I was on the receiving end of a version of this myself at Ireland v Malta on May 28th, 1989 up in the back corner of the Havelock Square end beside the railway. As I sat on the steps 35-40 minutes before the start of the game, lovingly perusing the match programme, my CR Smith Celtic jersey was remarked upon by some older supporters with heavy Dublin accents.
“Ya support Celtic do ya? Ah we wouldn’t be too keen on Celtic, now. We’re Rangers men.”
“No yis don’t” says I. “Oh yeah, big Rangers man so I am” says one of the men.
I cited the previous week’s SFA Cup final when Celtic had beaten Rangers 1-0 to rub their noses in it and demostrate to them that Celtic were BETTER than Rangers, but they defiantly pointed to Rangers’ emphatic league championship victory, the goalscoring exploits of Ally McCoist and Graeme Souness’s expert player-management to rub my nose in it.
I wasn’t overly familiar with the concept of craic with adults at that age and thought they were serious.