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Match Review
Match Number: 513
Date: Sunday 24th February 2008
Kick-Off: 3:00pm
Match: Rangers v Gretna
Competition: Clydesdale Bank Scottish Premier League
Stadium: Ibrox
Attendance: 48,375 (150 ish)
Stadium Stats
No. of visits to stadium: 1
Total no. of stadiums visited: 92
Programme and Ticket
Photos
Review
Travel to match
Method of Travel: Train
Travelling time: 3hrs 0mins
I'd made the short 15 minute trip up to Raydale Park to get on the Gretna Supporters Society bus which left at 11:30am. After a few picks up's on the way we pulled into the services near Hamilton at 1:00pm for 5 minutes. The journey up to now had been fine, then the driver decided to turn off the motorway and drive through Glasgow City Centre rather than continuing on and turning off the M8 right by Ibrox. This meant that it took over an hour from the services to Ibrox arriving at 2:20pm.
The only advantage to doing this was driving past the impressive Parkhead, home of Celtic. I have previously walked around this on a wet and miserable game but I had appreciated the size of the stadium, and it is certainly one I hope to take in a game at in the near future.
Pre-Match
Due to arriving so late I only had time to walk around the ground and
pay a quick visit to the club shop which was packed out. I had also forgotten
to write down where my seats were- as Rangers operate a card system to
gain entry to the home end. As you can see from the image above the card
only has your name and membership numbers on as you keep this for the
entire season. However the lady in the ticket office was very helpful
and wrote this down for me!
Stadium
Seating just over 50,000 fans Ibrox is a superb venue to watch football.
The Main Stand's red brick facade is a listed building and retains some
historic value to the ground which has been redevelopment on all other
sides. The outside of these three stands are dull, though they look good
inside.
Admission
I had registered on the Ranger ticket website to allow me to book only
and pick where I sat. this was easy to do and there was only a £1.50
administration charge for this on top of the £24.00 price. My seat
was located in the Govan stand towards the centre of the pitch and offered
an excellent view of the pitch. The leg room was good and the facilities
within the stand were reasonable.
Programme
£2.50 for 68 pages. Most of the programme was taken up with articles
about manager Walter Smith who was celebrating his 60th birthday, and
for a neutral it was a bit disappointing to say the least. For a club
the size of Rangers I don't know how they can produce something so poor,
compared to many I read produced by lower league clubs in England.
Food and Drink
I had brought some food from home but I couldn't resist trying a scotch pie which was £1.50. Like the programme it was nothing special at all!
The Game
Rangers won the game 4-2 but were poor through out and to be honest Gretna
could have got a point had their finishing and final ball been better.
Home Fans
The Rangers fans were very quiet, apart from a few who tried their best
to create an atmosphere in the Broomloan stand. I have never known a set
of fans who get on their players back as quickly- the slightest mistake
was criticised and I got the feeling that because they were playing “little
Gretna” they had the right to expect a massive win. Some say they are
one of the best sets of fans around, on this showing it couldn't be further
from the truth, both in terms of support and in numbers (there was thousand
of empty seats despite the figure given for the crowd).
Away Fans
There seemed to be around 150 Gretna fans in the corner between the Govan
and Broomloan stands. I didn't hear them sing one song and you could hardly
hear them when they scored their two goals. The fans on the bus were a
good bunch and I'll happily travel with them again.
Stewards / Police
There was quite a lot of police outside the stadium which I was
surprised
about, but they seemed fine as did the stewards inside the stadium. I'm not sure what the laws are in Scotland but there was a lot of Rangers fans selling tickets for the game especially outside the station and turnstiles- but the police just walked by.
The Ref
I thought the referee done well in the main although he could have kept the game flowing a bit better.
The Journey Home
Travelling time: 2hrs 15mins
We left the car park right by the stadium at 5:00pm and headed straight to the M8 which was very busy. However, once past the city it cleared up and the rest of the journey was very quiet. We pulled into Raydale at 7:00pm and I then had the 15 minute drive back to Carlisle.
Statistics
Travel: £15.00
Ticket: £25.00
Programme: £2.50
Total: £40.50
Mileage: 204 miles
Travelling time: 5hrs 15mins
Stadium character: 7/10
Facilities: 8/10
View of pitch: 9/10
Atmosphere home fans: 2/10
Atmosphere away fans: 0/10
Match Rating: 5/10
Wish to go back to stadium: 7/10
Photos
