EARLIER today we published an account of the Scottish Cup Final riot in May 1980 from the persecutive of a serving Strathclyde Police officer at the game. That is an interesting read in itself – see HERE, and we asked for feedback from the Celtic supporters who were at the game. Paul Devlin has been in touch and he was a ball boy at the game and his dad, Jack was also pitch side as photographer. Paul has sent over these images for us to use.
“I do, however, want to say that there was a lot of brave people ( police/ambulance/fans) that day working in the goalmouths that had been turned into triage units to help the injured, while bottles, horses etc were raining down from everywhere. Unsung heroes,” Paul said.
I was at the Hampden riot in 1980 as a Scottish Cup Final ball boy – Paul Devlin
I have a unique perspective as I was a ball boy at the game. Even before the game kicked off fans were coming on the track behind the goals both ends and releasing balloons that were there for when the teams were supposed to come out, then running back across the fence.
After the game as Celtic came on the pitch with the cup, I was also on the field enjoying the moment as a Celtic fan.
Celtic fans began streaming over the fences to meet the team and a few fans ran past me to the half way line and started celebrating/taunting the Rangers fans who were still there, which was long after the game had ended so seemed strange why they were still in the stadium.
At that point I suddenly saw this blue wall jumping the fence at the Rangers end and heading towards the Celtic fans. I headed for the tunnel for safety and watched everything unfold from there.
There was something in the air that day, fueled by the ridiculous amounts of alcohol allowed in the stadium in those days.
Regardless, I remember the policing being extremely casual at pitch level, and even after the riot kicked off, the response seemed delayed.
My dad was on the pitch taking pictures too and only a Glasgow da would ask you to smile while a full scale riot is going on behind me.
As a 13 year old what I saw that day cured me of ever taking the fixture for more than what it is…a football game. Watching grown men hitting other grown men with bottles, causing serious damage, because of football or religion, just made me incredibly sad.
Hope this helps with your articles!
Paul Devlin
Photos taken by my father Jack Devlin
