Five days later, Tommy Smith and Geoff Strong were the scorers as Liverpool overturned the one-goal deficit but the night was marred by crowd trouble amongst a section of the travelling Celtic contingent. From that moment onwards, there was always a strong bond between Celtic and Liverpool. Anything in the past paled into insignificance. Every single moment afterwards, Celtic fans were fantastic,” the university professor added. There are plenty of Protestants who follow Celtic home and away. Dalglish and former captain Scott Brown, along with nearly half of Celtic’s great Lisbon Lions were born Protestant. Pierce Brosnan has been spotted showing off his support for Celtic in a '007' team strip from the set of the upcoming Western film Unholy Trinity. Celtic and Liverpool football may only meet on the pitch once in a blue moon, but the common values of their supporters cross paths far more regularly.

There are still ongoing sectarian splits but gone are the days when Rangers would refuse to sign players because they heralded from a Catholic family. Andrew Murdoch is an ardent Celtic supporter who writes for Not The View, a prominent fanzine. He said: “While Celtic has very strong Catholic roots, the support is much more varied. I’m not Catholic and the guys I go to the games with for the past 30 years are probably majority Protestant, something we only discovered about two-three years after we had all met up! On July 12, an Ulster protestant celebration day, things would often rise to a crescendo, “My grandmother would tell me I wasn’t allowed out on the 12th,” Mrs Millne added.It did catch on and now Fields of Anfield Road is probably the most institutionalised song on the Kop after You’ll Never Walk Alone.

Musical creativity with regard to terrace anthems is another one of the traits each set of supporters has in common. The Scotsman would go on to be the first of the six players or managers who would have their testimonial between Liverpool and Celtic. On the other hand, just two testimonials have been held between Rangers and Liverpool. Liverpool would go on to play Borussia Dortmund in their first European final and as fate would have it, the decider was up at Hampden Park in Glasgow. This provided the perfect opportunity for Celtic supporters to repent to their visitors. Now, whilst they are in periods of on-field success, the customs of yesteryear that have been passed down on the terraces, only add to the aura surrounding the football clubs. This derives partly from a desire to dissociate from opposition fans who go to Celtic Park and sing songs of a sectarianist nature or those who visit Anfield and chant about poverty.This has never and will never be forgotten by either set of supporters. To this day, at the memorial each year, there’s always a Celtic tribute laid out on the pitch with a contingent there from the Celtic supporters club. You’ll Never Walk Alone, which acts as the anthem of both clubs, really did have some meaning that day.

If you were to display a flag of the Union or St George on an away day now, it would be profoundly frowned upon. Many Liverpudlians don’t necessarily identify with ‘Englishness’ and the London-centric state. In 1999, Glaswegian activist, Margaret Simey, even said: “The magic of Liverpool is that it isn’t England.”As time went by, the lines between Catholic and Protestant areas of both cities became blurred, and by the mid-50s sectarianism was dying down for good in Liverpool, largely down to post-war planning decisions. Before we went, Celtic fans had been writing to the [Liverpool] Echo and the club to say how sorry they were for what had happened. They wanted to make up for it. Countless intertwining factors have come together to culminate in the relationship present today, however, the roots of most of them are entrenched in the cities’ ports. Instead of identifying as one religion or another, people now started to feel civic pride more intensely. Please note the personalisation of football tops are printed at the customers own risk. The Celtic Store cannot accept liability for any future player movements, including loans, number changes or signings.