Clyde fans give 'last rites' to old stadium in tribute to Shawfield disaster victim

Clyde fans and former players laid scarves at the spot where nine-year-old John Ryan died

Clyde fans have made what they believe could be their last "pilgrimage" to their spiritual home stadium - and to pay tribute there to the victims of the "Shawfield Disaster".

Exactly 65 years ago, nine-year-old James Ryan died, 50 others injured, 24 of them hospitalised, after a terracing crush in a game with Celtic.

There are plans to demolish Clyde's former home to make way for housing.

Fans wanted to "let the terracing echo to 'Song of the Clyde' one last time".

"It is perhaps the final time we will be able to pay our respects to a dying stadium, and a young Clyde fan who died in the Shawfield Disaster, before the houses start going up and she's gone forever," David Middleton, chairman of Clyde FC Supporters Glasgow Branch, told BBC Scotland.

Fans, accompanied by record appearance holder Brian Ahern and fellow former Clyde player Andy Willock, laid scarves at the exact spot where the young Bridgeton boy was crushed to death when the front wall gave way as some of the 28,000 fans packed into the stadium swayed forward on 14 December 1957.

"We paid a long overdue and very special tribute to young James Ryan," Middleton said. "It was a rollercoaster of emotions - it felt amazing to stand exactly where we stood 36 years ago and all the memories simply washed over me.

"The ghosts are all still there and, when the 'Song of the Clyde' started up, that was it - I was gone."

Emotional 'never to be repeated moment'

A wall collapsed on 14 December 1957 as fans pushed forward from the back

Shawfield, in Rutherglen, was Clyde's home from 1898 until 1986, when the Greyhound Racing Association, which had bought the stadium in 1935, gave the club notice to quit amid redevelopment plans.

They were tenants of Partick Thistle and Hamilton Academical until moving into the new all-seater Broadwood Stadium in Cumbernauld in 1994, but a disagreement with owner North Lanarkshire Council means the Scottish League 1 club are back sharing with Accies while searching for a new permanent home back in Glasgow.

Meanwhile, South Lanarkshire Council is still awaiting an environmental report from Shawfield Greyhound Stadium Limited before the owner can follow up plans to demolish the stadium, which has not been used since the start of the pandemic in 2020, and replace it with homes.

About 30 fans paid their tribute to the crumbling stadium by passing through a turnstile that had not turned in 35 years and, despite the dilapidated state of the roofs and terracing, Middleton suggested "it looks like a lick of paint and a brush up would see it back in business".

"Looking down on to the pitch to see Clyde legends Andy Willock and Brian Ahern - wearing his 1977 championship top - was a never to be repeated moment I will take with me forever," he added.

Glasgow's Evening Times headlined the story as "Shawfield Horror"