\u201cIt is hard to believe that I grew up as a boy watching Holland in the 1974 World Cup and eight years later I was playing against him.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cIt was totally surreal. Billy McNeill wanted me to mark Jesper Olsen at first as he had a stormer in the first leg. That was a real treat.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cBut a day before the Ajax game he told me he had changed his mind and I was now to man-mark Cruyff.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cMy instructions were to follow Cruyff everywhere even if he went to the toilet.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cIt seemed daft and Cruyff was trailing me to ridiculous places like back to his own six-yard box to take the ball from the keeper.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cHe just wanted to see if I would follow him. I just stood there in front of him and at one point he was exasperated by it all and was just staring at me blankly as if \u2018what are you doing?\u2019 And I just shrugged my shoulders as if to tell him: \u2018I\u2019m only doing my job\u2019.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cCruyff also broke my nose that night, although he didn\u2019t do it deliberately.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI had just tackled him and his arm flailed and smashed me right on the face. Cruyff badly broke it and these days I would have been taken to hospital.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI just got a couple of bits of cotton wool stuffed up my nostrils and a dose of smelling salts and was told to get on with it.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThe blood was all over my jersey. It was real blood and snotters stuff.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cMy wife always jokingly referred to Cruyff, one of the greatest footballers ever to have lived, as \u2018the guy who broke your nose\u2019.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cShe also blamed Cruyff for the fact I snored so much after it as well.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cThat was a great Ajax team and everybody in the side was an international player.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cCeltic still beat them. Charlie Nicholas scored an incredible goal and they equalised with a rubbish deflected strike by Gerald Vanenburg.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cNot long before the end I galloped down the right and crossed for Frank McGarvey and his header hit the bar. I thought our chance had gone. But then George McCluskey popped up with a late winner.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cThe celebrations were incredible. Danny McGrain once told me that it was one of his greatest European experiences ever with Celtic.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cI just wish I had got Cruyff\u2019s jersey from the game as that would have been a great souvenir. Instead I kept the Celtic strip I wore complete with the blood.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n Neil Lennon is in Glasgow, apparently, much to the delight of the Scottish sports media, which gives them another chance to put two and two together and come up with Denmark.<\/p>\n With Davie Moyes looking more and more likely to take the Aston Villa job, where expectations are probably a little lower than anywhere else-just getting someone to pass to another Villa player would grant him legendary status down there-they need someone else to tout for Ronny’s job, and the Lurgan Legend fits the bill.<\/p>\n We keep telling you who’s getting the job, but no-one listens…<\/p>\n We’ve sent our undercover drunk to do a sinclair on Lennon, and we’ll find out what the score is. He’ll slip un-noticed into the room and no doubt tell us what is what.<\/p>\n The under 16 academy side is currently playing in a tournament over in Lloret de Mar…over to the official website for an update… written by Michael O’Halloran, who shouldn’t be looking after the kids when you think how badly his own son went off the rails…<\/p>\n THE second day for our Academy Under-16s at the Mediterranean International Cup in Lloret De Mar was a very busy one, having to cram in two matches with a lot of travel time between match venues.<\/em><\/p>\n Our day started as usual with breakfast, making sure the players ate the appropriate food to help with preparation as this would be our pre-match meal. Having won our first match on Wednesday, it set up nicely, with our lads going into the game with confidence knowing that another win would give us a fantastic chance of moving on to the last 32 and the knock-out stages of the tournament.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Scotland played last night, and beat the Czech Republic 1-0, the goal coming early on in the game when the Czechs were still allowing their eyes to accustom to the somewhat fetching new away strip worn by the Scots.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n We kicked of our match at 12noon against Mostoles from Spain, looking very sharp with good attacking football. We were fairly comfortable in the match and creating chances but we were dealt a real blow when we went behind to a penalty.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n The decision seemed to act as motivation for our boys and even though finishing the half 1-0 down, they looked to have a hunger to get back out and put things right on the pitch.<\/em><\/p>\n It didn\u2019t take long before we were level, with the first goal coming form the penalty spot scored by Kenny Mearns. We continued to dominate the match and although Mostoles had a few breaks forward we were well on top and took the lead from a well-timed header by Max Potter.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Our second match of the day was strange, in so much that we were totally dominant in the game but lost out 1-0 to our opponents Balafia through an own goal.<\/em><\/p>\n This was the only time in the match that our opponents had an attempt on goal and it came from a Celtic player. We could have scored five goals at least but it just wouldn\u2019t fall for us.The result didn\u2019t really mean much at the end of the day as we qualified as group winners.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n We now look ahead to our next match this morning (Friday) which kicks off at 10am so an early start for us. The players continued with school work with Brian Meehan, and then did a light recovery session with sports scientist, Mark Maxwell.<\/em><\/p>\n Nothing has been left to chance in making sure the players are as fit and focused as possible. Our physio Kenny Murray has daily clinics to ensure any player with knocks is treated and hopefully ready for the next match. Kenny has done an excellent job with the boys.<\/em><\/p>\n Also working with us here is Tom McCafferty, the team coach, who has worked closely with me in making sure the players are ready technically and tactically.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Good luck to all concerned, and it looks like they are doing a fine job over there.<\/p>\n I’ve worked out where they got the idea…<\/p>\n We mentioned yesterday that Alan Judge, the Brentford and Ireland midfielder , had said he would play for Mark Warburton again, but not at Ibrox. James MacLean, the ever so slightly political funster and footballer must have read the tweets, and reminded “Judgy ” that he had told him how much he hated them, before adding that “Judgy ” should “throw his wolfetones cds up to his room “.<\/p>\n You have to admire McLean. He clearly doesn’t give a toss what others think of him, and wears his heart on his sleeve. Wonder if he’ll be the match summariser at the Scottish cup semi final….<\/p>\n Four four Two magazine attemoted to throw some light on the debate over which set of supporters-Celtic or Liverpool-sang You’ll Never Walk alone first.<\/p>\n Whatever the inspiration, by 1965 Liverpool fans could be heard belting out\u00a0<\/span>You\u2019ll Never Walk Alone<\/i>\u00a0at Wembley during the FA Cup Final win over Leeds, with TV commentator Kenneth Wolstenholme referring to the song as \u201cLiverpool\u2019s signature tune\u201d. It was subsequently adopted by Celtic fans, after a 1966 Cup Winners Cup semi-final at Anfield, and is sung today by fans of\u00a0<\/span>Borussia Dortmund<\/a>\u00a0and several other clubs, but ‘YNWA’ remains enduringly and indelibly linked with Liverpool.<\/i>\u00a0<\/span> As does stealing, lying, fighting and the diddy men.<\/p>\n Personally, my grandad always used to say that he remembers singing the song at Celtic Park as a tribute to the departing manager Willie Maley, and maintains that Rogers and Hammerstein stole it from him.<\/p>\n I know who I believe.<\/p>\n Charlie Saiz has disappeared off twitter, so i can’t ask him to do the picture in all its glory for Mikes “Does my erse look big in this ? ” caption, a clear winner yesterday in a high quality field.<\/p>\n No doubt he’ll pop along later and help out though…he said hopefully.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n today, well, make of this what you will…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Today, as you are aware, is Good Friday, the day set aside to remember the crucifixion of Jesus christ on Mount Calvary. It’s the reason…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":8850,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/etims.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Good-Friday-Quotes-Photos.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2J7If-2iJ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8849"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8849"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8849\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8851,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8849\/revisions\/8851"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/pbs.twimg.com\/media\/CeULIq4W4AAq0Jx.jpg\")
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