What a return to football it has been for Celtic fans so far in 2022

Just 12 months ago the club was in turmoil, an ill advised trip to Dubai had made front and back page news. The Scottish government, clinical advisors, press and fans all had their say.  The divide between fans and club hearkened back to the mid ‘90s and the Sack the Board campaign, which even then led to fans disagreeing on the best way forward.

The fall out from the trip to the winter training camp seemed like the final straw, but a string of uninspiring performances and results made January 2021 a time to forget for anyone associated with the Hoops.

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Rejuvenated under the guidance of Ange Postecoglou our club has wiped away the bitter memories of the chaotic start to 2021 and now rightfully find ourselves at to the top of the table with 12 matches remaining. What appears to be a unified philosophy between club hierarchy, coaching staff and players has galvanised the club.

The change in leadership style forged in those early months of this season has strengthened the resolve and revitalised players who looked on their way out.

The unanimous decision to pull forward the SPFL winter break in the face of another widespread Covid outbreak has been completely vindicated. The thousands upon thousands of fans who pay their way through the turnstiles season after season were rightly looked after by the governing body, who at least gave fans a chance to watch football in person again after the new year.

With fans now flocking back to stadiums the Scottish football season has reached a pivotal moment.  A ruthless, unyielding and committed Celtic team have notched up seven victories from seven matches since the turnstiles started clicking again. A hard fought and bruising encounter in Alloa saw us progress in to the next round of the Scottish Cup and set up a home tie against Raith Rovers.

The other six wins have came in league competition and propelled the Bhoys to the top of the pile.  These triumphs have come in very different guises. An emphatic and controlled victory at home over our nearest rivals was followed up by another complete performance as we demolished Motherwell at Fir Park.

Shades of brilliant sparkling football were on display in stages against Aberdeen, Hearts and Hibernian, but couldn’t be sustained into the second half in any of those matches. However, we ensured the winning run was maintained.

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At home to Dundee United an air of expectation smothered the stadium and instead of feeding off the opportunity to close the gap between first and second the game drifted towards a stalemate.  Down to 10 men and looking bereft of ideas to break down a stuffy well organised defence the frustration of a long 90 minutes was blown away by a moment of magic from our wingers, when Jota set up with Abada to score the winning goal as the clock entered injury time.

League championships are not won in February and the final months of the season will be exciting and nerve shredding in equal measures. However, Celtic are now showing that they are better equipped to deal with challenging match situations and find a way to get the result.  Thankfully all this is a far cry from the debacle we watched unfold last year.

Martin Donaldson is a Glasgow East End Bhoy,  He made my first trip to Celtic Park in 1983 for a 0-0 draw with Brechin City & thankfully that never put him off going back.   He now sits perched high in section 409 of the North Stand with his 2 kids making memories along the Celtic Way.

He loves picking out those matches from yester-year to find out much more about the legendary names & faces that have graced the Celtic Jersey over the years.  He is a keen fundraiser for The Celtic Foundation & The British Heart Foundation as they both strive to  make a difference and to change peoples lives all over the world.

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The big games keep coming for Celtic with a trip to Pittodrie to face Aberdeen tonight.

Celtic go into the game in good form after comfortable wins over Rangers and Motherwell, 7 goals scored and 0 conceded over the two games.

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Aberdeen have had a stop start season and are fighting to make the top six, they currently sit 7th on 29 points, a point behind Dundee United in 6th. They have won 8, drawn 5 and lost 11. Since the winter break the Dons have won 1 match, a cup game against Edinburgh City and had 2 draws and 2 defeats.

Our last match at Pittodrie was probably a turning point in our fortunes as we had went three away games without a win until that 2-1 win. Indeed Celtic have a good record in Aberdeen, with 9 wins and 2 draws, the last time Aberdeen won at home against the hoops was in February 2016. Lewis Ferguson seems to like to score against Celtic with 6 league goals since his debut in 2018.

Its a rare occasion with both Glasgow clubs in action at the same time. Psychologically a win at Aberdeen could prove crucial in the run in as Rangers went there recently and had to settle for a draw.

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.

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What a week for Celtic, the last gasp winner over Dundee United along with Rangers conceding and injury time equaliser against Ross County set up the chance for Celtic to go top with a win on Wednesday.

And win we did!

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A blistering first half performance blew away Rangers, who were lucky it was only three at the break. We will now see what they are made of, playing in front of fans is not for everyone! Especially disgruntled Sevconian’s.

We have Rogic and Bitton ready to return, we now have the strange feeling of options all over the pitch for the first time this season and with 5 subs allowed through the game, Ange has plenty of choice to freshen things up through the game.

We make the short trip to Fir Park on Sunday to face Motherwell in the early kick off, with a chance to extend the lead to add to the pressure before Rangers take on Hearts at Ibrox.

Celtic have a good record against Motherwell, with The Steelmen only winning once in the last 28 league meetings, back in 2015. In the last 10, Celtic have won all and scored 30 goals to Motherwell’s 5. The last time Motherwell had a result was a 1-1 draw  in December 2018.

The Lanarkshire club are in good form, unbeaten in last five, with 4 wins and 1 draw, with no goals conceded in 4 of the games. They surprisingly sold top scorer Tony Watt to Dundee United in the transfer window.

As Ange said, getting to the top of the league in February means nothing, we now need to keep winning and put more pressure on Rangers.

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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.

From I arrived at Dublin Airport on Wednesday morning I could feel the atmosphere building ahead of Celtic v the Rangers at Paradise. It seemed like every Celtic fan in Ireland was on their way to Glasgow.

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Every flight was full of Green and White clad Celtic fans flying to Glasgow and Edinburgh from Dublin, Belfast, Cork and even Knock. Supporters Buses were packed as they boarded the ferries heading for Cairnryan before making an impressive convoy of supporters buses making their way up the Scottish coast.

Hotels were booked out and bars packed with many putting the full house signs up as early as lunchtime. As we left a popular Celtic bar with about 90 minutes to kick off the queues were halfway down the road with Celtic punters without tickets wanting to secure a seat with a half decent view of a TV screen although after Hatate scored the opener I’d imagine it was standing room only.

The atmosphere outside Celtic Park was one of excitement but as with all games with our neighbours across the city the nerves do creep in. Inside Celtic Park both the Bhoys Ultras and the Green Brigade had been busy all day getting the Tifo’s ready that extra brought colour and sound to the stadium and Celtic fans of all ages joined in to create an unforgettable visual display when the players arrived up the tunnel before kick off.

The Celtic Park disco lights have been the subject of amusement by those in the Scottish media who had enjoyed mocking them during Celtic’s poor season last year after dominating Scottish football for almost a decade but on Wednesday night when those lights shined onto the huddle as the Rangers players stood in the dark it was magical.

What we witnessed after that in the first half can only be described as wonderful 3-0 up at half time, dream stuff for us and pure pain for the Rangers and their fans who I wished were there to witness this demolition.

Some of those fans turned on their own goalkeeper McGregor after the game but they should face reality it could have been 6 or 7 at half time only for his saves in that 45 minutes where Celtic dominated under the leadership of Callum McGregor who would later have Kris Boyd banging on about the Rangers players not making enough contact with his broken face hidden behind a protective mask to inflict injury.

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The second half may not have had the goals of the first half but it still had that magnificent atmosphere until the referee blew the final whistle but not before he booked a Celtic Ball Boy, I think that has to be a first. I have to admit I wasn’t aware of it until I seen a tweet yesterday long after I had arrived home after celebrating late into the night in Glasgow and those celebrations continued when we arrived back in Ireland for most of the night.

The players lap of honour saw almost all of the 60,000 Celtic fans inside Celtic Park to applaud their heroes and leave the biggest cheer of the night for Ange Postecoglou who has brought the pride back to the East end of Glasgow and what a return for those who travelled from Dubai, New York and beyond the cheer on the Bhoys.

I don’t expect the airport to be as busy on Sunday morning when I check in for the away day to Motherwell but I’m sure that Celtic fans will be tuning in throughout the globe to watch the famous Glasgow Celtic putting on a show.

For now we park that wonderful night which some Celtic fans have compared to the night we beat Barcelona and concentrate on another 3 points because when all the dust has settled that is all that was won on Wednesday night, 3 points but what a wonderful 3 points. Role on that alarm clock going off in the wee hours of Sunday morning.

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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.

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