8 explosive Celtic vs Rangers moments from riots to Dallas coin shame and court battles

Jackie McNamara reckons the Old Firm is friendlier affair than it used to be.

The former Celtic star should know. He landed a punch on Rangers’ Mark Hateley’s chin 26 years ago and managed to avoid being ordered off in one bad tempered encounter. McNamara believes it’s an all round tamer affair nowadays, with players bing far nicer to each other than they were in his day.

That’s not to say the modern day version is without its flashpoints. The cliche is that these games are refereed differently from the others, rightly or wrongly. Whether that explains some incidents going unpunished, who knows? There’s also a tendency to blow what would have been minor skirmishes back in the day out of proportion, but that’s part and parcel of Scotland’s biggest fixture, especially when there’s titles and trophies on the line. Players don’t always help matters by acting before thinking as well.

While McNamara may remember a harsher attitude from those on the park, the intensity on and off it hasn’t changed. Record Sport looks back at the most explosive moments in the fixture.

You’ve never actually been able to buy a bevvy inside Scottish grounds, but taking in a carry out was a norm back in the day as punters would pass out the cans and half bottles to swig from on the terraces. Now, that likely would have been brought to en end by legislation anyway, but one Old Firm clash meant a swift end to the custom in 1980.

After the New Firm of Dundee United and Aberdeen had won the League Cup and Premier Division championship respectively, May’s Scottish Cup Final represented the last chance for either Glasgow side to finish the season with some silverware - a scenario unthinkable nowadays. As it was , Celtic won a drab affair with an