Celtic Soul Podcast Episode 104 More than 90 Minutes Editor Andrew Milne chats to UB40 founding member and drummer Jimmy Brown about life growing up in a multicultural Birmingham before conquering the music World and becoming the biggest Reggae band in the World
UB40 recently released their latest album Bigga Baggariddim. The band have recorded and toured for 4 decades and will be back on the road in the New Year.
During the conversation Jimmy talks about the gap left behind by his childhood friend and founding UB40 member Brian Travers after his recent sad passing.
He also chats about his hometown Birmingham, Life, Music, Politics, Money, Fame, Gigs, recording with his musical heroes and how going to see Bob Marley would inspire him and his friends to form a band.
Celtic Football Club, captain Callum McGregor has backed this year’s Rainbow Laces campaign.
This year’s campaign aims to unite everyone who cares about sport and fitness to create a world where every LGBTQ+ person can thrive wherever they train, play or watch sport.
Callum McGregor said: “Celtic will always be open to everyone. The Rainbow Laces campaign aims to make sport everybody’s game and that, of course, really is a great message.
“The initiative once again addresses a very important issue in society which needs to be tackled and, therefore, we are delighted to once again offer our wholehearted support.”
Callum will wear the captain’s rainbow armband with pride this Sunday, December 12 as Celtic take on Motherwell at Celtic Park as we support this year’s campaign.
So a young 19 year old carried the hopes of a nation of 50m on his back, a kid who wasn’t born when Kevin Kilbane missed a penalty at World Cup ’02 and we lost out to Spain, a kid just out of his ‘A’ Levels, a black kid as 50% of London are now, a grandchild of migrants as indeed were 8 of the England team, including three with Irish heritage, the ravages of Empire and colonialism were definitely coming home?
I felt for the young guy who took the penultimate penalty, afterwards he was inconsolable despite his teammates moral support, he was devastated, it was a terrible responsibility to place on the shoulders of one so young. Southgate placing responsibility on a kid still wet behind the ears was a dereliction of duty, he may play for Arsenal and on a huge financial contract but he was still only 19, where were the senior players on the England team, surely it’s their responsibility to stand up and be counted but they shirked away, megabucks superstars with a weak backbone!
Once again England failed to ‘bring it home’, perennial failures, a bit like Mayo as Joe Brolly would say, ‘they find a new way to get beat every year’, or as some say England, the Tottenham of Europe. I was 12 when they won the Jules Rimet trophy aka the World Cup, we will never be allowed to forget it because they show it on BBC2 every Christmas, I suppose it’s their moment in the sun in over 150 years of association football, I mean apparently they invented the game we all love, the beautiful game, but despite letting them play all the games at Wembley in ‘66, finding dodgy referees who wouldn’t know if a ball crossed the line, they will still find a way to miss a penalty from 12 yards in ‘2021, I suppose like Dixie Deans back in ’72.
While everyone and his dog know that England has an abysmal record in penalty shoot outs, we are not immune ourselves when it comes to deciding a game by this version of shoot to kill? In fact Celtic were involved in the decision to scrap the tossing of a coin and go for a penalty shootout. Back in ’69 when I went to my first ever game v Benfica, Celtic won 3-0 on the night and we all thought safely through to the next round, but in Lisbon the scores were reversed and after extra time and the teams still level it went to the dreaded toss of a coin. Deep in the bowels of the Stadium of Light Billy McNeill and Mario Coluna watched as the referee, Dutchman, Van Ravens tossed a Dutch guilder coin in the air as Cesar called ‘heads’ and it came up but this was only to see who would spin the coin to decide who went through.
Once again Cesar called ‘heads’ and the coin spined through the air as if in slow motion, falling to the ground it rolled around for a few seconds hitting the referees boot before landing with ‘heads’ facing up, Celtic were through, McNeill hugged Coluna, two great players and captains, this was no way to win a football game.
After the game Celtic Chairman Bob Kelly launched an official complaint with UEFA stating that tossing a coin was totally against the spirit of football, he also said that if Celtic had lost the toss they wouldn’t have complained but did so in a spirit of genuine sporting integrity. The following season UEFA introduced the penalty shoot-out to decide games drawn after extra time, it came too late for the great World Cup of 1970 but a few months later the great George Best missed in the first penalty shootout in Britain. And then we come to ‘Dixie’, named after the great Everton icon, Dixie the latest in a long line of star strikers that Celtic had over the years, McGrory, McPhail, McBride, Chalmers, Wallace, he became a darling of the Jungle and scored almost 100 goals in his Celtic career but as he has said himself on many occasions, ‘the only thing I get remembered for was missing that bloody penalty against Inter’!
Celtic won the big cup in ’67, lost to AC Milan in the quarters in ’69, lost the final to Feyenoord in ’70, lost again in the quarters to Ajax in ’71, but in ’72 they were back in the semi-final again against Inter, it was the golden era for the club with another semi in ’74 against Atletico, with a bit of luck we could have rivalled Liverpool with 6 European Cups, to say we underachieved is an understatement. That night in April ’72 sticks firmly in my memory, I was with a ‘captive’ audience in Cage 10 as an internee in Long Kesh; the previous year along with Mickey Kearney we planned to go to the Ajax game but Stenna line were on strike, Micky was shot dead years later during the conflict; the year before that I thought I might make it to Milan, we were barmen in Belfast city centre, another young barman friend Jimmy McCallum was blown up by a UVF bomb a few months later; football was becoming a bit irrelevant in the mad world we lived in but still the European Cup was magic ever since my first game v Benfica I just loved European nights at Paradise and still do.
Celtic were European royalty at the time, along with the Milan clubs, AC and Inter, Ajax, Man U, Benfica, Real had been the best ever but were by their sell by date and Bayern were lurking and then Liverpool, but when the draw was made Celtic didn’t fear any of them, for young fans now it’s hard to figure it out when we struggle to make the group stages, but for us older guys they were years of heaven at Paradise. On that April night in ’72 we watched with bated breath to see the Hoops through to a third European final. They had drawn 0-0 on a cold snowy night in the San Siro and were favourites to progress but Inter were no mugs and with the catenaccio in full force they kept a clean sheet and Celtic couldn’t penetrate the Italian defence, and so to penalties. To take a penalty in a shootout takes courage, confidence, commitment, Dixie had all these and so up he went first, facing into the Celtic end his run up was confidence personified but he ballooned the ball so high over the bar it nearly left the ground and that was that, the other 4 Celts all converted but alas the 5 Italians did also and they were through to the final v Ajax and gained a form of revenge for ’67.
I honestly couldn’t believe it, we weren’t used to penalty shoot outs then and just assumed our star players would score from 12 yards, and the best of all is that we just took it for granted we would be in a European final or semi every few years,’64, ’66, ’67, 70, ’72,’74, little did we know? As for Dixie he went on to have a prolific career with Celtic scoring hat tricks in League and Scottish Cup finals, but you know I’m sure he would have forfeited those medals to have sunk the ball in Vieri’s net that night in April ’72.
The other major Cup final penalty shootout that sticks in my mind was the Scottish Cup final 1990, the Anton Rogan final. On a scorching hot day similar to what we’ve been experiencing this past few weeks, Celtic and Aberdeen played out a scoreless draw and the game went to penalties, the first time a major Cup final had been decided by the dreaded shoot out. It seemed as if the script had been written in the stars, Anton Rogan a fellow Belfast man from Andytown was a good Celt, his attacking overlaps paved the way for the Centenary final victory two years previously. But he was unfortunately a little accident prone, and while an excellent attacking full back with an exquisite left peg he sometimes could make an odd error, I think this was on everyone’s mind at Hampden that sunny day, 20 players took penalties that day and only three missed, Charlie Nicholas actually scored the 5th for Aberdeen to send it to sudden death, excitement and dread mounted, then Anton walked to the penalty spot, I think many closed their eyes, he placed the ball and confidently strode up and sent it to the corner but the big Dutch keeper saved at the post, Anton collapsed on the pitch and was in tears as he was consoled by fellow teammates, honestly I feel it was meant to be, of all players to miss I wished it hadn’t been Anton, a guy brought up in the Celtic tradition in Belfast, a young guy who impressed Celtic so much that even after he broke his leg twice at 17 while they watched him, they still came after him and a great Celt he was.
So the penalty shootout can be a harrowing experience but to be honest while we all love to see it, jeez Engerland take the biscuit when it comes to fluffing their lines in penalty shoot outs. At Italia ’90 they lost to Germany; Euro ’96 at home they again lost to the Germans at Wembley with present manager Gareth Southgate’s miss sending them out; at the World Cup in France in ’98 they lost to old foes Argentina; in Euro ’04 and the World Cup in ’06 Ronaldo and the Portuguese put them to the sword; and at Euro ’12 the Italians administered the coup de grace, a pretty dismal record of failure when it comes to penalty kicks. While it was difficult not to feel sorry for the young kids who missed for England, as a nation it nearly makes the tournament when our arrogant ‘friendly neighbours’ fail once again, in fact in a perverse way it’s nearly better watching England lose again on penalties than it is watching the Republic or Scotland win a game.
So after 55 years this was to be their moment of salvation, Boris and Priti Patel jumped on the bandwagon despite not knowing the difference between a football game and the annual boat race on the Thames and then there was Wembley opened up again despite all COVID warnings and almost 70,000 spreading the Delta virus like there was no tomorrow, and amongst them a cohort of the crowd right wing racists, this was their moment, they took over Leicester Square and told the world that ‘football was coming home’ to an England estranged from Europe, the Brexiteers were having a field day, they would show the other 500 million Europeans that they didn’t win two World Wars and a World Cup for nothing despite the rest of us knowing except for the Russians the Germans would have wiped the floor with them in WW2 and to top it all a Russian linesman in ’66 gave them a dodgy goal to lift the World Cup, they owe them Russians big time!
So on the Sunday evening after a hard day on the golf course, then watching Donegal snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, we sat down to watch the final on RTE, listened to Liam Brady, Didi Hamann and Damien Duff discuss the merits of the two teams; Brady knows the Italian psyche from his time at Juve, Didi has that Germanic mentality and Duffer, well sure he toyed with many an English full back in his time in the EPL. The verdict was that Italy would lift the trophy, that sentiment was shared with about 10 million people in Ireland and Scotland amongst 500m in Europe, only in the Brexiteer streets and towns throughout England did anyone imagine that Cellini and Puccino would concede defeat?
And so it was, England scored with almost the first attack of the game but the Italians dominated the match. It looked like England were playing for penalties from the 1st minute, as Danny Blanchflower the former Spurs and NI Captain and an irreverent but witty journalist once said, ‘our tactics were to equalise before the other team scores’. That’s exactly what England did; they scored first and then waited the whole game for Italy to equalise, as in Brexit, seriously flawed thinking. It was hardly the beautiful game of Argentina v Brazil from the previous night’s Copa America, but it was a fascinating match, the three ‘Irishmen’, ‘Arry, Declan and Jack Grealish’ all played although Grealish with the exotic hairstyle might have inspired them if allowed more time, but Italy were superb. The Italians won two out of the first three World Cups in ’34 and ’38 and 4 times in total, most recently ’06, also 12 European Cups/Champions Leagues between Juve, AC and Inter Milan, and now their second Euros, they are football royalty and now presented with the big cup in the home of royalty, as football came home…..to Rome!
Sadly off the field the English fans once again let the side down, most ordinary English football fans will be genuine guys but they have a massive element of right wing National Front, they boo the national anthems of every other country, unheard of in sport; they boo their own England players when they ‘take the knee’ against racism; after three of their players missed penalties and happen to be black, the English fans abused them on social media, quite correctly condemned by Gareth Southgate. Rashford, Sancho and Saka are role models in their respective communities, I’m sure they felt bad enough after missing the penalties without the racist abuse, it was pathetic. But there was worse, the crowds gathered in Leicester Sq., up to 200,000, drinking all day with a late kick off and began fighting amongst themselves and left a mess like in an elephant enclosure in a circus., then at Wembley they broke in through the disabled turnstiles without tickets and finally they attacked innocent young Italian supporters and the stewards stood by as they kicked them as they lay on the ground, it was disgusting.
UEFA have ordered an investigation into the whole sorry saga and already charged the English FA with various offences. The London Met have said that there was a major chance that the final would have been abandoned if things had got any worse, and the behaviour of England fans has put a question mark on the joint bid for the 2030 World Cup which will have repercussions for the Republic and Scotland?
England have always had this element, we witnessed it at the old Lansdowne in ’96, and in every country they travelled to in Europe they wreaked havoc, although they were never so brave when playing at Hampden, but it followed the 70’s/80’s when English club football was bedevilled by hooliganism culminating in the night 39 lives were lost in Heysel as English fans rioted and Juve lifted the Cup, it was dubbed ‘the English disease’, they don’t go to football games to enjoy the game but just to cause trouble, it’s a sickening mentality, a racist if not fascist way of behaving, and then they wonder why most people in Ireland, Scotland and the rest of Europe were willing Italy to win that night, they just don’t get it?
Paddy was born in Belfast with Donegal and Tyrone parents. He spent the 70’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.
More than 90 Minutes Editor, Andrew Milne is joined on this Episode of Talk from the Terrace Podcast by Bhoys Ultras Ross and James to chat about why Bernard Higgins should not be employed by Celtic Football Club after his role in dawn raids on Celtic supporters homes during the campaign against the OBA.
They also discuss how the news was leaked about Higgins new role at Celtic Park and why they are part of the protests against him becoming an employee of Celtic as the campaign grows among Celtic fans from all corners of the World and all walks of life.
The Bhoys like so many fans hope that the club can enter into constructive dialogue with Celtic supporters representatives at a time when the Manager, Players and Fans are together but the feeling is the board are disconnected more than ever with the average fan on the street.
Celtic wrap up their Europa League campaign tonight with the visit of Real Betis to Celtic Park.
Sadly, the game is meaningless after Leverkusen scored a late winner a couple of weeks ago. Celtic have been unfortunate not to progress after having led in both Seville and Germany, and beating Ferencvaros home and away. The victories over the Hungarian’s has ensured we drop into the new Europa Conference, meaning European football after Christmas. Given our performances, with a few more signings, it’s a competition I think we could do well in.
Betis travel to Glasgow on the back of a win over Barcelona at the Camp Nou. They have won their last five games in all competitions since a derby day defeat to city rivals Sevilla.
Celtic have lost their last seven matches against Spanish opposition, since we beat Barcelona 2-1 in 2012. Overall we have played Spanish teams 37 times, won 7, drawn 7 and lost 23. Not a great record.
I suspect both teams will make changes with nothing at stake, apart from coefficient points for Celtic. After his scoring league debut at the weekend, defender Liam Scales is likely to feature, it would be good for Greg Taylor to get some more minutes. Maybe a rest for Kyogo and McGregor would be handy ahead of the visit of Motherwell on Sunday.
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.
Back in September 2001 I made the trip over to Paradise for the final Champions League qualifier v Ajax, we held a 3-1 lead from the first leg in Amsterdam and it was with a certain amount of confidence that we took the Stena Line over that Autumn day.
The new Millennium had brought renewed hope that under Martin O’Neill we would once again take our rightful place in European competition, for the previous 20 years since a quarter final defeat to Real Madrid in 1980 our performances had been pretty dismal, first and second round exits were the order of the day, we had fallen so much from the golden era of the 60’s and early 70’s when we were European elite, it was a depressing time, I remember every year when we would play in the early rounds in Europe and after defeat it was so deflat- ing for a few days, we only had local dominance to look forward to and even that was beyond us in the 90’s.
The arrival of one Martin O’Neill in 2000 changed all that, in fact changed everything! No longer were we playing second fiddle to our great rivals in Govan, a decade of misery was over. We also had in place during the sad, bad 90’s a new regime at boardroom level, wee Fergus came, promised and delivered, a new business plan put in place, a 61,000 all seated stadium positioned at our original home in Paradise, Irish financier Dermot Desmond brought in to provide a long needed response to David Murray, and finally a Manager of quality who knew how to get things done on the playing field, the new millennium brought everything into place, we didn’t know it then but we were about to witness 20 years of continuous success, and to top it off a presence in European football which befits our great club, after two decades of the ridiculous we would now have the sublime.
The European Cup began in 1956, Hibs being the first Scottish and British team to take part, the English refused to enter just as they did with the World Cup in 1930, sure didn’t they invent the game? For the first 11 years Latin teams dominated: Real Madrid with the first five, Di Stefano and Puskas; then Benfica with Eusebio and the two Milans with Rivera & Facchetti before the greatest night in Celtic history in ’67 in Lisbon: European royalty. Man Utd and Georgie Best in ‘68 followed by the Dutch with first Feyenoord denying us a second title and then the magic of Cruyff and Ajax.
The powerful Germans of Bayern, Gerd Muller, Beckenbauer followed suit before Liverpool and the English teams had their day in the sun, former Celtic great Dalglish led the Reds to great glory followed by Forest, Cloughie and one Martin O’Neill, then Villa, it was the English heyday in Europe, 6 in a row, even now with the megabucks in the EPL they can’t repeat that success with just 6 Champions Leagues in 30 years. The 80’s had a mish- mash of teams winning with Hamburg, Steaua, PSV, Porto, indeed there is a suggestion that those years from the English teams winning to the end of the 80’s were the poorest standard for European football?
The 90’s then witnessed the introduction of the Champions League with straight knockout being replaced by the group stages, all at the bequest of the big clubs who didn’t want to go out of Europe in the first round anymore. In the last 30 years the competition has been domi- nated by a few select clubs, Real Madrid 7, Barca 5, Bayern 3, AC Milan 3, Man U, Liver- pool and Chelsea 2 each; Spain, Germany, Italy and England get 4 clubs into the group stages every year, and by all accounts it’s going to get worse with UEFA deciding to avoid a breakaway ‘Super League’ they must pander to the elite of Europe.In other words,those with the biggest finances. That means in effect teams like PSG and Man City who have never won the European Cup/Champions League get preference over storied European winners like Ajax, Porto, Dortmund and Celtic, just because of their deep pockets from hedge fund merchants in the US, Russia and Qatar.
Whatever about the machinations of the European power brokers in 2021 we can always look at a wonderful European history for an Irish/Scottish club in the East End of Glasgow, 60 years ago next year Celtic took their first baby steps in Europe in the old ‘Fairs Cup’ losing to Valencia 6-4 on aggregate. The following season Celtic reached the semi final of the Cup Winners Cup, amazingly while winning the first leg 3-0 they lost 4-0 away to MTK Budapest and missed out on a first final. Spurs had won the previous Cup Winners Cup with the great Jimmy Greaves their talisman, probably the best goal scorer ever in football, Greaves sadly passed away recently, he was my first footballing hero in the mid 60’s before I found Bobby Murdoch. Another great goal scorer passed recently, the great Gerd Muller, World Cup winner with Germany and European Cup 3 in a row with Bayern, another footballing legend.
The following season seen the arrival of the great Jock Stein but before he stepped into the Parkhead hot-seat Celtic made a first acquaintance with Barcelona in the Fairs Cup losing 2-0 on aggregate, over the decades they would become the most welcome team to Paradise especially on one famous night on the 125th anniversary, the Scottish club with Irish roots and the Catalans, both with incredible history, ‘Mes que un club’! In the ’66 season
Celtic again reached the Cup Winners Cup semi final but went out controversially 2-1 at Anfield after a perfectly legit Bobby Lennox goal was disallowed, while it was so disappoint- ing the European appetite was whetting and of course in ’67 that big cup would make its way to Paradise after a night of all nights in Lisbon. Defeating Inter 2-1 will always remain the great- est milestone for our great club, it puts us in an elite group of clubs who have achieved that level of esteem, indeed some of the top English teams like Man City, Everton, Arsenal and Spurs have never had their illustrious name carved on the top trophy in world football.
From ’64-’74 we were European elite more or less; two semi finals and then Lisbon; a quarter final defeat to AC in ’69; we lost another final to Feyenoord in ’70; followed by a quarter final defeat to Ajax in ’71 and a semi defeat to Inter in ’72; and finally another semi defeat to Atletico Madrid in controversial circumstances in ’74, it was a wonderful time to be a Celtic supporter and I was part of it; my first game v Benfica a 3-0 victory in ’69, 3-0 v Fiorentina in ’70 and of course the 2-1 victory over ‘Super Leeds’ at Hampden in April ’70 along with 136,500, it was just a magical time to be travelling to Paradise, and I thought it would never end, but sadly it did.
Except for one final sortie in the European Cup in 1980 when we reached the quarter final and defeated Real Madrid 2-0 at Parkhead but lost 3-0 in the return leg, in reality from the mid 70’s for 25 years we were also rans in Europe, it was just a miserable, miserable time. Some Celtic fans might be happy winning the SPL and beating Rangers but I’m afraid for me it’s all about Europe, somehow we have to find a way to be able to compete in the Champions League on a regular basis.
For two decades every sort of half bit European side came to Glasgow and over the two legs would deliver elimination in the early rounds. I mean such ‘household names’ as Olympiacos, Wisla Krakow, FSV Zwickau, Innsbrook, Timișoara, Rapid Vienna, Neuchatel, Hamburg, Sporting Lisbon, Zurich, Croatia Zagreb and Bordeaux.
There were some great nights against some of the better teams: Juve and Liam Brady, Atleti- co in Spain before behind closed doors, Forest on a passionate night in the frost at the City Ground, Dortmund pre-Lambert, Liverpool and a mazy length of the pitch run by Steve McManaman to deny us victory, ‘Jackie’ Dziekanowski’s 4 goals v Partizan, but at the final whistle all delivered the same result: early exit from Europe for another season.
It would nearly take me a week to get over it, another year without European football after Xmas, it was desperate times and we had a Board who didn’t seem to realise that we had fallen so far behind in the challenge for Europe, the old Board were happy enough with a few league titles and an odd cup victory but then the 90’s put paid to even that, it was the worst of times.
When the European Cup was formed in 1956 it was over a decade before Celtic made their entry into the famous old trophy. The same thing happened when it was changed to the Champions League in the early 90’s: it was a full decade before the name ‘Celtic’ was pulled out of the crystal bowl by some exotic blonde or maybe even Billy McNeill; the clip of Cesar lifting the big cup in Lisbon would flash up on the big screen as Zadok the Priest could be heard in the background. This was a whole new ball game. It was razzmatazz and show business: 32 teams, eight groups of four, with six games before Christmas.
Live on terrestrial TV and the new Sky digital service, worldwide coverage and yes, millions of Euros flooding into the coffers but, of course, those who reached the business end coined the serious money the prophetic words on the steps of Paradise, ‘I will do everything in my power to deliver success for the football club’, we didn’t sense hyperbole or bullshit, we knew that things were about to change.
The man who said his Dad told him to ‘walk to Parkhead if Celtic ever came calling’ was the right person at the right time. Leicester’s Chairman and fans couldn’t believe he would leave the EPL for the SPL, but they didn’t know the attraction of Celtic, O’Neill did and he brought Lennon, Sutton, Thompson, Hartson and made a team to compete in the Champi- ons League and destroy the Rangers monopo- ly in Scotland. In his first Celtic v Rangers game his team destroyed the ‘bears’ 6-2, he had made a statement, the Rangers domi- nance was over, now for Europe.
So we come back to the penultimate qualifier in Amsterdam. For a quarter of a century we would have went out quietly to the Dutch masters but that night Bobby Petta played like God and we took a 3-1 lead to Paradise. It was one of those games – we were already qualified in a sense – all we had to do was keep things safe at the back and we were through but that’s never the Celtic way…
Ajax scored in the 10th minute and for the next 80 minutes it was nail biting time as we tried to hold on, I was up high in the North stand and it was an emotionally draining experience but as we went into the final minutes the whole stadium was engulfed with an outburst of emotion as we realised that we were on our way to the Champions League, it was like that day we stopped the 10 for the ‘bears’, the North stand was rocking and as the final whis- tle went it was euphoria, Celtic were in the Champions League for the first time.
The draw in the first campaign delivered Juve, Porto and Rosenberg; I was there as we beat Porto who became the first Champions League opponents after the Rosenberg game was changed due to the death of the Diana. After almost 30 years Celtic were among European royalty once again, the stadium was at bursting point as the haunting Zadok the Priest was heard over Paradise for the first time and then ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ was belted out like never before in the new stadium from the serried ranks of Celtic supporters who had waited on that day for a lifetime.
We unluckily lost to Juve 3-2 in the first game but defeated Rosenberg at home; unfortu- nately we lost away to both Porto & Rosenberg setting a precedent which would dog us in Europe over the next decade. The final game was a massive 4-3 victory over the ‘Old Lady’ Juve in a bouncing Parkhead, I was behind the net where Del Piero scored a beautiful free-kick to open the scoring but in a game of to and fro our result was just too little to take us through even though we had gained 9 points and displayed a confidence in our first attempt at Champions league glory which augured well for the future. My son Kevin accompanied me to the game, the generational change, 30 years earlier at his age I had attended my first European game.
After elimination from the Champions League we dropped into the UEFA Cup and faced up to Valencia, their first ever opponents in Europe way back in ’64! After losing 1-0 in a passionate Mestalla, Celtic took the game to the Spaniards in an even more passionate Paradise and a Larsson goal took the game to extra time and the dreaded penalties.
We were again behind the net at the Lisbon Lions end about central and just above the nets when Henrik almost took the head of us with his penalty and Celtic were out. Of all people to miss, the man you would put your house on to score but that’s football. Dixie Deans did it back in the ’72 Cup semi and Anton in the ’90 cup final, Paul McStay in the League cup final with Raith, and big bad John in a final with the ‘bears’.
2002-03 would of course see the Celts back in Europe in a big way, despite an early elimination from the Champions league by Basel. It was a blessing in disguise and victories over FK Suduva, Blackburn, Celta Vigo, Stuttgart, Liverpool & Boavista seen Celtic back in a European final for the first time since Milan in ’70; the first time in Europe after Xmas since Madrid in ’80. It was a long wait. Like 80,000 others we headed to Seville for the final, without tickets of course.
Mary, my grandson Oisin and I headed to the Algarve for the week and drove up to Seville on the day of the final, despite not having tickets it was a wonderful occasion, we watched the game in a wee pub among Celtic and Porto fans, it was a disappointing finish to lose 3-2 but Porto and Mourinho showed the following year that they were a team to be reckoned with, winning the Champions League.
The following season Celtic made the groups stages again but once again the away form let us down, losing away to Bayern, Lyon and Anderlecht. Two wins at home against Lyon and Anderlecht and a good draw with Bayern weren’t enough to take us through so we were in the UEFA Cup again. Once again we were on our way to Barcelona where we carved out a brilliant draw in the Camp Nou courtesy of magnificent displays from Marshall & Kennedy. In the home leg a Larsson knock down let Alan Thompson put the tie to bed and the Celts were in the quarter final again against Spanish opposition in Villarreal, after defeating Barca it felt as if another final was on the cards and I applied for and got tickets for the final in Gothenburg but to no avail as the underestimated Spanish put us to the sword.
The next campaign was slightly disappointing as we finished bottom of a group with heavyweights Barca, AC Milan & Shakhtar, but we were becoming established as regulars in the Champions League, albeit a long way off ever competing at the business end. The following season brought Gordon Strachan as Manager and Artmedia, enough said about that, but how football can bring wonderful changes in a short time.
Three years before Lisbon we lost to Rangers in the cup final and the Celtic end was deserted at half time. In the next two seasons WGS brought Celtic to the last 16 of the Champions League: wonderful nights defeat- ing Man U on the way with a bit of magic from the little Japanese star, Nakamura. One of my best nights at Paradise and compared to beating Leeds at Hampden ’70. After two great displays against AC Milan we lost to a very late goal from Kaka for a place in the last 8. We really were mixing it with the elite in Europe once again. Paradise was earning a reputation for the most atmos- pheric stadium in Europe, highlighted by Kaka, Costacurta, Maldini, Messi and Xavi.
The next campaign Strachan again took the team to the last 16 where the mighty Barca awaited, despite losing 3-2 at home we made the trip to the Catalan city, it was almost becoming an annual pilgrimage now, the Michael Collins bar across the square from the Sagada Familiar became our main host for a few days as the Celts bowed out 4-2 on aggregate.
After a couple of miserable years in Europe the Neil Lennon initial era provided some memorable nights, great home and away wins against Spartak Moscow and a classic victory over Benfica before one magical night against Barca on the 125th anniversary. The stadium personified what it meant to be Celtic, a magical montage of green and white hoops, a Celtic Cross and the anniversary 125, and the team responded with an outstanding 2-1 victory over Messi, Iniesta and Xavi, if anything it probably represents the greatest victory ever at Paradise over the 5 times European Champions and the world’s greatest ever player.
Qualifying for the knockout stages once again brought Juve back to Paradise. We were confi- dent but an error early doors from ‘timebomb’ Efe Ambrose let the ‘Old Lady’ cruise to a 3-0 win (5-0 on aggregate). I thought that night he should never have got a game again. We had felt confident going into the game but his defensive lapse sold the bacon. I honestly think that night was the beginning of the end of our second period as a real European contender; the last decade has seen us sliding down the ranks as a team to be feared in Europe.
One more CL group stage with the elite would see Barca, Ajax & AC Milan visit Glasgow but we were off the pace highlighted by a 6-1 defeat to Barca, a result we’d never ever have seen coming in 50 years in Europe. Our status as a Champions league team was suffering after defeats to Legia Warsaw, Maribor and Malmo in successive years and miserable Europa league campaigns.
The arrival of Brendan Rodgers gave hope of a return to previous levels of competing in Europe but despite two draws with new boys on the block Man City, Celtic were embar- rassed by a 7-0 defeat at the Camp Nou and it got even worse with an aggregate 12-1 score line against PSG, it was remarkable that a Manager of his calibre could not see that Celtic could not play an open game against teams like Barca and PSG, but he persisted and they got hammered, it was embarrassing, despite all Neil Lennon’s faults he could put out a team to defeat Barca.
In the last few years our participation in Europe has been confined to the Europa League after CL qualifier defeats to AEK Athens, Cluj, Feren- cvarosi & Midtjylland, it says a lot about how the club are being run at the moment, although there were two memorable nights when defeat- ing Lazio home and away, the Romans with the fascist fanbase were given a special Celtic Park welcome, ‘Lazio Vaffanculo’ amid images of the fascist general Mussolini after his execution by anti fascist fighters causing his granddaughter, an MEP, to call for a ban on Celtic. While the team might be letting us down in recent times in Europe despite unsurpassed success in the SPL, the support base will never let us down.
Paddy was born in Belfast with Donegal and Tyrone parents. He spent the 70’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.
CELTIC AM returns to Murphy’s pre-match on Thursday with a p.m. kick off in the heart of Glasgow’s Merchant City with Music, Song and plenty of Celtic chat. We will be moving into the downstairs front bar to create a cosy atmosphere in front of the fire.
Joining host Andrew Milne will be musician Scott McWatt who will also provide us with music and songs throughout the show. Glasgow Poet Erin Boyle returns to entertain us and tell us what she has been up to. Real Betis fan Alan McLean will be along with his fellow travelling fans to preview the game and former Celtic player, Bobby Petta will be joining us to tell us what its like to play for Celtic on the big European nights.
Kick off is 5 p.m. with the final whistle blowing at 7p.m. to give us plenty of time to get to Celtic Park in time for the 8 p.m. kick off.
More than 90 Minutes Editor, Andrew Milne is joined on this Episode of Talk from the Terrace Podcast by Matt McGlone, Celtic Fan, Editor of the Alternative View Fanzine, author of Emotionally Celtic and the founder of the Celts for Change back in the 1990’s .
Unfortunately, Martin O’Neill never played football for Celtic. Teams like Nottingham Forest and their perpetually controversial manager Brian Clough enjoyed that privilege, and, like Celtic themselves, he had won the European Cup. When he came to Celtic in 2000, he had already established himself as manager of Leicester City, winning two English League Cups and losing another final, so it would be fair to describe him as a “winner”.
But Celtic on June 1 2000 were still, to a large extent, losers. This was the fourth summer in a row that they had had to appoint a new manager – Jansen n 1997 turned out to be good but found life at Parkhead difficult, Venglos was old and unlucky, Barnes was just awful and when O’Neill came along, we simply did not know where we were. It was all very confusing, but oh! how we needed a boost!
O’Neill had that intense, concentrated, academic look about him. There was a certain steely determination. He had grown up in Ireland supporting Celtic in Scotland (and Sunderland in England) and made it clear that there was no limit to his ambition for the club. Fortunately at this time in history the Board were ambitious as well and were prepared to release some money, notably for Chris Sutton, an acerbic character who had shown plenty of potential with Blackburn Rovers and Chelsea, but had as yet to find consistency. Other buys followed, but Sutton was O’Neill’s master stroke.
One would need superhuman intelligence to answer the question of what makes a good manager – but one can point out four criteria, namely good judgement in the transfer market, good man-management skills to bring out the best in players, the backing of the Board and a certain amount of good luck. O’Neill, at least in his first season had all four. Occasionally his judgement let him down in future years, but even then, he was more good than bad, and never did the supporters turn against him, something that is always possible with the fickle wearers of the green and white scarves.
The first game in 2000/01 was won at Dundee United, but the public proclamation of the new Celtic came at Parkhead in late August in what became known as “the demolition derby” made famous by the supporters mocking the Rangers sectarian song “and the cry was no defenders”. Celtic won 6-2 and it set the tone for the season. Rangers never recovered, and Celtic won the treble in 2001, winning the League with games to spare and the two Cups with impressive performances in the finals against Kilmarnock and Hibs.
O’Neill was fortunate in that he had Henrik Larsson on song, but there were other great players as well – Neil Lennon, Johan Mjallby, Paul Lambert, Stilian Petrov, but perhaps the game that showed the real depth of that new O’Neill side was the League Cup final against Kilmarnock when injuries, suspensions and player being cup-tied compelled O’Neill to play youngsters like Colin Healy, Jamie Smith and Stephen Crainey, and Celtic still won 3-0, even after Sutton had been sent off! Mind you, with a player like Henrik Larsson, you can afford to give the opposition a chance, and still win!
Seldom have Celtic supporters taken to a manager so quickly, and very soon songs were composed in his honour. Next season failed to repeat the treble, for Rangers got the better of him in both Cups (narrowly) but the standard of football was possibly better with some really devastating performances to win the League. The Scottish Cup final was, as we have said, narrow with Rangers scoring the winner in injury time, but Celtic fans felt that perhaps had O’Neill deployed Moravcik, it might have been a different story. It was possibly his first blemish.
O’Neill made no secret that he wanted to perform on the European stage, and 2003 was his year. Beating teams like Celta Vigo, Stuttgart and particularly Blackburn Rovers and Liverpool on the way, Celtic reached a European final for the first time since 1970. The end result was disappointment, but it was a great experience for the Celtic fans who did themselves and their country proud. A bigger disappointment was the fact that this success was achieved at the cost of Rangers winning a domestic treble with Celtic and O’Neill possibly guilty of taking their eye off the ball at key moments, never more so than in underestimating Inverness Caledonian Thistle in the Scottish Cup quarter final when O’Neill’s team selection baffled supporters and journalists alike.
He learned from that, though, bouncing back in 2004 with a League and Cup double as well as a tolerable run of success in Europe. Once again, the League was won with games to spare, and the Scottish Cup in a final when, with the team 0-1 down at half time to a spirited Dunfermline side, things did not look too rosy, until Henrik Larsson got going.
It was a shame that the O’Neill quinquennium finished on a low note in 2005. His wife was ill (happily she recovered) and this may have affected O’Neill’s judgement. The tragic events of Black Sunday are well known, and O’Neill cannot really be blamed for that one game. Where perhaps one can question his judgement was in the leading up to that game when the team went stale and manged to lose at home to both Hearts and Hibs (a rare combination for both Edinburgh teams to win at Parkhead!) and little was done to freshen up the side, when he had a few talented youngsters available to give a breather to obviously tired players like John Hartson. The League lost, and Martin having announced that he was leaving on compassionate grounds, he nevertheless gave us something to smile about when he won the Scottish Cup on a rainy day against Dundee United at Hampden.
O’Neill remains a difficult, complex sort of character. If Maley and Stein both had Golden Ages in Celtic’s history, O’Neill would qualify for a Silver Age Award. He picked Celtic up from where they were in 2000 (basically rudderless and looking good for a return to the horrors of 1993) to being a European force once again. It is a shame that this European dimension has not been sustained. Perhaps if Martin had stayed around, it might have been.
Celtic seems also to have been the apogee of his career. His career subsequently has been disappointing with Aston Villa, Sunderland (both of these teams traditional graveyards for managers, and Martin proved no exception) and the Republic of Ireland, where he has been a tolerable but not a total success.
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.
More than 90 Minutes Editor, Andrew Milne is joined on this Episode of Talk from the Terrace Podcast by Matt McGlone, Celtic Fan, Editor of the Alternative View Fanzine, author of Emotionally Celtic and the founder of the Celts for Change back in the 1990’s .
With games coming thick and fast for Celtic, Matt and Andrew chat about the Celtic Fans love for Ange and the chase for the SPFL title after the impressive performance on Sunday against Dundee United
With the feel-good factor around Ange and the Celtic Fans growing, the Bhoys ask the question Why the board are so removed from the Celtic Support with the whole Bernard Higgins saga as the support grows for the campaign against his appointment within the Celtic Fanbase.
They also reflect back on their recent trip to Germany for the Leverkusen game which also has Matt reminiscing about previous trips in Europe and getting lifted by the KGB when Pies and Whiskey would be his and his mates get out of jail card.
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.
