400+ Celtic fans will make their way to the Arctic circle by plane and trains to cheer on Celtic who face a tough task if they are to reverse the 1-3 defeat by Bodo Glimt last Thursday night at Celtic Park and no doubt the members of CSC Norway will also be there to cheer on the Bhoys.
As the manager said it is only half time and he is expected to field a strong team. If we can grab an earlier goal then we could be in for another rollercoaster ride on the Ange train. Temperatures will be below 0 and may make the recent away trip to Aberdeen feel like a half decent spring evening.
The atmosphere will be hot as usual when Celtic take to the field cheered on by the travelling support and I am sure the Ultra drums will help to create a great atmosphere inside the small stadium which is mostly uncovered so lets hope the weather elements are not too cruel to the faithful.
The charter flights were booked out not long after they were announced and other fans who have gone independently started to check in to the city from as early as Monday night and the expense of a £14 pint.
Celtic Away Days are always special and lets hope everybody who has made the long trip to Norway at great expense gets a ticket and can enjoy the experience inside the ground rather than in a local bar.
Andrew Milne is Editor of More than 90 Minutes Celtic Fanzine which he started in 2001. He has been involved with fanzines since 1989 and has written for numerous publications and online about Celtic. He is a former newspaper columnist with the Daily Ireland and the man behind celticfanzine.com. He is host of the Celtic Soul Podcast, Talk form the Terrace Podcast, Grand Auld History Podcast & Celtic AM pre-match events at Murphy’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.
More than 90 Minutes Editor, Andrew Milne looks ahead to Celtic’s upcoming games this week ahead of Celtic’s visits to Norway and Edinburgh and previews what’s coming up this week across the celticfanzine.com platforms.
He looks back at the recent run of form including the joy of another late goal winner against Dundee and the recent demolition derby against the Rangers who are gambling everything on winning the league this season with a boom or bust attitude to try and win the title and get the riches of automatic qualification.
It’s back to league action at Celtic Park today, with the visit of Dundee on Sunday.
The mood amongst the Celtic support has dampened slightly following the home 3-1 defeat to Bodo Glimt in the Conference League, along with Rangers 4-2 win in Dortmund. Both results came as a bit of a surprise.
However the league has to be the main priority this year and as long as we learn from the defeat then we can return to winning ways. Europe ultimately has come too early in the Ange Postecoglou revolution.
Dundee sacked their manager, James McPake midweek and replaced him with former Celt, Mark McGhee. The Dens Park side are bottom of the table, two points behind fellow Tayside outfit St Johnstone, although Dundee have a couple of games on hand.
They have won their last two games, away to Hearts and last weels Cup match against Peterhead. The win over Hearts stopped a nine game winless run. It seems strange that they waited until now to sack McPake on the back of two wins.
Celtic have a good record against Dundee, unbeaten in 34 league meetings, winning the last five. At Celtic Park, Dundee have lost 15 of their last 17, their last win coming back in 2001.
Celtic need to get back to the sort of level we saw against Rangers and Motherwell as the performances against Aberdeen, Raith Rovers and Bodo Glimt have not matched those highs.
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.
When the ball hit the back of the net in the dying minutes against Dundee United the roar from Celtic Park could be heard across Glasgow. It was pure magic and set up the big game against the Rangers in front of 60,000 Celtic fans. It was a special night and style shown on that night continued as Celtic travelled on the Sunday to Motherwell.
Aberdeen was the next midweek stop for Celtic fans and in the first half it was business as usual as Ange Postecoglou’s bhoys turned on the style only for Aberdeen to rip up the script and come out fighting in the second half before Celtic finally got over the line with a 3-2 win which sent us all down the road happy with the 3 points but we all knew that we would have more hard battles in the next few months if we are to become Champions this season.
We finally saw a different side to Ange last Sunday when the big cuddle bear showed his claws. A half full Celtic Park saw him lose the plot briefly with his players from his position outside the dugout for a lacklustre first half performance against Raith Rovers. Celtic were much better in the second half after his team talk and some changes in personal and we progressed to the next round of the Scottish Cup to set up an away day in Dundee against United next month.
At the post press conference after the game Ange answered the media questions and told us how he felt about players not putting in a full shift. The conference was brief before Raith manager John McGlynn took his seat and praised his players for their efforts and his travelling fans vocal support.
I asked John did he think the closure of the singing section helped his team in the first half and he thought it did. It was a question I also asked Liam Scales and he answered by saying the team thrive off the noise and atmosphere created in that corner and on Wednesday both Ultra groups tried their best to lift the crowd but only a Maeda goal brought the stadium to life and that was short lived when Bodo went 3-1 up almost straight away.
Ange seemed upbeat and confident when he spoke to us on Wednesday ahead of the game as did Giorgos Giakoumakis and I suppose we were as fans with too much talk of the Ross County game being moved if we won, there was talk of the St. Johnstone game being moved to Sunday in April and even talk of the price of flights to Albania for the final!
There was no real buzz around Glasgow ahead of the match as I walked through it on Thursday afternoon it did not have that match day feel normally associated with big European nights. Was it the unknown opposition from Norway that did not get the juices flowing or was it because it was in the new third tier European competition or did some fans see it as a distraction from our league tile aspirations?
What ever it was something was missing on the night as the Green Brigade paid tribute to the manager with another fantastic display. Scarfs were raised above our heads and “You’ll Never Walk Alone” was belted out before both teams took to the field for the team pictures.
The Bodo team gathered at their dugout and did a huddle with the subs, management and backroom team at the same time that the Celtic players were doing the huddle in the usual spot but the lights were not dropped and there was no glowing beam focusing on our bhoys like we had witnessed against the Rangers as they stood in the dark.
We have come a long way under Ange after the mess he took over when he arrived but on Thursday and have now realised how far we have to go if we are to compete in Europe against a decent team who beat Roma 5-1 but are still in pre-season and failed to win an away match in the Europa group stages.
I think we all expected more from Celtic who were second best all night. Celtic Park was half empty at full time as the Celtic players took applause from the remaining fans who stayed to clap them off the field while Bodo celebrated with their 800 travelling fans who will have enjoyed their visit to Glasgow.
We have given ourselves a mountain to climb in the Artic circle on a plastic pitch, the Charter flights are booked out and other fans are doing airport roulette to get there. Bodo are in the driving seat to progress and nothing that we witnessed from Celtic on Thursday would suggest that we can get a famous away win in Europe.
We all thought we had little chance in Germany after we took a hammering at home to Bayer Leverkusen but we went out there and played excellent until we ran out of steam and Ange had not the personnel on the bench to come on and make a difference and we lost after a great effort.
We will need to turn in another performance like that if we are to stand any chance of progressing in Europe its only half time as they say in these European ties.
The immediate focus however for all of us is the visit of Dundee to Celtic Park and we will all be hoping for a much better performance and a return to the style we have become accustomed to.
Andrew Milne is Editor of More than 90 Minutes Celtic Fanzine which he started in 2001. He has been involved with fanzines since 1989 and has written for numerous publications and online about Celtic. He is a former newspaper columnist with the Daily Ireland and the man behind celticfanzine.com. He is host of the Celtic Soul Podcast, Talk form the Terrace Podcast, Grand Auld History Podcast & Celtic AM pre-match events at Murphy’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.
Guess who just got back today?
Them wild-eyed boys that’d been away
Haven’t changed, had much to say
But man, I still think them cats are crazy
They were askin’ if you were around
How you was, where you could be found
Told ’em you were livin’ downtown
Drivin’ all the old men crazy
THE BHOYS ARE BACK IN TOWN tee back in stock in all sizes
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Thousands are sailing
Across the western ocean
Where the hand of opportunity
Draws tickets in a lottery
Where e’er we go, we celebrate
The land that makes us refugees
From fear of priests with empty plates
From guilt and weeping effigies
Still we dance to the music
And we dance
Thousands Are Sailing tees back in stock in all sizes.
Thanks to everyone who pre-ordered, your t-shirt is on the way and you should have your free fanzine sitting in your inbox.
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Ange Postecoglou spoke to More than 90 Minutes Editor, Andrew Milne and the media ahead of tonights big European
“Yes, we are match fit and in good condition, so I’m hoping that is an advantage, particularly later on in the game but at the same time you’ve just got to prepare as if they’re going to be a good challenge for us and we’re preparing for them to play as they did so well in Europe earlier in the season.”
“The fact that Bodø didn’t lose away from home is probably more significant because it shows that they’ve got a really strong mentality and strong character within their team.
“So, from our perspective, we’re preparing to play a very good side and one that’s got a lot of confidence from their European exploits so far.”
Join us at Murphy’s Glasgow before Celtic take on Bodo Glimt as we launch Paddy McMenamin’s new book From Armed Struggle to Academia and chat to Paddy about his life. Hosted by More than 90 Minutes Editor Andrew Milne he will also be joined for a chat by Lisbon Lion, John Fallon and Celtic Minded Author Doctor Joseph Bradley.
August 1969 the age old conflict in Ireland erupted once again, Paddy McMemnamin was 15 as he manned the barricades in Belfast after a sectarian anti Irish pogrom by loyalists, the RUC and the B Specials. Three months later in November 1969 he was amidst a 75,000 passionate crowd at Paradise as Celtic defeated the Eusebio inspired Benfica in the European Cup, two events which have shaped his life in the past 50 years.
‘I think we’ll have a full stadium with us, and our fans will be there to support us. We’re looking forward to this game and I think we’re going to enjoy it.’
I didn’t choose Celtic only because of the European games – I chose Celtic because it’s Celtic,”
‘It’s an amazing club with big targets every year but, of course, the European games are something really special for the players and it’s something that played its part.’
