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4th May A headline in one of the dailies after the loss to Dundee United summed up the situation precisely and succinctly; Vital Points Surrendered by Celtic And that summed up the feeling running through players, management, directors and fans; the loss to the Tangerines was a real blow to the guts. In another paper, …
8th May On the Monday after the Rangers match, the press was quite unanimous in their reporting of Celtic’s season thus far; Celtic’s silver season ‘Celtic are the kings of Scottish football today – and on 25th May, when they met Inter Milan in Lisbon, they may well be the emperors of Europe too. At Ibrox …
When the press had been writing about the fact that players would be going down to Seamill before the European Cup final, the articles almost it seem that a holiday camp atmosphere would be the norm. Nothing could have been further from the truth, as the Boss pointed out to the assembled journalists just before …
Another trip to the Inverclyde Physical Training Centre in the morning, where we put in a good stint, concentrating on moves down the flanks and then balls into the middle for the strikers. Very much, in fact, like the move which would lead to the second goal in Lisbon. Variations from corners were also …
Last day at Seamill, so we set out to enjoy it. The routine was similar to yesterday, breakfast, chat among ourselves, training, lunch, a quick few holes on the golf course, back in to the swimming pool, baths and showers then changed into ‘proper’ clothes for dinner.
There was one final workout at the Inverclyde Centre, a light lunch back at the Hydro then it was back up the road to Celtic Park to pick up the cars before heading home.
I got up early on the Sunday morning and went for a walk round the local park, as it was a beautiful day and I had learned that my body works better if I keep it exercising. There were few people about and I thoroughly enjoyed the peace and quiet.
The morning papers had a good piece of news for all of us with Celtic’s interests at heart;
It was a fairly excited group of players who met at Celtic Park before boarding the bus to take us to the airport for the trip to Portugal. There were 20 in the playing squad; Simpson, Fallon, Craig, Gemmell, O’Neill, Murdoch, McNeill, Clark, Gallagher, Auld, Johnstone, Wallace, Chalmers, Hughes, Lennox, Cushley, McBride, Young, Brogan and …
Eve of the match and after a leisurely – and early – breakfast followed by a stroll in the grounds of the hotel, we later headed off to the National Stadium for a training session on the pitch itself.