RANGERS Football Club will tomorrow mark the 50th anniversary of its darkest day – a day where 66 supporters attended Ibrox for an Old Firm match but never returned.
It is an unfathomable loss, and one which will never be forgotten by anyone connected with the club. Indeed, the anniversary will be marked ahead of tomorrow’s match – fittingly against Celtic – albeit, not to the extent the club hoped given the Covid-19 pandemic.
It is a day of huge importance to current Rangers manager Steven Gerrard, particularly given he and his family were touched by the Hillsborough Disaster in 1989, in which 96 of his fellow Liverpool supporters were killed.
Gerrard took time at his press conference this morning to pay tribute to those lost, and also called on supporters to not attend Ibrox given the current Tier 4 restrictions Glasgow is currently under.
"There is certainly a relation from my point of view with my connection to the Hillsborough Disaster,” began the manager.
"I certainly know what this Disaster means to people, and I want to send my full respects to all the families and the survivors, and also pay my respects to the people who have passed.
"It is a very poignant day tomorrow with it being the 50th year as well. In a normal situation, we would have a lot of people around the ground and we would put a full service on in this situation and we could pay our respects in that way.
"Obviously, because of Covid-19, things will look slightly different, but as a club, we still want to pay our full respect to everyone that was involved and to all the names that are no-longer with us.
"So it is a very special day tomorrow. Myself and the players are all aware of that.
"I would also like to ask our fans to try and stay away - I know that is tough in the situation, but we also have to pay respect to the situation we are all in at the moment and stay safe at home."
Turning attention away from what will be a very sombre build-up to what is always a hotly-anticipated fixture, and Gerrard insists Rangers will view tomorrow’s clash as an ‘opportunity’ to further strengthen the position they are in.
He also gave an update on the squad – and while Ryan Jack and Scott Arfield will unfortunately not make the game, there are no further changes to the manager’s selection pool.
"We have no fresh injuries from St Mirren,” he continued, “so the squad will be pretty similar going into this one.
"We don't think of the pressure as a pressure. We think of it as an opportunity - it is a big game and we are not going to try to play the fixture down, but at the same time, we have also got to just focus on the task in hand, the challenge, the gameplan and what we need to do.
"We are well aware of Celtic's strengths and weaknesses, and we need to make sure we give the players a gameplan to go and execute and also defend in the best way we can.
"We are not really focused on leads at the top - it is an opportunity to take three points, and if we do, that obviously puts our position a lot stronger than where we are."
Tomorrow’s match will also be the first Old Firm at Ibrox to be played without a crowd. Gers coped superbly well with that in the reverse fixture at Parkhead – and Gerrard certainly won’t be using that as any excuse tomorrow.
He added: "In a normal situation, we would love to have our crowd with us. The advantage of being at Ibrox with a full crowd in this type of game goes without saying.
"So that advantage is not there, but having said that, we couldn't ask to go into this game in a better place, certainly from a league point of view, our form has been superb.
"We have been consistent, we have been hungry and we are in a good place. We've got one or two injuries but we won't use that as an excuse.
"We have come through St Mirren unscathed and we are really excited for the fixture."
How To Watch Rangers vs Celtic
The match is available for season ticket holders as part of their Virtual Season Ticket and is also available to RangersTV Unlimited subscribers outside the UK/ROI.
Emma Dodds will be in the studio to anchor our broadcast alongside former Ger Neil McCann and legendary Light Blues manager Walter Smith.
Tom Miller is on commentary once again and will be joined by Kevin Thomson.
And, if you’re on the move, you can listen to live audio comms through the RTV app in the company of Tom and Kevin.
As well as our fantastic pre-match and half time shows, we have an exclusive new interview with English centre half Connor Goldson, as well as special content as the club marks 50 years since the Ibrox Disaster.
Due to this coverage of the Ibrox Disaster, fans should note that our broadcast will start earlier than normal, 40 minutes before kick off at 11:50am.
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