A FIFE football fan has told of the “absolute mayhem” in Manchester city centre on Wednesday night following Rangers’ 2-0 Uefa Cup final defeat.

Ryan Lynskey from Kirkcaldy said he and his friends had to dodge flying bottles as they tried to escape the trouble spots when a minority of Rangers supporters began battling with police.

They were among more than 100,000 Scottish fans crammed into the city for the match against Russian club Zenit St Petersburg.

Violent clashes were sparked when a big screen in a specially designated fan zone at Piccadilly Gardens broke down.

It has been made clear that only a small proportion of the huge number of people in the centre were responsible, but Ryan described the experience as frightening.

“There were bottles and everything flying,” he said. “Windows were smashed and people were getting stretchered away.

“A few people were lying on the ground with cuts and we saw folk getting hit by bottles. It was terrible.”

Although not a Rangers fan, the 25-year-old accounts executive travelled to Manchester with four friends to celebrate the Scottish club’s achievement in reaching the final and to soak up the atmosphere.

“The whole day was absolutely brilliant,” he said.

“There was a carnival atmosphere in the town which was awash with Rangers fans and we were all mingling with the Russian fans, getting our photos taken with them and wishing each other good luck.

“It started changing nearer kick-off because everybody was trying to squeeze into the fan zone and it was packed.”

Because the fan zone was so full, police prevented Ryan and his pals from entering and advised them to go up to the city’s velodrome where the match was also being shown on big screens.

“There were lots of people walking around trying to find it and we must have walked for about 40 minutes,” he added.

“We missed the first 15 minutes of the match.”

Rather than continue looking for the velodrome, the group decided to go back to the city centre and ended up watching the match on TV through a pub window—a situation Ryan described as “disastrous.”

He and his group were staying the night in Liverpool and when the final whistle went they were joined by thousands of people all trying to get to the railway station.

“The station was absolutely chaos,” he said.

“There were so many people they’d shut the station, but the fans forced the shutters open.

“We found a train and got on but we were standing on it for well over an hour and nobody was telling us what was going on.

“I think they were worried it might kick off on the train and there would be no place for folk to go.

“More and more people were squeezing on and we saw fights kicking off so we decided to get off and get out of the station.

“There were still thousands and thousands of people so we walked as far from the city centre as we could and flagged a taxi to take us to Liverpool, which cost us £103.”

Despite the trouble and the unexpected extra cost, Ryan said he and his mates had had a brilliant time and they were still glad they went.

“Obviously the events at night spoiled it a bit, but it doesn’t take away from the day which was just fantastic,” he said.