When we moved to the Queen of the South in 1985, we had only been here a matter of months when the league cup draw – or Skol Cup as it was then known - paired our beloved Celts with the local heroes.
On a wet early autumn evening in front of a packed Palmerston Park Celtic won a thrilling match by 4-1.
I cannot recall who scored for our heroes, but I do remember a discussion that I had with a couple of locals over the manner in which the game unfolded. Celtic had, if I am correct, opened a 2 goal lead only for Queens to take advantage of that particular model of the Sieve to claw their way back into a game that seemed beyond them.
The game then see-sawed from end to end, with scares and alarms galore, before another two strikes eventually quelled the Doonhamers’ rebellion.
Afterwards I was in conversation with two of my new colleagues who observed that Dundee Utd or Aberdeen – this was the period when the New Firm was still a major force – would have closed the game out at 2-0. My response was that this was why the Celtic were always better box office than the Northern upstarts, whose pragmatic efficiency sometimes became tedious.
I now realise, that I was perhaps less than fair to two fine teams, whose contribution to Scottish Football is sadly missed in these days of Wattenaccio, but at the time I was not prepared to accept criticism from Huns who lacked the bus fare.
At the time I thought that this would be a fairly regular occurrence, but in fact I don’t think the first team has ever been back. Those of us who follow the white and green in the south west have been limited to seeing the youth team in cup ties and occasionally friendly encounters in the years since.
On Saturday, since Queens were removed from the National Cup competition at an early stage this season, a friendly game was announced with the Celtic Development side – i.e. Neil Lennon’s erstwhile reserve team.
The very frustrating play of Celtic continues, with all aspects covered by Eddie and me in the podcast. But here at CU towers we're going to pretend that Tuesday night never happened and keep excited about Robbie Keane coming home. PaddyPower has made the Republic of Ireland captain 7/1 to make his childhood dreams come true by grabbing the winner against Rangers in the Old Firm game at the end of the month. After the P/C odds and predictions we will have more Robbie Keane odds.
Over the course of this past week the footballing priorities of England and Scotland have been in sharp focus when listening to the radio. On Monday their transfer deadline finished at 5pm whilst ours continued with great excitement through to midnight, moreover when I switched through the channels to get more info on Keano's impending arrival they were still drivelling on about John Terry. Even today they still debated him.
I'm having a very strange week. On the one hand, my life is going pretty well and has been for some time. I've got a nice house, a job that I enjoy and pays the bills, and a woman in my life who loves me and all my quirks. Yet I'm feeling very exhausted about the whole thing and it's kinda getting me down. It may be the wedding planning and the even nicer house hunting that's doing it. We really shouldn't do both at the same time...
On the other hand, I'm witnessing a stuttering Celtic team going exactly the way I predicted they were heading several years ago as I watched us – with the odd notable exception - downgrade all the way from Seville. That should be getting me down, right?
Harry Brady joins Eddie once again to review what should have been the perfect end to the perfect January Transfer Window. And it almost was. If not for the fact that Kilmarnock hadn't read the script and ruined it for everyone. Or at least everyone who was looking forward to a Robbie Keane hattrick. They then move onto discussing the future of the manager and try to avoid saying what everyone is thinking because they both quite like Mowbray and feel bad about saying it's all over bar the shouting. So they don't say that and instead try to come up with reasons why he should stay on. Then Eddie has one of his rants about the joint sponsorship deal with the huns. These are becoming far too frequent and must surely be losing their impact. And we start our new competition to win one of two copies of February's book of the month - Celtic Paranoia: The Laptop Loyal Diaries.
I'm having a very strange week. On the one hand, my life is going pretty well and has been for some time. I've got a nice house, a job that I enjoy and pays the bills, and a woman in my life who loves me and all my quirks. Yet I'm feeling very exhausted about the whole thing and it's kinda getting me down. It may be the wedding planning and the even nicer house hunting that's doing it. We really shouldn't do both at the same time...
Harry Brady joins Eddie once again to review what should have been the perfect end to the perfect January Transfer Window. And it almost was. If not for the fact that Kilmarnock hadn't read the script and ruined it for everyone. Or at least everyone who was looking forward to a Robbie Keane hattrick. They then move onto discussing the future of the manager and try to avoid saying what everyone is thinking because they both quite like Mowbray and feel bad about saying it's all over bar the shouting. So they don't say that and instead try to come up with reasons why he should stay on. Then Eddie has one of his rants about the joint sponsorship deal with the huns. These are becoming far too frequent and must surely be losing their impact. And we start our new competition to win one of two copies of February's book of the month -