Celtic v Everton 23rd July 2006 (Joe O'Reilly)

Went over for the game on Friday morning,and not having been to Glasgow before wasn't sure what to expect.Hoping for the city that was Capital Of Culture,fearing I'd see the home of Rab C. Nesbitt. First impression coming into the train station(45 minutes on the train if you fly to Prestwick) was what a dirty smelly shithole,but that soon changed when we came out to a very different city centre.It's a lot like Dublin,lots of scrubbing down of old buildings going on but the odd rundown kip along the way.

Stayed in the Crowne Plaza which is a top notch hotel,but at £15 for breakfast they were gonna sing for that.I like EJ couldn't get a ticket for the game through EFC,despite numerous e-mails,so got a joe maxi up to Celtic Park/Parkhead/Paradise depending on which paper you read.The trip up was an eye opener to say the least.The outskirts are so run down and in rag order.Closed down shops,falling down pubs huge flat complexes and then this huge stadium slapped in the middle of the whole lot.The lady in the ticket office grilled me about where I was from and so on and told me the only two tickets together where in Celtic's version of the top balcony,4 rows from the roof.As it was stated on EFC and Celtic's website this game was gonna sell out,so I took them.I'm not gonna bore you with the tales of drunkeness and calamity that followed on Friday/Saturday,but if you ever go to Glasgow check out the Reflex 80's bar and the best kebab shop in the whole world about 4 doors down.

On match day it was a strange kind of rush to get some scoops in due to the early kick off,so it was straight to the ground after a liquid brekkie in Wetherspoons.The stadium itself is very impressive,but has lots of restrictive viewing ala Goodison.Being in with the locals no colours were adorned,and not much banter thrown about.The Everton end was not full by any means,making me curse the ticket people at EFC who has stated it was all sold out.When the bastrads started to sing YNWA I just sat in my seat,strugling to stop myself from joining in with the Everton fan's constant booing.Then the atmosphere just died a death,only punctuated by the Blues singing evry couple of minutes and the booing of Arteta from the home fans.The game seemed to go on forever,how the BBC could call it "reasonably entertaining" was astounding.

Plus points were AJ's electric pace(the goals will come),Osman's very busy display and the introduction Of Delron Buckley who must be worth taking a chance on.But the player who made the most of his chance was Paddy Boyle.He done more work in the first few mintes of his run out than Nace did in the whole of his!He must merit a starting place against Watford in a couple of weeks.A few negatives though.Beattie need to really get working on his fitness,he laboured around like a fcuking elephant.The whole game seemed to pass Carsley by,and while Davies was busy he reminded me of Tony Daley,the headless chicken who used to play for Villa.Made our way back into town,via the Glasgow version of the Shankill Road,and got ready to catch the 8 o'clock(Sorry Rob and Giggsy ) to the airport.All in it was a very good trip the highlights being ,most of saturday in Edinburgh,stuffing me gob with the best kebab ever and chatting to a very very nice Coiln Hendry in the hotel on Saturday night.This is probably the longest post I've ever written and I am going for a lie down,how do you do it TQ?