Football spectating in the 1960’s and 1970’s was a completely different scenario compared to the pampered luxuries of the modern day game. In January 1971, Ted Heath was some seven months into his Premiership. Decimalisation was imminent (Feb 1971) but entry to the European Union was still two years distant. Average weekly earnings for manual workers was £28. A ticket for the Old Firm game was six shillings (30p) with a match day programme costing one shilling. (5p)

The wintry weather on that day was grim - foggy and frosty with a real nip in the air. If it had been any other game but the Big Match, it would probably have been postponed. As it later turned out, the under-foot conditions pretty much spoiled the game.

Read more: Ibrox Disaster 50 years on: The fans who never came home from the Old Firm match after Stairway 13 tragedy

It was against this back-drop that we set out - my school pal Ian and I - with the Wishaw Branch of the supporters organisation. More in hope than in expectation as Jock Stein’s Celtic were heading for their sixth league title in a row.

The Herald: Officials examine the torn and twisted railings of stairway 13Officials examine the torn and twisted railings of stairway 13

Aberdeen though topped the league on the day with Rangers a distant fourth, eleven points behind. However, with these games you never knew. Indeed, had a sixteen-year-old Derek Johnstone not just won us the League Cup at Hampden in October?

The match day experience in those days included the opportunity to purchase, on the terracing, cold pies, sold by a vendor who proffered his wares from a large cardboard box. There was also the young entrepreneur offering a choice of ‘macaroon bars and spearmint chewing gum!’ Why specifically this combination of items I never found out. Was this common at other football grounds, I wondered.

The game itself was, for the first eighty-eight minutes a complete non event.

The late goals are well documented. A headed goal from Jimmy Johnstone - a collectors item in itself - followed almost immediately by Colin Stein bundling the ball over the line from all of four yards for the equaliser.

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For many years and probably still to this day, many believe that the late goals caused or at least contributed to what followed. In truth, the disaster occurred at least seven minutes after the final whistle. It would now be approaching 4.45pm. All matches in the UK would be finishing at this time, such was the way of things in those days.

Ian and I waited on the terracing until the referee and players had left the pitch. We then moved slowly to the back of the terracing towards exit 13.

The Herald: Service at St Andrew's RC Cathedral in GlasgowService at St Andrew's RC Cathedral in Glasgow

Stairway 13 led out to Cairnlea Drive/Harrison Drive then on to Copland Road.

It was the busiest exit from the Stadium as it led directly to Copland Road subway station (later renamed Ibrox) and the side streets where the majority of supporters buses were parked.

Pressure exiting the ground was nothing new, more so with a crowd of 80,000 in attendance. The Stairway was divided into seven passageways by tubular steel handrails. It had ninety-two steep steps with four landings regularly spaced.

A major contributory factor to the death toll was undoubtedly the large retaining fence that ran down the side of the Stairway, constructed of what appeared to be old railway sleepers. This immovable object restricted egress onto the grass banking next to the Stairway. The pressure of the crowd determined I should travel down the centre passageway. Between the second and third landings the pressure continued to build and then suddenly eased off. I could then walk relatively unhindered to the bottom of the stairs. I have often thought of what happened next but newspaper photographs of the damage to the railings between that second and third landings clearly show what had unfolded. I have heard many accounts from supporters caught up in the mayhem and I think, like so many others, just how lucky I was that day.

Stairway 13 had a poor safety record as history shows. Previous incidents occurred in September 1961 when two lives were lost and 44 injured. In September 1967, eleven people were injured and again on 2nd January, 1969 a further thirty supporters were injured. All of these incidents happened at the end of Old Firm games. So why did this major disaster occur?

Firstly, at the top of the Stairway the crowd converged in an un-controlled fashion from all sides, especially from the walkway which ran around the top of the Copland Road terracing and fed directly into those first three passageways of Stairway 13. Secondly, the steepness of the Stairway. It must have been the most severe gradient in any major stadia in the UK. Thirdly, that fearsome wooden retaining fence which safety officers, at the time of the 1969 incident, recommended removing. Regrettably, the advice was not carried out.

The Herald: The scene at Ibrox in the aftermathThe scene at Ibrox in the aftermath

In the aftermath, one man deserves a great deal of credit for his handling of the situation. Willie Waddell, former star player, signed as a seventeen-year-old by Bill Struth in 1938 on a wage of £2 per week. As the Rangers manager and ex newspaper journalist he knew what was required. He took control from a Board of Directors made up of ageing businessmen who struggled with the situation. Waddell’s lasting legacy was the re-building of Ibrox with the financial backing of the highly successful Rangers Pools. Reconstruction began in August 1978 with the bull-dozing of the infamous Stairway 13.

The Stairway is gone but the memories remain. The events of that cold January day remain clear in the mind, even after the passage of fifty years.

Donald S Taylor is the co-author, along with Paul Collier, of Stairway 13-The Story of the 1971 Ibrox Disaster, published by Bluecoat Press.