The weekend started extremely successfully when, at the ungodly hour of 6.00am, I somehow managed to wake up on time and meet The Big Sister in order to get to Heathrow. My previous record in this area has been a source of warmhearted concern from my fellow club members.

Having landed at Glasgow airport we headed straight to the Premier Lodge to drop our bags off and then went for the most important meal, and only, of the day. After stuffing my face with some quality Ayrshire bacon we bumped into Barney back in the lobby of The Premier Lodge and met everyone else surprising in the bar (actually the only surprising thing being that the bar was shut!!).

Bewley’s was the venue for the first drink of the day, well for me anyway, I certainly can’t vouch as to the sobriety of the rest of the crew, and I won’t mention any names!! Sustenance was also taken on by a few who required it before we made our way to McHuills to continue the merriment. The suggestion to order all of our drinks in Spanish for the remainder of the day was put forward by Tom McCloskey, but even with the many talented linguists in our group we decided against it.

2.30pm was quickly upon us, and whilst I was hoping that the highlight of the afternoon so far would be stopping in for a quick drink in Haughians, I had to make do with the sight of Joe Rotheram borrowing Emma’s bright pink umbrella for the walk to Paradise as the fine Glasgow weather continued. 

Once seated in the lower lions stand directly opposite from the Jock Stein stand we witnessed the huddle!! Now copied by many, but none can touch the original!!

Celtic started at a snails pace, with Hearts by far the livelier of the two sides giving us an early scare. The 4-4-2 formation, which has proved a success on previous occasions, wasn’t working today. All the pressing seemed to be coming from the Jambo’s, with the biggest cheer of the first half coming from the Jock Stein stand when Petrov started to warm up. Then, on 21 minutes some slack marking on the edge of the box left a rebound to drop for McKenna who had plenty of space to drill a low shot past Marshall into the bottom corner of the net!! Right, this is exactly what The Bhoys need I’m saying to myself, a swift kick up the arse and we’ll go on to score 7 (that being the amount we scored lat time I was at Paradise – see the excellent “Magnificent 7 Weekend” by Frankie McKay!!) Unfortunately my optimism was misplaced, along with the switch to 3-5-2 this didn’t have the desired effect, with only a couple of Varga and Agathe half chances and a further McKenna shot summing up the rest of the first half. 

Halftime, I legged it downstairs for a program and Emma got the Tea and Chips in, we’re now set for the second half!! This is more like it, a decent start to the half with a few of our Bhoys having a go at these buggers. One of the downsides to the second half in my opinion, and a few others from the sounds of the boo’s, was the introduction of that little bollix Liam Miller, but enough of that we’ve a goal to get back here!! After putting up with a few digs from the Hearts big’un up front for most of the game Bobo had had enough, and when a 50 –50 came along in the process of a Hearts goal kick, that was all she wrote!! With the soundest of connections on man and ball, Bobo reached a height that would have had Sherpa Tensing gasping for the oxygen mask, and in the process knocked the dirty bastard clean out, which in my opinion was the fairest thing that could have done! This event brought De Vries onto the field and on 78 minutes the unthinkable happened, Heart’s went 2 – 0 up. “We can’t lose our home record to this bunch!!!” I scream at Emma and Joe sitting next to me, but ten minutes later and after Henrik has missed a sitter with his left peg the crowds are going home in their droves, and the traveling support are getting above their station!! Big Chris pops up and after his first shot is saved slots the rebound in calmly, Henrik races to pick the ball out of the net and Paradise goes wild!! We can do this, yes we can, how many minutes will they show on the board?? 4 is the answer, and even though De Vries missed an open goal with a shot my 15 month old nephew Billy would have got a kick in the bollocks for missing, we deservedly only needed two of them when Didier Agathe slots home the equalizer from a Varga nod on, WAHEY!!!! A bit more time and I’m sure we could have gone on to win this game, but whilst I’m chuffed the home record is intact (76 games since Ajax) a more alert Celtic should have won this game.

We all agreed to meet back at the hotel bar for 7.00pm. A few nipped into the Brazen Head for a wee dram whilst others just went straight back to the hotel for a lie down after the excitement of the fortunate draw we had just witnessed. Everyone arrived promptly at 7.00pm for the meeting, well almost, McDaid being fashionable late as is expected now of the famous one!! The meeting went ahead with relative ease, this apparently being one of the more subdued meetings, if that was the case then I’d hate to see a particularly vociferous one!! At not long past the hour mark, and with a few more bevies sunk, the meeting was adjourned and we all agreed to get properly spruced up and meet back in the hotel bar for 8.00. Had it not been for the fact that we were in The Premier Lodge Glasgow, the ensemble of designer labels and poses that ensued would have made a passerby swear they were in Milan or Paris. The choice of venue was Steve O’Hare’s and what a choice it was. Arta in the Merchant Square was a bar straight out of the footballers wives mould and the representatives of the Belfast Shamrock CSC fitted in perfectly, with Mickey Kelly offering autographs left right and centre. It was agreed after several aperitifs in the upstairs lounge that cutting some floor in the disco downstairs would end the night perfectly. Whilst Joe Sweeney was busying himself with the local Jordan’s and Posh’s the rest of the crew we enjoying the DJ’s perfect mixes. After a group sing-a-long to Tiffanys “I think we’re alone now” I quickly realized this was the perfect time in which to make my getaway (and the fact that I could see 4 of everything!!), and in blaming my sisters sore feet, I managed to escort her back to the Premier Lodge and crash out in my room at some ungodly hour whilst the rest of the lhads kept up the dancing and singing.

All in all with our home record in tact, a successful meeting and some quality eighties musical experiences in the evening, an enjoyable weekend was had by all!!