Back to Paradise

It was back to Paradise for me on Saturday after watching the Glasgow Derby on O’Shea’s Rooftop in Bangkok with Celtic fans attending the Thailand Celtic Supporters Festival. O’Shea’s is the home of Bangkok CSC and they were great hosts and we were also joined by former Celtic player Didier Agathe on what turned out to be a very disappointing evening for Hoops fans.

The conditions on the roof top for the 7:30pm kick off were very hot as day turned to night. The wind and rainy conditions in Glasgow on Saturday soon had me dreaming the Asian sunshine we had left on Monday.

After getting off the bus from Edinburgh in Glasgow I got my first soaking of the day as I walked from Buchanon bus station to McChuills. I had caught a mid morning flight to Edinburgh and there were plenty of Celtic fans on the flight as it was a cheaper option than the Glasgow flights.

Celtic bounced back from the disappointment of the rangers game with a positive 3-0 win although once again it was the visiting team this time Hearts who started quicker.

All eyes were on young goalkeeper, Sinisalo who came in for only his second start after Kasper picked up an injury on international duty for Denmark. He had big boots to fill and he was called into action early on three occasions but dealt with them and for the rest of the game he had little to do and he spoke confidently after the game alongside Daizen.

Daizen Maeda scored two and picked up another man of the match performance and Jota got the other. The scoreline read 3-0 at half time and the second half played out with Celtic dominating the play but questions may be asked of Kevin Clancy’s referee performance. He seemed to let the Hearts players away with a lot of fouls or is that just me being biased for my team?

His absence was noticed from the Glasgow Derby but Celtic’s returning captain Callum McGregor showed what he is all about with a brilliant ball through to Maeda for the opening goal to put our mind at ease after the slow start from the bhoys.

Maeda, making his 150th Celtic appearance is now sitting on 30 goals for the season with plenty of football still to come. One punter sitting behind me could not have been happier at full time as he had £100 on Maeda first goal and 3-0 at 40-1 odds. He banked a nice £4000 and bought us all a drink after the game. Nice touch!

Paulo Bernardo and James Forest made their return to first-team action, coming off of the bench in the second half. The SPFL title is getting closer and the champagne is on ice.

It was not champagne afterwards back in McChuills but pints of Stout to celebrate the win as we cheered on Dundee to a 3-1 lead only to see them collapse to the rangers and lose 3-4.

Thankfully we also had a great acoustic set from Brogeal front man Daniel Harkins who mixed it up playing a bit of folk, bit of Irish and a bit of indie. Class act. In the airport later I seen a few other familiar faces. CCV and Maeda were heading down south on flights and they posed for pics with two of our younger members of our supporters club. Meeting players is always great for the kids who travel a long way to see their footballing heroes.

All in all a great return to Glasgow after almost two brilliant weeks in Thailand. This weekend we will be back in Scotland and we will have an early start on the road to in Perth for the early kick off v St. Johnstone on Sunday.

Andrew Milne is Editor of More than 90 Minutes & Host of the Celtic Soul Podcast