We hope all our readers are enjoying the festive season and enjoying the Christmas celebrations. Thanks for the all the support and for continuing to buy the fanzine in both print and digital format. Also thanks for supporting our live events and for logging onto celticfanzine.com and our new YouTube Channel Celtic Fanzine TV. Much appreciated.
Neil Lennon and the Bhoys did not get much rest as the team prepared for the visit to Paisley this afternoon to take on St. Mirren. Three points would be the perfect Christmas present ahead of the clash with the Rangers on Sunday before we head into the winter break and a get together in the Dubai sun.
Thanks to everybody who bought Christmas Presents for the Celtic fan in your life from our CFC online shop. You can still visit our online shop and pick up a print or digital subscription, merchandise or a ticket for one of our upcoming events.
This Friday night 27 of December we are in McChuills Glasgow for No One Is Illegal – The Rudi Vata Story, the greatest Celtic story never told. From seeking political asylum in France when he defected from Albania to arriving at Celtic Park. Join us and hear this unique story. Paul Sheridan from the Wakes will be providing the musical entertainment. Tickets are £15 and are available from Ticket Scotland. Kick off 7pm
We are also in Malones Glasgow on Saturday 28 December for a Derby Special Celtic AM. This event if FREE, kick off 2pm and Final Whistle 5pm. As usual our editor Andrew Milne will be interviewing four guests from Celtic FC and the Celtic Fan base.
This shows guests include former Celtic player, coach and current Celtic scout Willie McStay. Celtic Tour guide, Declan McLaughlin, Glasgow based journalist, Michael Pringle and new kid on the Celtic fan media block, Paul McTaggart from Celtic Fan TV.
We are looking forward to seeing regulars and new faces alike at both events before the Bhoys take to the pitch to battle it out with our arch enemies as we aim for 9IAR on Sunday.
Andrew started More than 90 Minutes in 2001. He has written for numerous publications and online about Celtic. One of his essays featured in Celtic Minded 2 and he is a former newspaper columnist with the Daily Ireland and the man behind celticfanzine.com. He is host of Celtic AM pre-match events at Malone’s in Glasgow on match days and follows Celtic Home & Away. He is a season ticket holder for Celtic FC and the Republic of Ireland. He is also P.R.O. of St. Margaret’s CSC, a member of the Celtic Trust and the Celtic Graves Association.
We are delighted to announce that Chris Sutton will be joining us once again at Malones Glasgow as we continue with our Evening with series for this season on Thursday 23 January . Our last night back in September with Chris sold out very quickly so early booking is advised for this show
Once again our Editor Andrew Milne will host the show and we are all looking forward to hearing from the former Celtic player who was magnificent in his time at Celtic when he led the line with his partner Henrik Larsson. Since retiring Chris has become an outspoken pundit on BT Sports and the BBC.
Tickets are £20 and £30 VIP and will make an ideal Christmas present or stocking filler for the Celtic fan in your life.
Celtic will go into the game in confident mood having sailed through a potential difficult clash in the capital against Hearts midweek. The game finished 2-0 to Celtic but given the chances created a score line of 4 or 5 wouldn’t have been unrealistic.
Rangers play on the Friday night, and coasted to a 3-0 win and were 2-0 after 10 minutes against Hibs. So they will now be two points behind as we kick off on Saturday. It is imperative we take full points from both Aberdeen and St Mirren on Boxing Day as we lead up to a derby clash next Sunday at Celtic Park. If we do we would go into that game with a five point advantage, albeit having played a game more. To go into the winter break 8 points clear should prove a psychological blow in our favour.
The Dons come to Glasgow sitting third in the table on 32 points. They are a long way behind the top two and are contesting there own mini battle with Motherwell for third spot. So far this season we comfortably beat them at Pittodrie 4-0.
In team news, Mohammed Elyounoussi looks to be out until January, Johnny Hayes has a shoulder injury and misses out tomorrow. Bolingoli and Taylor will battle it out to see who replaces Hayes. Michael Johnston is fit again.
To start off a crucial week, I see Celtic taking the three points in what should be a convincing victory.
Mick Kane hails from Glasgow. He has been hooked on Celtic since he went to his first game when he was 7. Celtic beat Hamilton 8-3 at Celtic Park on the 3rd of January 1987. His favourite player at the time, Brian McClair scored four goals.
He started going regular as a 16 year old when Celtic played at Hampden for the season, being a Southsider it meant a short train journey to get to Hampden. From then he has had a season ticket travelled around Europe for games as Celtic became the dominant force in Scottish football again. A nice change from growing up during Rangers run to 9 in a row.
Celtic are a football club but unlike any other club to paraphrase the cliché, the Irish roots make Celtic different otherwise they would be like the other 91 clubs in British football.
Honestly does anyone think that Celtic get 60,000 fans at Celtic Park to watch us play teams like Ross County or Hamilton just because we like football? The Irish and Scottish Diaspora make Celtic what it is but there’s different elements to the Celtic support, Scots born without Irish roots, Scots born with Irish roots and of course the massive Irish support base.
More than half of the support see the club as the Irish club in Britain and this echoes with their choice of song sung by the fans including Ultra groups like the Green Brigade and Bhoys and by supporters clubs and individuals. Many who have been singing these songs before Ultras were mentioned in the dictionary.
The banners on display in both Ultra sections reflect many of the fans thoughts but not all as some fans have a distain towards the Ultras and resent the Republican background of the founders of the club and those who carry the Republican torch both for Irish and Scottish independence from Britain.
Celtic fans travel by plane, train and automobile from Belfast, Dublin, Donegal, Galway, New York and beyond. The majority of fans see Celtic more than a football club.
There is a section of the Celtic support who objected to the the Ultras and other like minded fans when they protested against the wearing of the Poppy on the Celtic jersey and their refusal to be part of commemorating imperialism and slaughter of the working classes in WW1.
Those running the club are in an awkward situation, they want 60,000 bums on seats and they can’t afford to cut off the hand that feeds them.
The club have had directors who were part of the British war machine in Ireland including John Reid these men have no love for the Republican ethos that abounds in Paradise.
We also have to recognise that many of our greatest servants on the pitch have taken honours from the Queen. One of our greatest managers, Martin O’Neill took an OBE from the Queen despite his GAA background.
Now we have ‘Sir Rod’ who has infuriated many working class Celtic fans who are struggling everyday under Tory rule. In his wisdom he thought it clever and smart to praise Boris ( A silver spooned Bollix in my opinion) and saluted probably another decade of Tory rule.
Many of the Celtic Board are Tories, we have had a former Chairmen of the Bank of England, but the common denominator is that they’re all Celtic men, our Celtic family includes all religions, class, ethnic groups, should it matter what they believe outside football as long as they support the Green & White? Maybe a debate for the future.
If the majority of Celtic fans want to sing ‘The Boys of the Old Brigade’, ‘Sean South’ or ‘Grace’ and refuse to have poppies on our jerseys then that’s the way it will be. The Poppy has been removed from the jersey due to the backlash from the support but the club still donate to the poppy appeal.
The rich kids in suits like Rod Stewart have very little in common with the majority of Celtic fans and are out of touch with the heart beat of the club. I hope Rod will apologise to all the Celtic fans he has offended from his Ivory tower but I won’t hold my breath. He may get as warm a welcome from sections of the Celtic support as the 900 visiting fans from across the city at the end of the month
Rod’s love affair with Celtic may not be over but for many Celtic fans they now see through his crocodile tears for Grace Gifford and those leaders of 1916. Crocodile tears at Kilmainham jail and a visit to Glasnevin cemetery don’t hide the fact that Rod is a subject and we are citizens.
Paddy McMenamin was born in Belfast with Donegal and Tyrone parents. He spent the 1970’s in Long Kesh. He has been going to Paradise since the Benfica game in Nov. 1969. He lived in Donegal for 30 years but now lives in Galway. He returned to University at 50 and became a secondary school teacher of history and English.
There is no love lost between Celtic and Hearts fans and a midweek trip to Tynecastle always has the possibility of a slip up.
Hearts have been a mess this season, sitting joint bottom with Hamilton after losing at home to St Johnstone at the weekend. That loss moved St Johnstone three points ahead of Hearts. It was a disappointing start for the new manager, Daniel Stendel. The German has previously managed Hannover and Barnsley, where he got the Yorkshire outfit promoted but was then sacked after a run of ten games without a win back in October.
Celtic are nearing full strength again, with Bolingoli and Edouard both starting against Hibs, Edouard back on the scoresheet. Elyanoussi looks like he will be missing for a few weeks. I’d like to see Greg Taylor back at left back, Bolingoli seems a more offensive player but at Tynecastle I feel Taylor offers a bit more solidity to the defence. Ryan Christie missed out on Sunday and hopefully he is back in the starting line up, his energy and all round play will be crucial.
With both teams current form, Celtic should win but as I said, it’s never easy at Tynecastle. Winning is the most important thing, I’m not too bothered if we play beautiful football on Wednesday.
Rangers don’t play again until Friday, when they travel to Edinburgh to take on Hibs so we have a big opportunity to apply some more pressure and go five points clear.
Mick Kane hails from Glasgow. He has been hooked on Celtic since he went to his first game when he was 7. Celtic beat Hamilton 8-3 at Celtic Park on the 3rd of January 1987. His favourite player at the time, Brian McClair scored four goals.
He started going regular as a 16 year old when Celtic played at Hampden for the season, being a Southsider it meant a short train journey to get to Hampden. From then he has had a season ticket travelled around Europe for games as Celtic became the dominant force in Scottish football again. A nice change from growing up during Rangers run to 9 in a row.
Plans are well under way by the members of the 2nd Street Plough Bhoys CSC for the East Coast Feile 2020 which will once again be held in Philadelphia and we are delighted to be going back to host Celtic AM with special guests former Celtic player, Paul Byrne and Celtic SLO John Paul Taylor and enjoying the weekend’s craic with the North American Celtic family.
The action kicks off on Friday Jan. 31st at the Plough & the Stars pub and will continue all weekend with Derm Farrell, Ray Coleman and Neil MacThiarnain providing the musical entertainment and its Super Bowl weekend and when we were over two years ago the Eagles won it and the place went mental with Lisbon Lion, John Fallon leading the celebrations.
This year will see us return once again to the Famine Memorial for some quiet reflection and take in a City walking tour and a Party Bus Pub Crawl has also been organised.
Match Day will be an early start on Sunday morning when Celtic take on Hamilton to kick off Super Celtic Super Bowl Sunday.
Andrew started More than 90 Minutes in 2001. He has written for numerous publications and online about Celtic. One of his essays featured in Celtic Minded 2 and he is a former newspaper columnist with the Daily Ireland and the man behind celticfanzine.com. He is host of Celtic AM pre-match events at Malone’s in Glasgow on match days and follows Celtic Home & Away. He is a season ticket holder for Celtic FC and the Republic of Ireland. He is also P.R.O. of St. Margaret’s CSC, a member of the Celtic Trust and the Celtic Graves Association.
Over the past 18 years I have had the pleasure of interviewing players who have pulled on the famous green and white jersey of Celtic for both the fanzine and at our live events. The first interview I did was in the back of a shop in Newry with the late great Celtic hero and Lisbon Lion, Tommy Gemmell and the most recent was Alan Thompson one of the main stays of Martin O’Neill’s team and a wizard on the pitch with his left foot the scourge of many teams including the mighty Barcelona, Liverpool and Rangers ( on 7 goal scoring occasions) .
In between I have interviewed many more, on two occasions over the last 3 years Rudi Vata has joined us pre-match at Malones in Glasgow. For anyone who is not familiar with the Celtic AM format it is 4 x 15 minute interviews with Celtic Minded people from former players to fans and everything in between.
Rudi may have not hit the heights of Tommy or Alan during his Celtic career but his story can not be told in 15 minutes and his is a unique story so we have decided to host a night with Rudi and special guests in McChuills to hear his story in full, we will also be joined on the night by Paul Sheridan from the Wakes who will kick off and close the show with some songs which will fit perfectly into Rudi’s story. We will also be making a donation on the night to the No Evictions campaign.
Rudi grew up under a dictatorship in his homeland of Albania and while playing for his national team in Paris v France, he feigned injury, left the stadium with $50 dollars in his pocket and claimed political asylum in a Paris Police Station.
Rudi’s story is one of poverty, struggle, determination, sacrifice and ultimate success on the football field and in business since retiring. His son Rocco is playing in Celtic’s youth system and has recently made his debut for Ireland and scored the opening goal in his second appearance in the Green jersey.
It was Ireland were Rudi was discovered by Celtic, when after the fall of the Albanian dictatorship he would be recalled to the national team and after a man of the match performance was approached by Liam Brady about signing for Celtic.
Rudi represented his country 59 times and became the first player from his country to win a major honour in a western league when he featured in the Scottish Cup under Tommy Burns guidance.
Rudi’s time at the club was at a period when Rangers were dominating, he was in and out of the team and he was there when the club almost went under until Fergus McCann and the Rebels took control of the club.
The venue is small and intimate and I would advise getting your tickets early .
Andrew started More than 90 Minutes in 2001. He has written for numerous publications and online about Celtic. One of his essays featured in Celtic Minded 2 and he is a former newspaper columnist with the Daily Ireland and the man behind celticfanzine.com. He is host of Celtic AM pre-match events at Malone’s in Glasgow on match days and follows Celtic Home & Away. He is a season ticket holder for Celtic FC and the Republic of Ireland. He is also P.R.O. of St. Margaret’s CSC, a member of the Celtic Trust and the Celtic Graves Association.
Former St Mirren and Sunderland manager Jack Ross took over the Easter Road hot seat a couple of weeks back and they recorded a 3-0 home win against Aberdeen last week. The Leith side currently sit 6th in the table with 22 points with a record of W5, D7, L5.
Celtic should be back to full strength after giving a host of first team stars a welcome rest for the meaningless defeat midweek away to Cluj, having already qualified and won the group section.
It would be good to see young Karamoko Dembele and Scott Robertson be included in the first team squad again and hopefully play a striker up top, with Edouard, Bayo and Griffiths all in contention after the use of winger Lewis Morgan as a striker in recent weeks.
Fresh from what I feel could be a psychological boost, with winning the league cup last weekend, despite a poor performance, I expect a comfortable victory. We will await to see how Sevco respond after that crushing defeat as they travel to Motherwell for a lunch time kick off.
Tomorrow is a chance to acclaim our 10 in a row trophy winners and cheer them on to another victory.
Mick Kane hails from Glasgow. He has been hooked on Celtic since he went to his first game when he was 7. Celtic beat Hamilton 8-3 at Celtic Park on the 3rd of January 1987. His favourite player at the time, Brian McClair scored four goals.
He started going regular as a 16 year old when Celtic played at Hampden for the season, being a Southsider it meant a short train journey to get to Hampden. From then he has had a season ticket travelled around Europe for games as Celtic became the dominant force in Scottish football again. A nice change from growing up during Rangers run to 9 in a row.
There was lovely buzz around Cluj last night in the bars and restaurants around the square which is hosting the annual Christmas market. White lights a line the streets up to the square and the whole area is lit up only by bright white lights with historical buildings as the backdrop.
The Choir were in full flow when I arrived on the stage, the smell of smoking chestnuts filled the air, the locals were out doing their Christmas shopping mingling together drinking mulled wine.
It was an almost perfect Christmas scene and then in the distance I could see two Bhoys in green and white hooped tops, who didn’t feel the cold, they were coming towards me and then I heard the Christmas Carol “Ohohohohohohoh We’re Glasgow Celtic” No it was the perfect Christmas Scene!
As I continued out of the market I met many more Celtic fans bringing festive cheer to the local economy and I even saw one hardy soul in shorts. He certainly didn’t read the script or look at the weather forecast. Its more hat and scarf weather than shorts and shades over here this time of the year.
The bars were packed out as everybody looked forward to tonight’s game knowing that we have won the group. The atmosphere was brilliant with everybody buzzing after Sunday’s victory.
I couldn’t celebrate on Sunday night, once I got back to the hotel after Hampden I had to go to bed with the Man Flu, I felt that bad I could have been mistaken for a Sevco fan and their was plenty of them sick on Sunday evening hopefully they will be beaten tonight to make it a really Merry Christmas for all mankind.
Thankfully I made a full recovery just in time to catch my flight to Frankfurt and then onto Cluj yesterday and was able to kick off my belated cup celebrations last night with so many like minded Celtic fans.
The place is cheap as chips, No rip off taxis here, its all on the meter and a run from the airport costs about €8 and a pint is €2 so it’s happy days. We have been so lucky with the cities we have got to visit in this Europa Group.
Rennes was welcoming as we drew 1-1 and enjoyed the last of the Summer sunshine, the fans walk to the stadium will be remembered by the locals who seemed to enjoy the noise and the colour.
Rome was special to different people for different reasons, the historical city didn’t disappoint and neither did Celtic 1-2 the score against Lazio a horrible bunch who used knives to inflict wounds on 3 fans the only dampener on an amazing trip for the 10,000 fans who made Rome home for a couple of days.
And now Celtic in Cluj at Christmas, poetic and with no pressure another away trip to enjoy.
I met up with so many familiar faces all regulars on our European away days last night. Stories were exchanged along with handshakes and hugs we really are the Celtic family.
Today I expect much of the same as we gather for more festive pints and Celtic chat before making our way to the stadium to enjoy the atmosphere and hopefully what ever team Neil Lennon selects can put in a good performance and keep the Celtic run going in Europe before we look forward to the draw while travelling home in the morning.
I’m off now for some Chestnuts, Mulled Wine and Cheap Pints. Enjoy the game where ever you are watching around the globe.
Andrew started More than 90 Minutes in 2001. He has written for numerous publications and online about Celtic. One of his essays featured in Celtic Minded 2 and he is a former newspaper columnist with the Daily Ireland and the man behind celticfanzine.com. He is host of Celtic AM pre-match events at Malone’s in Glasgow on match days and follows Celtic Home & Away. He is a season ticket holder for Celtic FC and the Republic of Ireland.
I am aware that not everyone will approve of me using the word “Rangers”. Some would prefer the word “the” being inserted; others will insist on words like “Newco” or “Sevco”. To each his own, but for simplicity’s sake, I will call them Rangers. You know what club I am talking about, don’t you?
And let no person dare to say that Sunday December 8 doesn’t matter on the grounds that it is “just” the Scottish League Cup! It is crucial and I am certainly of the persuasion that the team who wins the Scottish League Cup this season will also win the Scottish Premier League as well.
Anyway, Celtic have faced Rangers 14 times in the Scottish League Cup final, and our record is slightly disappointing.
Rangers have thus won 9 Scottish League Cup finals against the 5 of Celtic, but the eagle eyed among you will have spotted that every single one of Rangers 9 triumphs was by the odd goal! Every single one of them saw Celtic supporters leaving Hampden feeling that Celtic could have done better, that Rangers were lucky or that the referee did Celtic few favours… etc. I have seen, either in the flesh or on TV, every one of them and I can recall at least one moment in each of them when someone like Jimmy Johnstone, Jackie Dziekanowski or John Hartson missed a chance or when a referee like Hugh Phillips, Bob Valentine or Davie Syme was cruel to us, or that we hit the post or the bar. Not that I’m paranoid. Oh good heavens, no! But then again if you cast your mind back to 2011, BOTH their goals went in off the post!
But let us talk about the happy times. October 19 1957 saw sputniks circling the earth, a new TV channel called Scottish Television to rival the BBC, a mysterious flu-type illness in West Central Scotland (now believed to have been caused by industrial pollution), fisticuffs a few days before the game between Charlie Tully and Bobby Evans – and 7-1! A film at the time was called “All this and Heaven Too!” No, no, we said it was “All This and Seven One!” A hat-trick from Billy McPhail, two from Neil Mochan, one from Sammy Wilson and a penalty from Willie Fernie. Do we still have any survivors from this game? You would really have to be in your late 70s, but I would love to hear from you. I was only 9, and didn’t get! I had to go to the Saturday matinee at the pictures instead.
October 23 1965 saw the Americans doing dreadful things in Vietnam, the Beatles still in fashion and Coronation Street the home. Of decent working class folk like Len Fairclough and Elsie Tanner rather than the criminals and people with social problems that we get today. It was also the day that Celtic confirmed their return to greatness after the Scottish Cup win in April. The new Celtic was confirmed when full back Ian Young, a grossly under-rated full back went in like a tank on Willie Johnston. No more Mr Nice Guy! Jock Stein on the touchline “cowed referees into fairness”, and Mr Phillips gave us two penalties – one when Ron McKinnon went mad and handled an innocuous ball, and the other a “debatable” one when Davie Provan brought down Jimmy Johnstone. John Hughes sank the pair of them, Rangers fans tried to steal the trophy from the Celtic players at the end, but the League Cup returned to Celtic Park, singing to the Scottish Cup “Take My Hand I’m a Stranger in Paradise!”
October 29 1966. Let’s be honest about this one. Rangers deserved at least a draw, but Celtic got the goal – a free kick from Bertie Auld, a head down from Joe McBride and Bobby Lennox didn’t even break stride to score. A long and painful second half, which included a breath-taking goal line clearance from Willie O’Neill. Referee Tiny Wharton ruled out a Rangers goal which he maybe should have given, and then turned down penalties at both ends. And what would have happened if we had not won this one? Certainly no clean sweep, maybe not even Lisbon – such is the long-term effect of a defeat in a Glasgow derby. As it was, Rangers blew up at Berwick and Nuremburg – but everyone knew that it was really Celtic who beat them in both games. They were a decent side, but couldn’t cope with being second best. Oh, and the Americans were still doing awful things in Vietnam, and the Beatles were still going strong, although showing clear signs of going all flower power, hippy and generally mad.
December 4 1982 saw rain and loads of it, cascading down on Celtic fans. But there was loads of singing and dancing as Charlie Nicholas and Murdo MacLeod scored the first half goal. Rangers pulled one back, but Celtic were always in command. A sight for sore eyes, certainly, but you looked at the rain, the half-empty stadium (it was being renovated so all the North terracing was out of action), the early December darkness, and you really had to question the sanity of the Scottish League. But even those of us who spent the next week in bed with pneumonia or exposure nevertheless had a good Christmas, even though the wicked fairy called Thatcher was now doing her worst. She had beaten up the Argentinians, and it was to be the miners next.
March 15 2009 was a brighter day, but the football between the two sides was summed up with the 0-0 score line at full time. But then Celtic upped it in extra time with, of all people, Darren O’Dea – that well known beater up of a Rangers fan who was being a pest to him – scored with a header at the start of extra time and then Aiden McGeady, a sometimes enigmatic and unpredictable player, was brought down at the end. He sank the penalty himself, and that night as we entered a well-known Celtic hostelry on the Gallowgate, we got free champagne which was showered on as we entered! Gordon Brown was the Prime Minister by that time. Not exactly famous for having everyone in stitches and convulsed with laughter at his unending stream of one-liners and funnies, nevertheless, he was OK, and a lot better than what was to come.
And the less happy times? In 1964/65 Bob Kelly was still in charge and we didn’t know how to win; in 1970/71 we were still recovering from the Milan European Cup final defeat; in 1975/66 Jock Stein was still in hospital following his road accident in July; in 1977/78 Celtic were at sixes and sevens having made the incomprehensible decision to sell Kenny Dalglish; in 1983/84 (the first televised Scottish League Cup final) Rangers needed extra time plus a penalty 1986/87 saw an ugly League Cup final with Maurice Johnston sent off and crossing himself (Maurice was always a very devout boy and his faith stayed with him all his life!) after Rangers had been awarded a dubious penalty 1990/91 saw a really dreadful Celtic set-up with the Board frightened to spend money and the team relying too much on the quixotic and really not very reliable Jackie Dziekanowski; 2003 was the year that Celtic were denied a perfectly fair John Hartson goal, Neil Lennon got sent off and Hartson himself missed a penalty – and we were far too worried about Liverpool in the UEFA Cup in any case; and 2011 needed extra time and could easily have gone the other way and both their goals went in off the post – so there you are, excuses for every one of them!
Born in 1948, David Potter first saw Celtic at Dens Park, Dundee in March 29. It was a 3-5 defeat, which equipped him admirably for the horrors of the early 1960’s. He had “followed” Celtic for a few years before that and recalls having been called upon to impersonate Jock Stein and receive the family silver teapot which had to do for the Scottish Cup as it was presented on April 24 1954, after he and his father had spent a nerve wracking afternoon listening to the radio! Since then, he has “followed” every Celtic game with bated breath, and has written extensively about the club in magazines and books. His favorite team was that of 1969 (which he rates marginally better than 1967) and his favorite player was Henrik Larsson.
His ambition for Celtic is for them to keep on winning silver in Scotland and to be something in Europe once again. His other interests are cricket and drama. He is 70, a retired teacher of Classical Languages, married with three children and five grandchildren. He now travels on the Joseph Rafferty bus from Kirkcaldy. He also loves Forfar Athletic.
