3 Wins from 3 on the Road

This could be Rotterdam or anywhere, Liverpool or Rome. Or even Paisley or Edinburgh. What a week it has been for the Celtic Support. 3 Wins from 3 on the road. The week started off at 8pm on Saturday against St. Mirren after another ticket scramble for Celtic fans who just want to watch the team.

ST. MIRREN AWAY 0-1

Most SPFL teams refuse to give us tickets and would rather lose out on cash and have half empty stadiums than give us the chance to watch the team. They also lose out on food and drink sales in the ground. While local businesses also miss out on the match influx of Celtic fans.

The game was a frustrating watch as Celtic huffed and puffed and it looked as if we were going to drop more points in the league until Callum McGregor scored the winner with a wonder strike before running to the Celtic fans behind the goal to celebrate. Final whistle and I enjoyed celebratory pints with my Dad celebrating his 90^th Birthday.

FEYENOORD AWAY

Feyenoord away was the high point of season so far. What a day/night in the Dutch city. Myself and the bhoys journey began on Sunday when we headed for some Winter Sun in Spain to to catch the end of a Trad Festival.

After a brilliant time in Spain we flew direct to Rotterdam from Alicante. Leaving the warm sunshine for the bitter cold of the Dutch city does not sound like a clever idea. Once we met up with the rest of the crew we knew we had made the right  decision.

The craic before the game in the pub was magic. The staff made us feel so welcome and gave us access to their sound system before we headed out into the cold evening to catch the train to the stadium. Getting in the ground took about a half an hour and by the time we got into the top tier the atmosphere was already building up.

Celtic showed plenty of heart fighting back from 1-0 down after the first goal, the noise levels were upped and with each goal the atmosphere grew and grew until it  reached boiling point. I have had so many miserable nights watching Celtic away in Europe this was not one of the them. It was fantastic apart from being held in the stadium for about an hour. With a very early start the following morning this old man headed for his bed while the young crew continued to party into the early hours.

HIBS AWAY 1-2

After the decent away allocation in Rotterdam it was back to Scottish Football and the sad state of it when once again Celtic’s ticket allocation was cut while the rest of the stand lay almost empty.

On the pitch the Celtic players had to dig deep in the second half. Games after European football are never easy but the bhoys showed plenty of courage to ground out the win. I thought at 2-0 at half time it could be game over and hoped for one more Celtic goal to seal the deal. Hibs got a dodgy penalty and converted it. The goal gave the Hibs players and fans a lift. The win takes us to within 2 points of league leaders Hearts.

We’re back on the road on Wednesday when we travel across the water once again to Glasgow for the Dundee game for what we are told again will be Martin O’Neill’s last game in charge. Hearts are at home to Kilmarnock and then on Sunday we do battle with them at Celtic Park.

Andrew Milne is Editor of More than 90 Minutes & host of the Celtic Soul Podcast