ON THIS DAY

Cetic were drawn against Rapid Vienna in the Second Round of the European Cup Winners Cup back in the 1984/85 season. The first leg was in Austria and Celtic were beaten 3-1 but the Scots won the second leg in Glasgow 3-0 to win the tie 4-3 on aggregate. Or so they thought! Crowd trouble at Parkhead, which included a bottle being thrown onto the pitch and a linesman being pelted with missiles (mainly coins), resulted in UEFA ordering the second leg to be replayed at a venue at least 100 miles from Glasgow. That match was played at Manchester United's Old Trafford ground on December 12th with around 40,000 Celtic fans travelling south to see Rapid win 1-0 to give the Austrians a 4-1 aggregate victory. Sadly there was more trouble at that match - two Austrian players were attacked by Celtic fans - which saw UEFA order Celtic to play their next home European match behind closed doors and fined them £17,000. Well, Rapid went on to reach the final of the ECWC that season - they lost to Everton - while Celtic played their only home European match in 1985/86, against Atletico Madrid, behind closed doors.

Perhaps surprisingly for a club who have played in the Premier League but Wigan Athletic’s highest home attendance was recorded in their pre-League days. On this day in 1953 the all non-league FA Cup 2nd Round match between Wigan and Hereford United at Wigan’s former Springfield Road home attracted a crowd of 27,526. Wigan won 4-1 to earn a 3rd Round tie at Newcastle. Their best attendance at their current DW Stadium is 25,133 in a Premier League match against Manchester United in May 2008.