Yesterday I travelled to watch Bristol City vs Glasgow Rangers with my father-in-law and brother-in-law which was played at Bristol City’s home ground, Ashton Gate.  The game was a friendly between the two sides but was called ‘The Blackthorn Cup’ as both teams are sponsored by Blackthorn.

The temperature was a sizzling 30+ degrees so the game wasn’t the greatest, but both sets of players put a lot of effort in, with water breaks mid-way through the first and second half.  The deciding goal came in the second half via a mistake from a Bristol City defender who was trying to shepherd the ball out of play, only for a Rangers play to nip in and take the ball.  A couple of quick passes later and the ball was in the back of the net.

As you can imagine, the Rangers fans were overjoyed and the away stand started to rock even more than it had done throughout the game previously.  A blue smoke bomb was even let off which had the police filming the area of the stand where the smoke was coming from.  The smoke made the air more stifling than it already was, but it passed again shortly only for a massive bang to make the entire stand jump!!  Have no idea what that was but the Police were again filming the area of the stand where it came from (once again from near the smoke bomb!).

So the game ended 1-0 to Rangers and the Cup was presented to the Rangers captain, Lee McCulloch, after the game.  The Rangers fans were great throughout (as good as Everton fans! 😉 ) and never stopped singing during the entire game.  The only time there was a bit of quiet was during half time when everyone sat down to recover from the heat of the first half!  There was also a daft guy or two dressed in a Celtic shirt in one of the home stands.  Obviously, once they were spotted, the Rangers fans gave them a bit of stick! 😉

Was a great day but very hot, so myself and Mike fell asleep in the car on the way home for a BBQ.  I bought a commemorative scarf and programme from the game to remind me of it, but it was a good hot and fun day.  Am already looking forward to the next live game that I can go and see!

Here are some photographs from game –