15 years ago we beat Shakhtar Donetsk 2-1 to qualify for the knockout stages of the Champions League. The team that night was:
Boruc
Caldwell, Kennedy, McManus, Naylor
McGeady, Brown, Hartley, Jarosik
McDonald, Vennegoor of Hesselink
Kennedy and Naylor went off injured in the first half, replaced by Pressley and Donati. Needing the winner, Gordon Strachan hooked Vennegoor of Hesselink and put on Chris Killen (!). It is also worth noting the quality of that group. Top seed Milan were reigning champions, Shakhtar would win the following season’s Uefa Cup and Benfica were no slouches.
Some sides flatter to deceive, Gordon Strachan’s Celtic did not deceive and did not flatter. They delivered without looking anything other than industrial. Those European nights were fabulous, domestically, however, it was often a hard watch.
I’m not going to ask you if you would swap what you had then for what we have now, we are enjoying today’s Celtic too much, also recency bias would intervene. All that would change if we were in second place in Scotland. Winning is all when you are behind in the race you really want to win.
Ange Postecoglou will also know sentiment is never fixed. He will have to improve European results with his current expansive style, change styles or eventually endure a drop in sentiment. Automatic qualification for the Champions League provides shelter.
As long as we win the league and the league winners get to the group stage, we will be able to indulge on the big stage. That would not be the case if we were to face a qualification round. Then, winning would be everything, just as it was with Gordon. If we take a harsh look in the mirror, results in what was an easier Champions League group have been disappointing and the manner in which we were exposed on the counter suggests no learning since Bodo/Glimt earlier this year. The slide from topping our Europa group in 2019 against Lazio, Rennes and Cluj is all tactical.
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4 tops is too many for me. The only upside is that hopefully we’ll never see that Paisley too worn again.
With no travelling done this week and an extra day’s rest, we should be able to name a familiar starting 11 for Sunday.
We blew our 5 point lead immediately after gaining it a few weeks back, we now need to maintain this lead and give the huns as little breathing space as possible.
BRRB 6.38am
stuck at work till 6.30pm so the earliest I could get to the Shipbank would be 7.30pm, not a chance …. hard enough getting sense out of most of that mob when starting on the swally at the same time :-)
Ange should actually make an appearance as by 6pm tonight that mob will have our defence, midfield and forward line well sorted 🍀
Enjoy your day bhoys
Good morning from a grey North staffs.
To the Shipwreck (well it will be after a few swallies) crew have a great day.
GFTB
Poor show, your forward planning is not up to standard. 😁
Gene
A few?🤔
Have a great day at the Shipbank lhads, some of us poor sods have to work for a living.
St Stivs
Love that pic you posted.
I used to walk up Kinnear Rd which was to the right parallel to Springfield Rd and I have never seen an image of that but it is firmly planted in my brain.
Sights, sounds and smells as you suggest. All clearer than what I had for tea last night. ESP on a midweek night with those floodlights.
Timmy7
Work? Wossat?😂
All the Supporter’s buses parked along Kinnear Rd and depending on which game was being played ,Baltic Street had the buses there ,I came from Mordaunt Street
Nostalgia is good,can still see all them buses ,and the old double decker ones were you could board them and see if there was any money on the seats,never found any money ,not even a beer bottle .
BRRB et al
I see the weather forecast for the Saltmarket today is sunny and 61 degrees,
T-shirt, shorts, flip flops and Ray-Bans?
Mibbe naw!
Here’s hoping the Society members don’t get too Shipwrecked today ! Have a great day Bhoys 🍺🍺🍺🍷🍷🍷😜🍀💚
As a young bhoy I used to travel on the supporters bus from Motherwell with my dad past Calderpark Zoo and along London Road.
I especially loved European games at night. As soon as I saw the bright lights shining like beacons in the distance, my heart would race. The crowds walking along the length of London Road built up as we got closer. The bus would park in Helenvale Street.
I can still smell the fried onions as we passed the hot-dog stands and chippie stalls. My dad usually took me to the enclosure in front of the main stand. As we queued outside I looked up at the red brick building and the legend THE CELTIC FOOTBALL & ATHLETIC COY LTD and I felt at home. I could also see the floodlights towering high above me and could hear the crowd roar from inside the stadium.
My dad would lift me over the turnstiles and lead me to the front of the enclosure just along from the Celtic dugout. I was just a foot taller than the wall which was just 6 inches above the ash track on the pitch side, so my view was more or less a few inches above the field of play. From that vantage point, the players were like giants in their gleaming green and white hoops.
One of my earliest memories was of a European tie, Celtic’s first ever at Celtic Park, versus Valencia who had won the first-leg 4-2 in Spain. I clearly remember a miraculous save by goalkeeper John Fallon. A thunderous shot came in from about 30 yards. The ball was heading straight into the top corner at the Celtic end. From my vantage point in the enclosure I saw Fallon spring like a gazelle, up high to his right and fingertip the ball over the bar for a corner. I remember being stunned by such a magnificent save. I stood there in silence with my mouth agape and for years I remembered that moment and even today I can still see that outrageous save. Celtic drew 2-2 and were out of Europe.
My first season ticket with my two young sons was in the front row of the South Stand just along from the Celtic dugout. We were seated at the exact spot where my dad and I used to stand 30 years previously.
My dad is gone now, but I still think of him every time I walk through the turnstiles of Paradise. I have passed his legacy on to my own sons, themselves now fathers to growing Celtic supporters of the future.
I have told my sons about that save by John Fallon. They now pass on their own Celtic memories to their children who will soon make their own Celtic memories.
Hail Hail.
Lovely post TOM!
Tom , great memories 👍
I loved it when the lights where turned up full and you could see the smoke coming out of the jungle and the Celtic end , first big 1 I remember was the Madrid game . No disco lights required in those days
And thanks for the name check of my JF Tom
Tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimmmmmmmmmmmessss
Citizzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzennnnnn
You used to hear that all over the city, the green Citizen and the pink Times two rival newspapers and the only way you could find out the scores on a Saturday. Unimaginable? if you missed the teleprinter with David Coleman or Frank Bough and after the classified scores, it had to be an evening newspaper, waiting in the newsagent for the van to arrive, so you could check every score in Britain.
No radio programmes, Shortbread football ended at ten to five after live commentary with David Francy. If you were at the game you had to buy a programme and workout a coded letter system along with the scoreboard which was at the back of the east terracing, in those days known as the Rangers end. The letters were hooked up onto a black corigated iron stand, primitive and convoluted half time scores, East Fife four Forfar five.
We used to go to the game as early as possible, like three hours before the kickoff, gates not even opened. Players would arrive at the old car park, signing autographs I remember smiling Willie Wallace in his cream coloured Mini Cooper. One winters day walking the London Rd and meeting a supporter on his way back, who told us the game was off, hot bovril or undersoil heating hadn’t reached Parkhead.
Had to be early to get your Green Citizen, inside the paper there was a glossy coloured picture of a hero. Heroes given pride of place went on to cover thousands of bedroom walls all over Glasgow and beyond. Falling asleep or wakening in the morning all you saw was, wall to wall Celtic.
Happy days CSC
Wow ! Tom, your inner passion coming to the fore.
Here’s me thinking your an analytical type of ghuy 😜
Great post.
JOHN FALLON always overlooked, when talking about
the lions etc, big Jocks Achilles heel, suppose it’s only
us oldies will be able to argue about that.
H H Mick
G’day Mick, great to hear about the young Aussie kids coming to your coaching sessions keep up the good work and enjoy the rid biddy mhate 💚🍀🍷🍷😎
BSR
The green Citizen or the pink Times
Some of the the Huns wouldn’t buy the Citizen, why? ..well it was green.
Others said they bought it just to wipe their erse.
Strange people no doubt.
At least in those days gone by, we had some reputable sports journalists.
H H. Mick
PARK ROAD 67
So good to hear from you, and I take it E is still watching you
closely lol.
Had to laugh the other night at training, a young Indian kid said to
me “ You speak so funny Mick “
I don’t blame him, some of my mates would back him up lol.
Anyhows always looking for that next Jacynta or.. or.. a Tom Rogic.
H H Mick
BOURNESOUPRECIPE
Great memories.
I remember the colour poster pictures of players supplied free with the Times & Citizen.
Also, the Citizen used to allow readers to buy copies of action pictures published in the paper. I would tell my dad which one I wanted and next morning, my mum would go to the Post Office and buy a postal order for 1/6d and send it to the paper.
A week or so later I would receive a big envelope filled with thick cardboard protecting the black and white picture I had chosen.
I had a few of them for many years. My favourite was the shot from behind the net of Billy McNeill heading the winner in the 1965 Cup Final v Dunfermline.
MELBOURNE MICK
Haha E watches me very closely 😂😂HH🍀💚⚽️
BLANTYRETIM
When I went to bed that night I kept rerunning that save in my head. Next day at school I was telling my pal James Donnelly. He still reminds me how I told him, “John Fallon must be the best goalkeeper in the world.”
I was only 9.
TIMBHOY 163
My wee da would send me along the Gallowgate to count the busses
and it always amazed me.
South Shields Shamrock, Devon and Cornwall CSC, Derby Celtic, Glentoran,
Belfast, Dublin, Cork, Aberystwyth FFS.
Who are these people ?
And why ?
Think us oldies all know why.
H H. Mick
Melbourne Mick
Well Seville’s drought taught us they were the Poople after all.
Tom McLaughlin
Ditto
I’d forgotten you could get the pictures later like that.
I always liked a friend’s introduction to the Hoops, but it’s the way he tells it,
Having just finished the second of his part time jobs, on a frosty Saturday morning, his dad told him there were two games that they could go to watch that day.
Cambuslang Rangers at home or Celtic Reserves in Parkhead. The young Celt given this unexpected stark contrast of options thought for a split second and said, Celtic Reserves
They walked there and back from Cambuslang he could probably remember the score if I’d asked, he was at the Hibs game (6-1) the other week and needless to say is still a great Hoop.
Tom McLaughlin on 28th October 2022 10:42 am
Tom I believe you and I are of a similar background but I’m a little younger. I too was taken to games with ma da but he went on the Cleland bus where Joe Jordans da was the bus conveyor and looked after us wee ones as all the Da’s went to the pub before the game. I grew up in Carfin and eventually moved to Wishy so went to our Lady’s from ’76. So our trip to games was on the same route whether from Carfin or Wishy.
BSR
Luv it, “ The Poople “ 🤣
I distinctly remember when I became a Celtic fanatic and no, it wasn’t
when I was counting busses along the Gallowgate with all those exotic
names, and my wee da was in the Sari Heid supping pints lol.
No it was on a midweek winters night and the Celtic Supporters Association
decided enough was enough and a boycott was called to try and oust the
Whites, Kelly’s et al.
But no one was telling us when to support our team and still 7000 turned
up to beat Falkirk I think.
Was I right ?
That should start a debate lol.
H H. Mick
Tom 9.57
Great stuff. 👍
TIMMY7_NOTED
I grew up in Forgewood.
Went to OLHS from 1966 to 1971 when it was an all-boys school.
Our supporters bus left from the Burns Tavern. I used to sit in the snug with the old women – they’d be in their 30s – while my dad had a pint in the bar.
I know Carfin very well.
Memories of good times. You can’t beat it.
CELTIC MAC on 27TH OCTOBER 2022 10:45 PM
Just hope we’re not going tae have another outbreak of bampottery, banality and buffoonery on this blessed blog later in the wee wee hours agin. Anyways enough about Aipple…..
Nurse!
—————
I had two ‘merican friends over last night. A Spurs fan and a Chelsea fan so that kept me away from the blog nightshift as Spurs and I told some home truths to Chelsea fan.
————-
Awesome post Tom!
HH!
On the morning of 26th May 1967, I walked into the quadrangle of our school wearing my Celtic scarf on top of my blue uniform.
The first floor window of the staff room flew open and Mr White leaned out, pointed at me and shouted…….
McLAUGHLIN!!! KEEP THAT SCARF ON!
Tom
It’s the one and only day I wore my scarf to work. I was an apprentice in Hillington and there were large numbers doing the same on the bus and train.
Being the selfish bastard that I am, it always annoys me when I hear other teams fans singing “OUR” songs. Crystal Palace fans have been stealing our songs for years now.
Then there’s the Everton executive phoning Celtic Park saying if we don’t stop singing “their” song, Hail Hail, they’ll consider suing us. He ate humble pie when he was told that “we” had given them permission to use our song.
Then there’s Liverpool fans version of “The Fields of Athenry”
I’m thinking, if it annoys me that much, it must annoy fans of other teams if their song is stolen.
I can’t think of a Sevco song we would ever want to steal, but one of their favorite phrases is just asking to be hijacked.
If you ever hear them say, sing or chant “We are the people” we should respond with “We are the papal”
Jobs a good un
Right is it Aprils fool.
I am the only bliddy 1 here.
Awe there the Big man walked in.
Laters
D :)
31003
Imitation is the greatest form of flattery