Martin O’Neill is hoping Celtic are granted a full away allocation for their Scottish Cup quarter-final against Rangers.
Despite the fact the fixture has had reduced travelling crowds in recent years, an away side is able to ask for up to 20 per cent of a home team’s stadium capacity in the Scottish Cup and that would equate to around 10,000 seats at Ibrox.
It has been reported that Celtic are set to request their full quota, but it remains to be seen whether that will be granted given safety fears were around the recent reductions.
Firsly, O’Neill insists he was expecting to be pulled out the hat alongside his club’s rivals for the last eight.
Responding for the first time to the draw, he said: “Well, I kind of guessed it. I told the lads that it was the Rangers away or Dunfermline with Lenny. Well, obviously a tough fixture for us and that’s four games in about ten days, but it is what it is.”
Quizzed on his thoughts on the allocation for the fixture, he added: “No, I don’t know what the club’s stance is, but if you take me out of the club at this minute, I want all the tickets that we can get, the allocation that’s available to us under the rules, and I assume that would be forthcoming
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O’Neill admits he has felt the Old Firm derby has lost a but of its appeal as a result of the number of away fans permitted in recent years.
The 73-year-old said: “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 of it.
“But I think that that did lose a little bit, it’s one of the great fixtures in European football, if not the world, and I thought it lost there. But at least there’s some fans coming back now, and that’s a bit of a difference.
“But to get the full allocation, as we did, you know, going to Ibrox and getting the side to the left full of Celtics fans, it’s always gratifying.”
He hopes a full quota being granted in this game could be the start of the club’s getting together to resovle the issue.
“I think it would be lovely,” he added. “I’ve talked to a lot of people down south in my time living down there, and they think exactly the same. It would be fantastic to get back to that.
“Still people who have not been to this particular fixture still want to go and see it. But it would be fantastic if the full allocation was given back to both clubs.”