that away clubs have the right to claim up to 20 per cent of tickets, which equates to about 10,000 fans at Ibrox. Rules add that the area of the ground for away fans is agreed by both clubs and police, and stadium safety laws are taken into account.

Celtic fans traditionally filled the Broomloan Stand, which has about 7,500 seats, but their allocation was slashed by Rangers to less than 1,000 in May 2018.

There was a complete absence of fans at the fixtures for a spell before both clubs last season introduced away allocations of about five per cent with additional security arrangements introduced, including safety nets.

O’Neill said: “I don’t know the club stance, but if you take me out of the club at this minute, just being a Celtic supporter, I would want all the tickets we can get, the allocation that’s available to us under the rules. I assume that would be forthcoming.

“I thought that the Old Firm fixture lost a little bit in the sense that the full allocation was not given, for whatever reason. I don’t know historically what it was. I’ve got kind of an idea but it doesn’t really matter.

“But I think that that did lose a little bit of one of the great fixtures in European football, if not the world.

“But at least there’s some fans coming back and it makes a bit of a difference.

“But to get the full allocation as we did…you know, going to Ibrox and having the side to the left full of Celtic fans was always gratifying.”

The draw means Celtic face four consecutive away games, first travelling to Stuttgart and then Aberdeen in between two games at Ibrox.

O’Neill was unconvinced about the rationale for scheduling their rearranged game at Pittodrie on March 4.

“I thought the Aberdeen fixture was stuck in there very, very quickly,” he said. “They (the SPFL) don’t want to have some postponements going into the split. I think that was their reason for it.

“But it was something that could have been considered really because it did mean an awful lot of away travelling for fans. It’s going to be difficult to afford those particular fixtures.”

Meanwhile, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain could be involved in Wednesday’s William Hill Premiership encounter with Livingston after completing his first two training sessions.

O’Neill said: “He’s looking pretty good. I haven’t picked the squad yet, but there’s a possibility of that.

“Kieran (Tierney) came off with a suspected concussion (against Dundee), but I think he broke a bone in his nose. But he’s okay and I think he wants to be available.”