It’s a crucial game in the Europa League this afternoon for Celtic, with the visit of Ferencvaros to Celtic Park for an unusual 3.30pm kick off for a midweek game.

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Celtic go into the game on the back of a good performance away to Motherwell, a 2-0 win with goals from Jota and Turnbull sealing a second away win in a row.

Ferencvaros lost 2-1 at home at the weekend to Zalaegerszegi. Its a must win for both Celtic and Ferencvaros as both teams have been beaten in the opening two games to Betis and Leverkusen. The Hungarians travelled to Germany for their opener and went down 2-1 and followed that up by a 3-1 home defeat to Betis. Ferencvaros sit second in the Hungarian NB1 league a point behind Kisvarda on 18 points with 6 wins and 2 defeats.

Ferencvaros ran away with the league title last season, winning by a 20 point difference. They also made the Champions League Group stage but only picked up a point with a draw with Dynamo Kiev, they were in a tough group with Juventus and Barcelona making up the group. This season they made the Champions League play off, losing out to Young Boys 6-4 on aggregate. They had dispatched Prishtina, Zalgiris and Slavia Prague.

They signed former German international, Marko Marin in September and signed former Everton player Mohamed Besic in September also.

Celtic appear to be going into the game in confident mood after successive away wins and players returning from injury. It will be strange watching a European match kick off so early at Celtic Park, we will have to wait and see if that will affect the attendance and atmosphere.

Don’t forget our Pre-Match Event Celtic AM finally makes a return after Covid 19 at a new venue Murphy’s Irish Bar in the Merchant City. It’s unusual for us to be getting together on a Tuesday Lunchtime before Celtic kick off at 3:30pm in the afternoon in a European tie! A tie Celtic need to win and get the first points on the board after defeats against Bayer at home and Betis away.

The game falls on the 40^th Anniversary of Celtic Daft Johnny Doyle’s untimely death and we will host a special Celtic AM show to remember Johnny and we will be joined by his former team mate Frank McGarvey, his daughter Joanna Doyle and Paul McQuade author of Celtic Daft the Johnny Doyle Story and Glasgow Poet Erin Boyle will be along to kick us off.

Doors open and 11 and we will kick off the show at 12 with the final whistle at 2 to give us plenty of time to make our way to Celtic Park for the big game. Really looking forward to getting back to hosting the show and seeing all the regulars again and hopefully some new faces in the crowd.

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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.

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Our Pre-Match Event Celtic AM finally makes a return after Covid 19 at a new venue Murphys Irish Bar in the Merchant City. It’s unusual for us to be getting together on a Tuesday Lunchtime before Celtic kick off at 3:30pm in the afternoon in a European tie! A tie Celtic need to win and get the first points on the board after defeats against Bayer at home and Betis away.

The game falls on the 40^th Anniversary of Celtic Daft Johnny Doyle’s untimely death and we will host a special Celtic AM show to remember Johnny and we will be joined by his former team mate Frank McGarvey, his daughter Joanna Doyle and Paul McQuade author of Celtic Daft the Johnny Doyle Story and Glasgow Poet Erin Boyle will be along to kick us off.

Doors open and 11 and we will kick off the show at 12 with the final whistle at 2 to give us plenty of time to make our way to Celtic Park for the big game. Really looking forward to getting back to hosting the show and seeing all the regulars again and hopefully some new faces in the crowd.

Admission is FREE and open to all Celtic Fans young and old

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Andrew Milne is Edittor 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 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.

Celtic return to league action this afternoon with an away trip to Fir Park to take on Motherwell.

We finally won an away league game before the international break, albeit against a struggling Aberdeen team however we must hope that the team has turned a corner and get a win against a decent Motherwell team.

Motherwell are a point ahead of Celtic and two positions above the hoops in the league table. Former Celtic striker, Tony Watt has scored 4 goals in 8 games and his strike partner Dutchman, Kevin van Veen has fast become a favourite for the Steelmen.

All the teams above Celtic play each other this weekend, Rangers play Hearts, Dundee United play Hibs and we play Motherwell, so could be a chance if we win that we move up the division and close the gap at the top.

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Celtic really need to push on from the Aberdeen win and now is the time to put a run together until the next international break to give us a chance of reclaiming the league title.

We have players returning from injury and hopefully we can have a settled team and watch some good football and win games.

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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.

Its hard to believe that it has been 20 years since More than 90 Minutes first went on sale at Celtic Park in September 2001. I can still remember that sunny day outside Celtic Park. Celtic under the guidance of Martin O’Neill Celtic beat Dunfermline comfortable that day and we went out to celebrate the win after selling a few hundred copies of issue 1 for £1. Myself, Sandra, Sinead and Tom were the ground sellers that day. Since then many people have sold the fanzine outside Paradise and also at many away grounds in all weathers.

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Its hard to believe that it has been 20 years since More than 90 Minutes first went on sale at Celtic Park in September 2001. I can still remember that sunny day outside Celtic Park. Celtic under the guidance of Martin O’Neill Celtic beat Dunfermline comfortable that day and we went out to celebrate the win after selling a few hundred copies of issue 1 for £1. Myself, Sandra, Sinead and Tom were the ground sellers that day. Since then many people have sold the fanzine outside Paradise and also at many away grounds in all weathers.

Fanzines were once the main stream of media for football fans who were fed up with the main stream media slant and the official club publications and wanted an alternative slant on their team. Print media is not what it was but people of a certain vintage still want a hard copy of fanzines or a book and we felt a backlash a few years back when we suggested we go digital only. We soon found out that the demand for our print copy could substance the increased cost of printing and post.

When Covid 19 and the realism we would have no match day sales we faced a decision to put out the fanzine or put it on hold till we got back, that decision was made easy because of the support we received from subscribers and sponsors who backed us including some Celtic Minded businesses which were closed.

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Since those early days we have met some great people and made some lifelong friends from Harald Harsson from CSC Norway who wrote the first letter into the fanzine to Javi and the Betis fans who helped me recover my phone in Seville recently.

Interview wise the first one we did was with my good pal and St. Margaret’s CSC stalwart Hilly followed by Lisbon Lion Legend the late great Tommy Gemmell. The most recent interview features Trevor Sinclair in conversation with Mick Kane.

Mick started writing for us recently and has been busy doing our watch previews for celticfanzine.com and chasing down some guests for a chat. We have been blessed to have had so many contributors from all walks of life sending in articles, cartoons and interviews over the 20 years.

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When I think back I remember a young comedian called Kevin Bridges appearing in the fanfile, an emotional interview with Charlie Gallagher. Signing up John Fallon as a guest columnist over a brandy shandy in a marquee in Las Vegas while watching Riverdance. There are too many people to thank or mention so I won’t in case I forget someone but you know who you are and you know what you have done to help get the fanzine out on a regular basis.

I suppose if I flicked through the last 116 editions I would remember so much more and reflect back some more over the last twenty years. I keep them all in files at More than 90 Minutes HQ,. Hopefully we can keep going in a World where media is changing by the second in a digital age of social media where quality journalism is being replaced by click and paste lazy journalism, rumours, bullshit and sensationalised headlines.

Thank You so much for the continued support.

Andrew Milne is Edittor 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 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.

Fergus McCann was a bhoy from Croy. Born on February 26 1941 he grew up following the team and travelling on the local supporters’ bus. He saw some terrible Celtic teams, but he also saw the great days of the 1950’s as well – the Coronation Cup and the 7-1 and other splendid moments with fine players like Fernie, Collins, Peacock, Evans and of course the irrepressible Charlie Tully.

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The son of a Headmaster (Fergus himself had a magisterial look about him and had a distinct resemblance to the first Headmaster that I ever worked for), he went to Canada in the early 1960s and made his money there. He was a millionaire, but never lost interest in the club that he had grown up to love, the love that was under severe pressure in the early 1990s thanks to chronic maladministration and gross under-investment.

Stories about the Club being “half an hour away from extinction” in March 1994 are possibly a little rhetorical, but there can be little doubt that the position was serious, and it was Fergus McCann who saved the club in a breath taking coup which deposed the old Board, took over the club and immediately set about rebuilding the ground. It was all carried out with grim determination. The stadium rose to be one of the best in Europe, success on the field was not immediate but it was real by 1998, crowds rose and a sleeping giant was awakened.

The whole reconstruction of the ground was in total contrast to Hampden Park which took about 20 years to redevelop and is still not always loved and admired in the way that Celtic Park is. The determination of Fergus McCann (including a share issue to help finance the project) was the key factor.

Without McCann, one shudders to think where Celtic would be now. If Maley was the man who MADE Celtic, McCann was the man who SAVED Celtic. Incredibly on one occa- sion when he was unfurling the League flag of 1998, he was booed by some idiots in the support. It was at that point that I understood the crucifixion of Jesus Christ in the sense that humans will try to destroy the thing that has saved them! FERGUS McCANN – THE MAN WHO SAVED CELTIC.

But such hatred and jealousy of McCann was not universal, and most people appreciated what he had done. As the years have passed, more or less every Celtic supporter has come to realise just what a debt of gratitude we owe to the unpretentious man who enjoyed the nickname of “the bunnet”. Like another “bhoy from Croy” ninety years previously, Fergus McCann was “just an ordinary man”. As he said he would, he stayed five years and returned across the Atlantic in 1999. He had done his job, and Celtic fans must be grateful to him for what he has done.

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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.

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The Celtic Star recently published a new book, titled Alec McNair – Celtic’s Icicle. Written by renowned historian and author David Potter, the biography details the life of one Celtic’s greatest ever players.

McNair made over 700 appearances for the Hoops, captaining the club for a spell and winning a total of 34 major honours. In that sense he is a bonafide legend, but his role as part of the record breaking “Holy Trinity” (Shaw, McNair, Dodds) and famous “Icicle” nickname cement his position in Celtic folklore.

It goes without saying that the Holy Trinity are well detailed in the publication, with special attention being paid to crucial matches and McNair’s towering influence in ensuring the Hoops did not concede a single goal for almost 1,300 minutes!

A man who endured much trauma in his personal life, McNair was initially rejected by Willie Maley and worked in an important role during the First World War. His tale transcends football and David Potter, writing in his own unique way, gets that fact across magnifi- cently. Indeed, great detail is afforded to the social climate of WWI Scotland, putting McNair’s struggles and the contemporary world of football into context.

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Few can imagine what it must have been like for a widowed man to juggle bringing up five children with working lengthy wartime shifts and playing for the country’s most successful football team – all the while living over 30 miles from Celtic Park and travelling to matches by train. Fortunately, readers don’t have to imagine as David’s well researched book provides everyounceofinformationonthelifeandtimesofthis heroic Celt.

Stand out games, special moments and intriguing tales from McNair’s glittering Celtic career captivate the readership and enthral with the turn of each page.

The fact that the great man went on to manage Dundee, immediately after Patsy Gallacher’s iconic somersault goal (1925 Scottish Cup Final) against The Dark Blues, merely adds to the mystique of the story.

A wonderful addition to the Celtic library, with the added bonus of a warm- ing tribute from Lisbon Lion John Fallon included in the foreword, Alec McNair – Celtic’s Icicle makes for excellent summer reading.

Available in beautiful hardback, you can purchase a copy from celticstar- books.com or from official Celtic Football Club stores.

If you would like to hear more about the book, David Potter appeared as a guest on The Celtic History Podcast (available on Spotify, Anchor FM and Apple Podcasts) a few weeks ago. Throughout the episode, he discussed this latest publication and bequeathed listeners with some sensational stories about a man who ranks among the finest to ever pass through Parkhead’s gates.

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