FOOTBALL terraces were never a place to take your Great Aunt Mildred for cake and scones. Even on a quiet day.

They were smelly, shouty, sweary, very male, occasionally violent and in Scotland we had another ‘s’ to throw into the mix with what the great Billy Connolly called Glasgow’s hobby, which is of course sectarianism.

The food was awful. Honestly, how vegan fans coped in those days is beyond me. And then there was the woman folk, those few allowed in, who if they were lucky had one toilet between them.

Some of the behaviour, looking back, was awful. The terrace of the Copland Road at Ibrox seemed to go on forever. The bad boys were at the back and would pee in empty bottles and, I am told, throw them in the air, the contents spraying one and all.

The Jungle at Celtic Park could be, if things were going against their team, more intimidating than a marching army. These were real men. Not to be messed with.

And as for Hampden, the home of our game, Scotland matches attracted supporters from all over the country, meaning that was there big night out. Even when bevvy was banned, eyes were turned away as big Hamish from Dornach got smacked into his tenth can of Tennent’s plus a Famous Grouse chaser.

It was all too much for some but I loved it all. The bad language, coarse talk, ever-so-slightly non-PC opinions, men going to toilet while simultaneously eating a pie – and they say we can’t do two things at once – was wonderful.

It was great fun, a laugh, a distraction from real life which all too often can be a struggle.

And now? Well, now I sit in the press box where peeing in a bottle, as I have been repeatedly told, is a no-no. You could argue that's a step forward. Alas, it’s one of the few.

I was at Easter Road last Saturday and listened to a group of Hearts fans, average age 15, singing about the Pope and the IRA. Because the leader of the Catholic Church and a paramilitary group which was more or less disbanded before these morons were born are both huge relevant to the Edinburgh derby.

A 65-year-old Hibernian fan has been charged over the alleged racial abuse of Hearts’ Clevid Dikamona during Saturday’s game, one of several such incidents we’ve seen since August. Racism is back.

At Ibrox earlier in the day, which I wasn’t that, coughs could be heard during the minute’s silence for the 66 human beings crushed to death in 1971. This was their way of protesting Rangers’ honouring and remember the dead. Classy stuff.

It’s not been a good few months for Celtic. My view is their handling of the child abuse scandal has been dreadful and one day they will regret that. I also believe using child rape, which is what this was, as some sort of bragging rights at a football game is repulsive.

Rangers fans have taken great glee in mocking Celtic’s handling of the scandal and at least one banner was hung from a stand at Ibrox by people pretending to care about the victims when all they care about is getting one over their rivals. Don't pretend otherwise

And then there are the songs Pro-IRA, anti-Catholic, Steven Gerrard’s kids (really), being joyful about the death of Lee Rigby and Lisbon Lions. And then they all go on social media to spread their vileness.

None of this is new, of course, but what is new is the year and can we please, I know this is asking a lot, make football fun again in 2019.

There are a lot of supporters, and this goes across every club, who are so consumed with bitterness and hatred that they have forgotten why they got into football in the first place.

Football is genuinely unpredictable, dramatic and at its best just so damn exciting. Add to that the laddishness of going to matches, which I like even at 45, and you have the perfect day out in my opinion.

But too few see it like this.

I reckon I’ve heard the Billy Boys, about a fascist strike breaker who enjoyed slashing Catholics with razors, more than any other song. That can't be good for mental health.

This is closely followed by Sean South, another with fascist sympathies who was antisemitic and not a great fan of women’s rights. It’s boring and in 2019 completely and utterly unnecessary.

Football is fun, remember. It’s a laugh. Let's get back to this. Happy New (I hope) Year.