Allow me to explain. The first problem comes with the tickets. So many Saints fans queued up to buy them on Saturday morning that the ticket office opened early and the 1,000 briefs were gone inside half an hour. This understandably left many fans upset that they couldn't get tickets.
Thing is, they may still be able to get a "ticket". The quality of the tickets is dreadful. They are made of card, look as if they are an invitation for a birthday party and have no security feature, such as a hologram or segment to be torn off. One Saints fan has even studied the tickets in a forensic lab at his university (clearly he has even more free time than me!) and revealed that, despite Spartans claims, there is no security feature.
This means that anyone with a simple knowledge of a graphics package on a computer could knock up a replica with relative ease, and use it to gain entry to City Park on Sunday. One Saints fan even claims to have sold over 200 fakes to supporters on Saturday!
This is not good. The best that could happen is more than 1,000 Saints fans gain entry to our part of the ground on Sunday. The worst? Spartans shut the gate after the first 1,000 Saints fans are in the ground, regardless of whether or not they have used genuine tickets. This would result in a fair number of folk with genuine tickets being left outside, which would be interesting to say the least.
Of course, this isn't the only ticket problem, with some Saints fans claiming to have tickets for the Spartans end of the ground. Spartans have responded by claiming they are all in the conservatory of one of their club's officials. Hmmm.
Even if only 1,000 Saints fans, all with genuine tickets, get into City Park on Sunday, the problems don't end there. The viewing areas at the ground are simply grassy banks, apparently a "natural amphitheatre". That's fine, but the weather could make this a dangerous situation. At the moment it's relatively cold and frosty (though Spartans claim they can put covers down so the game should be OK). If the frost has gone, either by simply melting or with the help of rain, it makes the grassy banks soaking wets. 1,000 folk (possibly more) crammed into one area of wet grass banking. Anyone else see a problem?
Many Saints fans without tickets say they are still going to travel and try to see the game without entering the ground. part of the police requirements of the game going ahead at City Park is that secure fencing is put up around the place to stop this from happening.
Spartans are (apparently) an old university team, and as such have approached this matter in typical student matter; they've left it to the last minute. Despite knowing about this the best part of a fortnight ago, they only put out the appeal for help last weekend. The fencing hasn't started to go up, neither have the temporary stands, and they now want the sponsors (or probably Saints) to pay for the fencing! It's obviously needed, as without it folk could sneak in. Even Saints chairman Stewart Gilmour managed it recently, much to the annoyance of some Spartans officials.
Fake tickets, dodgy weather and no fencing. If this game goes ahead on Sunday without any problems, I'll be shocked, although I am dead against the view of some Saints fans who are hoping for an incident to show the game should have been moved. Likewise, I am against any fan trying to attend without a ticket, or with a fake one. For the sake of the rest of us, stay at home and listen on the radio!
If there is trouble, you won't need to be a rocket scientist to work out who will get the blame in the press, and it won't be soft, cuddly, innocent, bullied, amateurish, incompetent Spartans.