‘Saddened’ O’Neill fears impact on derby away fans

‘Saddened’ O’Neill fears impact on derby away fansMedia caption, Police create cordon on pitch to separate Old Firm fansPublished31 minutes ago”Saddened” Martin O’Neill fears a larger allocation of away fans at meetings of Celtic and Rangers may be lost forever.Ugly scenes marred the aftermath of Celtic’s Scottish Cup quarter-final win on penalties at Ibrox, with spectators entering the pitch. As of Monday, nine arrests had been made following Sunday’s encounter.It was the first meeting of Rangers and Celtic since 2018 to have such a large away support – around 7,500.In recent years, away allocations in the fixture had been 800, 2,500 or with no visiting support at all. Sunday’s derby had a larger away crowd in part because of the rules of the Scottish Cup, while other recent Old Firm cup ties have been semi-finals or finals at Hampden, with evenly-split crowds.Celtic manager O’Neill told Talksport: “I was a really big advocate, from a distance, of feeling that without away fans, without the full allocation of away fans, I thought the Old Firm game, still a fantastic fixture, had lost some of its lustre.Is O’Neill’s points average enough to win title?