Old Firm brewing up old troubles

The fearful morning after the violent night before, Glasgow was alive to the sound of pleas for responsibility and coolness yesterday. Celtic and Rangers' League Cup semi-final at Hampden Park on Wednesday evening had supposedly been the calm before Sunday's possibly stormy league encounter at Parkhead, yet Wednesday's match not only featured 11 bookings and three red cards, the aftermath included 41 arrests among fans and one near fatal stabbing. "We all have a role to play in calming things down ahead of Sunday's match," said Celtic's manager Martin O'Neill, "the managers, the players, the crowd, everyone."

John MacMillan, of the Rangers Supporters' Association, said: "The fans will have to cool it for Sunday. They have to calm things down both on and off the park.

"People should remember it is only a football game and behave accordingly. Things have been quite good for a while and I don't know why the violence should raise its ugly head now. We need to get back to sanity."

Michael Dinning, of Celtic's Affiliated Supporters' Clubs, said simply: "We don't want this." The anti-sectarian pressure group Nil By Mouth said: "We're really quite depressed by last night's violence. It doesn't bode well for Sunday."

The issue of violence and sectarianism in Glasgow also dominated the day's proceedings in the Scottish Parliament. The vast majority of Scottish MSPs seemed to be against a proposal to cancel Bertie Ahern's visit to Lanarkshire on Sunday for the unveiling of a tribute to the victims of the Irish Famine. "It makes us look like Mississippi," said one, George Galloway.

Ahern had been due at Parkhead to watch the Celtic-Rangers game before travelling to Lanarkshire, but has been advised not to travel for fear of heightened tensions. "He is very disappointed," said a spokeswoman.

However, Wednesday night's stabbing of a 39-year-old in Glasgow's east end - the victim had been singing The Sash, allegedly - demonstrated the level of anxiety in the city. A 34year-old man will appear in Glasgow Sheriff Court charged with the attack this morning.

As for Sunday's game, the three players dismissed at Hampden, Claudio Reyna and Michael Mols of Rangers and Lubo Moravcik of Celtic, the Scottish FA confirmed yesterday that all would miss the match through suspension.

With Moravcik likely to be a substitute anyway, Celtic's plight is better than Rangers'. Manager Dick Advocaat is already without several influential and experienced players through injury.