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And to think that there are some Celtic supporters who don’t support ‘Northern Ireland’!

Sean Huddleston — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 12:43:31 +0100

A few years back Northern Ireland beat England 1-0 in a world cup qualifier. As I entered my place of work the next day, everybody was congratulating me on ‘my team’s victory’. The problem was, however, that ‘Northern Ireland’ has never been my team and certainly not ‘my country’ and this is par for the course with regards to many Celtic supporters from the North of Ireland.

With regards to the game on Saturday itself between Poland and ‘Northern Ireland’, Artur Boruc had a nightmare game, on every level, for his country on Saturday night. The level of sectarian abuse was vitriolic (but not surprising) while his performance was certainly the worst I had seen him experience playing for his country. Artur will bounce back, the Celtic support that idolise him will give him the welcome he deserves this Saturday against Hamilton. What Saturday night’s game does highlight in a big way is two important points:
A) The treatment of Artur Boruc
B) The so-called anomaly of people from ‘Northern Ireland’ refusing to support their ‘country’.

I, like a many other number of my countrymen from the north of Ireland refuse to support the team that supposedly represents us. There are many reasons for this but the main one is this – we are non-people. Northern Ireland is used as symbol of Loyalism and Loyalist superiority – particularly within a political context. This is a loyalist team and if any football supporter wants to express their Irishness then Lansdowne Road is the place for you. God save the Queen is belted out before their home games (despite Danny boy being used for Northern Ireland representatives at the commonwealth games), union jacks and bastardised red hand of Ulster flags are flown by supporters while home games are staged at Linfield’s home ground Windsor Park, a ground that mirrors its welcome for all things Catholic/Irish with its spiritual cousin in Govan (Bear in mind, Linfield’s sectarian signing policy matched, if not surpassed, Glasgow Rangers’s). Even the ground itself is based in the ‘village’ district of Belfast – one of the most defiant and dedicated Loyalist areas in Belfast. Everything that surrounds the following and image of this team is caked in Pro-British loyalism. To use a comparison to cement this point, Scotland games display Scottish symbols as do Welsh games representing Welsh symbols et al. Northern Ireland games, however, display symbols that belong to one political, and consequentially, divisive notion.

Coupled with this is the treatment of Celtic players, certainly in the last thirty years at Windsor Park, which is now common folklore. It hasn’t mattered whether or not they were playing for Northern Ireland either. From Anton Rogan and Allen McKnight in the 1980’s, right through to Neil Lennon in the21st Century, Northern Ireland players have received dog’s abuse if they playing for Glasgow Celtic. Opposing players such as John Hartson, Craig Bellamy, Stilian Petrov and Macjek Zurawski have also come under fire for being Celtic players. Even Roy Aitken when taking part in George Bests’ testimonial in the mid-1980 received sectarian abuse! Artur is merely following this trend in that respect, he is employed by Celtic and as a result received sectarian abuse from loyalists whose tolerance threshold is legendarily low. Nevertheless, the treatment of Artur was certainly accentuated in comparison to aforementioned examples. Indeed, you could also argue that comments pre and post game did little to stifle any potential vitriol, or indeed fan trouble. Warren Feeney stands mea culpa in that respect due to his, at best, ill-judged remarks about turning Windsor Park into a ‘mini-Ibrox’ (although I have always argued that Windsor Park doesn’t have to try hard in that respect – it IS like a mini-ibrox’!). Of course, if you were take in any of the media coverage on Artur’s treatment then you would come to the conclusion that he brought it all upon himself despite the fact that A) he made no public utterances that criticised or insulted ‘Northern Ireland’ and their ‘fans’ before the game, and B) he made no gestures, inflammatory or otherwise, at the game to insult ‘Northern Ireland’ and their ‘fans’. Artur’s treatment, as a result, exposed the level of deep-seated loyalist bigotry that masquerades as ‘support’ at Northern Ireland games.

Northern Ireland games at Windsor Park are no place for any sort of person with associations with Irish/Catholic identity. With Gregory Campbell in his role of sports minister making sure that the chance for modernising and, as a result, exorcising any sectarian demons Northern Ireland may have had by removing the chance to move to a new stadium, Northern Ireland will continue to discriminate, alienate and, indeed, frighten off any potential nationalist/catholic supporters. Gregory Campbell himself has never been shy about his own Glasgow Rangers leanings and has become the political poster boy for the Rangers Supporters Trust. Campbell has even criticised players from the North for representing the Republic of Ireland instead of ‘Northern Ireland’ – a claim shown to be utterly ridiculous and deluded after the shenanigans of Saturday’s game.

Therefore, the alienation of any Celtic fan from the Northern Ireland team is pretty comprehensive and complete. A ground in the middle of a loyalist heartland, anthems and flags that reflect a superiority complex and ignorance for the whole community, and officialdom complicit in making this arena what it is all makes for a pretty intolerable mix. If this sounds like such a crazy and misplaced idea then ask yourself one important question – why am I part of the problem? In the meantime I’ll dedicate my time to supporting teams that want my support and won’t do their utmost to alienate me.

Now, where did I leave my Polish Flag?

Celtic: the best supporters in the world?

Sean Huddleston — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 16:35:06 +0000

In the aftermath of Seville and the end of that arduous season, one of the few bright spots that emerged was the intention of UEFA and FIFA to award the Celtic support their respective fair play awards.

Such was the Celtic supports lasting impression at the UEFA cup final of 2003 was that the world governing bodies for the game held up the Celtic supports conduct and nature as an example for the rest of the world to take note of.

Since this wonderful episode though, the Celtic support has become complacent. Rather than maintain its reputation, certain sections of the home, and away, support have seriously undermined the club and damaged its reputation.

What prompted me to write this particular piece was yesterdays’ home game against Dundee United and the conduct of the Celtic support. It became obvious to me that the Celtic support now resembles a spoilt child who has the inability to give any benefit of the doubt to the teams’ efforts and to help raise the team in times of strife when there are difficult times being experienced.

The conduct of some so-called supporters has made me question whether we can justifiably keep the mantle of best support in the world. Any group of supporters that refuses to back the team when it is needed the most cannot accept this title in all good conscience.

What was the first reaction of the MAJORITY of ‘supporters’ around me to the teams’ difficulties yesterday? Barrack, abuse, criticise, insult and, at times even ignore (a guy in front of me read the club fanzine for 70% of the match!). This is consumerism NOT support.

Can we also realistically claim also to be well-behaved? Granted we have not reached the level of disdain that Rangers supporters have had reserved for them (particularly after Manchester) but to say we are ‘whiter than white’ is not totally accurate either.

The recently created ditties about Nacho Novo negate any criticism we level at other supports for their own song lists for example. Also, in the last ten years Celtic supporters have been involved in: throwing objects at referees and players, pitch invasions at champions league games, posting addresses of opposition players on the internet, indulged in racist chants (Rudi Skacel is a f’in refugee for example), disrupted a minutes silence for the victims of 9-11 at Motherwell, and also worn IRA-style masks at a match against Motherwell in 2002.

And this doesn’t even take into account how our support (and I use that term loosely) acts on a match-day. At home, we badger players into being nervous wrecks (for example Lee Naylor hasn’t received any significant support for a long time now at home) and, at times, in matches we have become the twelfth man for the opposition! Let’s not forget the wonderful amount of fans that disappear on the 80 minute mark also. 90 minutes with Victor Meldrew types every fortnight is not my idea of a good time. Away from home, of-course things are different.

The support actually gets behind the team, at least most of the time, in a manner that shames the home support. However, the anything goes attitude also creeps into the song list and includes songs that should have been removed. Every supporter knows that any song that includes I, R, and A will hurt us but the away support have ignored this reality and allowed our club to become embroiled in a ‘tit-for-tat’ argument.

We have reached a point as a support where we have become so pre-occupied with other things – Rangers, anti-Celtic media, the English premiership, adopting a staggeringly hypocritical and arrogant attitude to SPL opposition at home - that we have taken our eye off the ball and neglected the one major thing that our support actually became famous for – providing fantastic support for our team and club. We knew how to support and behave with dignity in the bad old days so how come we cant do this now? Why can we also not accept criticism when it is levelled at us? We now what sources of the media to ignore yet we refuse to acknowledge any home truths.

The Celtic support must address its own persona before we can criticise others. Im all for the opinion nowadays of letting Rangers and their buddies in the media give themselves enough rope to hang themselves with. What we need to do is refocus all our energies on making sure that the Celtic support re-establishes itself as the number one support and I hope every supporter starts to do their bit. Support and encourage rather than criticise, lift players rather than deflate them. Sort it out bhoys and ghirls.

Poppy or no poppy

Sean Huddleston — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 14:17:17 +0000

We seem to live in a very adversial and ironic society at the minute. After the furore of our cousins’ racist ramblings, Celtic fans are now in the firing line for the use of the word ‘IRA’ at recent away games and the use of the poppy during remembrance services before last Saturdays football games.
The fact that Celtic fans are being targeted should come as no surprise. Rangers fans were being hammered (and rightly so) for their horrifically untasteful ‘famine song’ so it was a matter of time before the pro-union and bluenose leaning branches of the media came gunning for us. The media in Scotland have a habit of trying to ‘even’ things up and, unfortunately, the last week or so has seen that happen in spades. Celtic are in the same boat as our friends in Barcelona in that we find ourselves permanently persona non grata in our own society yet welcomed and even complimented world wide.

This is not to say that branches of the Celtic support haven’t let themselves down lately though. In my last column, I warned that Celtic fans would have to keep their nose clean due to elements of the media (both official and unofficial) wanting to steer focus away from the bluenoses problems. Unfortunately the away support at Hearts duly obliged with songs that have not been heard at Celtic games for a number of seasons. The most striking ditty of course was the infamous ‘ooh ahh up the ra’ that was clearly audible and made me cringe and clench every time I heard it.

The republican aspect of the club has been a significant aspect since it began. Irish republicans were instrumental in helping set up the club and, as Ireland’s troubles have miserably continued throughout the last century or so, the club and its supporters have always retained a focus on the motherland’s woes with the club’s’ support singing songs supporting the struggle for Irish independence.
However, the baby has been thrown out of the bath water in recent years to this aspect with Irish republicanism gaining more legitimacy and authority, the singing of ‘rebel tunes’ at games has not really been in keeping with the times and almost seems at odds with what is happening in Ireland politically. Most supporters have recognised this, rebel tunes are more likely to be heard on buses going to games and more generic ‘Irish tunes’ are more likely to be found at Celtic Park which eulogise about the old country and the Irish diaspora.

Therefore, the fact that these songs were sung at tynecastle shows that some supporters lack any perception and self-awareness. While many argue that these songs are political and not sectarian (which is true after all), the fact that these supporters acted in the way they did allowed us to tarred with the same brush as Rangers fans and also allowed others to pinpoint our own wrongdoing.
The Celtic supporters’ repertoire is still very large without these tunes and many of the verses contained are stirring and inspirational – I defy anyone to pinpoint a more hair raising and inspirational moment in the season than when the crowd at the Man Utd game started a rousing chorus of let the people sing ten minutes from the end. However, the Hearts game was exactly the opposite when ‘plastic republicans’ who have no sense of self-esteem or awareness allowed the media their pound of flesh.

‘Poppygate’ was a different kettle of fish although it still allowed a gleeful media (who insist on treating the public like Pavlov’s dog) another opportunity to stick the boot in. In essence, I thought the club struck the right balance between commerating people who had died in the two world wars with the sensitivities of people who had suffered because of recent conflicts – particularly ones profligate by the British armed forces. It was also a nice gesture to show the names of the former players who had dies in WWI on the big screens to honour their sacrifice. However, the day was ‘overshadowed’ by a protest organised by ‘Celts against imperialism’. The groups’ main argument centred on the supports supposed republican leanings and on John Reid’s chequered past, particularly with regards to the war in Iraq. The rightly pointed out that John Reid had asked the Celtic support to ‘leave politics at the door’ when ratifying his post as Chairman of the club but was now asking the Celtic support an overtly political act that many weren’t entirely comfortable doing.

However, their protest it also has to be said was very poorly managed and lacked any self-awareness whatsoever. While they saw the call to leave ten minutes into the Motherwell game as a defiant and rebellious gesture, it actually turned out to be: A) approx. 100 people leaving out of 57/58,000, B) a distraction from the game being played, C) an opportunity for those wishing to criticise Celtic’s pre-match service to further stick the boot in and show Celtic as some British-hating bi-weekly festival. The protest had little to no support and appeared to attract disaffected youths rather than the masses they had been hoping for. Surely a better way could have been found to maintain dignity, not detract from the memory of those who had lost their lives in the world wars and also highlight the hypocrisy of establish types to use the poppy to justify recent and ill-advised campaigns by the British Armed forces? White cards held up during the minute’s service? White poppies held around the stadium? Even a display of scarves or a banner of some description showing supporters feelings? Again, lack of perception has hurt the club and damaged the reputation of its supporters. We need to focus on what helps the club and what doesn’t more carefully in the future otherwise we will always find ourselves on the other side of that coin with our cousins from Govan.

Food for thought

Sean Huddleston — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 18:30:21 +0100

A lot of time has passed since my last column and, consequently, a lot of course has happened in that time. First of all, the team have steadied the ship so to speak since the last old firm game. Celtic are now top of the table on goal difference after impressive and dramatic wins against Motherwell, Aberdeen and Hamilton. The extremely exciting and dramatic win against the dons was, perversely, the tonic everybody seemed to have needed.

Due to the dramatic nature of the game, supporters were galvanised into their role of supporting and backing the team very successfully. The atmosphere at some SPL games last season had been subdued (to say the least) and since the Aberdeen game, with all its drama and excitement, a sizeable chunk of the support have been reminded of what part they are supposed to play. Supporters must realise that they have a contribution to make and can be the difference between defeat and victory and the Aberdeen game is a clear case in point. Hopefully, we will now see this good form continued on and off the pitch.

Second of all, the champions league campaign has begun in earnest with unfortunate results that maybe don’t reflect the quality of performance that Celtic had in both games. The Aalborg result was certainly not reflective of the dominance Celtic had in that game and, had Barry Robson converted his penalty, then the outcome would most certainly been different. Indeed, on any other day, Celtic would have won this game handsomely so it is important that supporters remain philosophical about this rather than allow any pessimism to creep in. The Villareal game as, of course, a vastly different game with the home side proving themselves as a tactical and technically adept team. Celtic did provide resilience and were unlucky with chances for Samaras, McGeady and McDonald. Although, Celtic were unlucky at times, it has to be noted that Villareal were undoubtedly the dominant side in this fixture and their class regularly shone through. Therefore, while the start of our campaign has been slightly underwhelming, supporters need to be perceptive about all this i.e. the rub of the green that we have received in the past may finally be deserting us while we are also playing teams whose budgets far outstrip of our own and enable the opposition to field extremely strong (and expensive) sides. We still have a way to go though and third place is the minimum that we should be aiming for. We may not be a champions league team per se but we are definitely an upper tier UEFA cup team and progress in that competition should not be discounted.

Lastly, we have had the furore over the latest offering to the Rangers repertoire – ‘the famine song’. Rangers fans have been (rightly) castigated over this dreadful song with even the Irish Government coming into the fray through their consulate in Edinburgh.

Some of the defences of this sickening chant have been ridiculous with supporters websites and groups maintaining that this chant was ‘banter’ and aimed at the ‘mawkish’ attitude Celtic fans have toward ‘wallowing in grief’. Some Rangers supporters websites have even declared that Celtic supporters are ‘not a race’ so therefore the accusation of racism has no basis! The lack of awareness that sections of the Rangers support have shown through this chant is disturbing and the need for this club’s support to realise the hurt they are creating – both to themselves and to Irish people – is paramount. Whether or not Rangers supporters care about hurting Irish people through this chant is unfortunately another matter as not ONE rangers supporters group has condemned this chant, either in essence or content. Indeed, even Rangers FC have merely asked supporters not to sing – they did not criticise the content or nature of the song which is extremely disappointing. This chant is racist (ask any Irish person how they feel about this chant and see if its ‘banter’) and if placed into any other context, with any other ethnic group, it is still offensive and still racist. It is also extremely disappointing to see the so-called authorities take on this whole controversy. Organisations such as the SFA (led by an ex-ranger), and show racism the red card (headed by a rangers share-holder) have attempted to turn this into an ‘old firm’ debate where one was not needed. They have also attempted to use songs about the Ibrox disaster (sung by Aberdeen fans it has to be said!) as a stick to beat Celtic fans with and even up the score so to speak. It is extremely unfortunate that, again, it has taken outside pressure to bring debate (and hopefully change) within not just Scottish football but Scottish society.

This is not to say that Celtic supporters can remain complacent. As long as any song with the three letters I, R and A remain in any supporters’ repertoire then we can expect Celtic to be dragged into any debate. It is possible to sing songs about Irishness and even republicanism without having to mention the aforementioned letters and the sooner Celtic supporters realise that they are merely hurting the club they profess to love by singing these songs at games the better. Self-policing at away games must be heightened and evident so we can show the world that we are not the other side of the same coin.

Lastly, we have seen James McCarthy start to undergo the ‘Aidan McGeady’ treatment in the popular media i.e. he is a traitor and should presumably be tarred and feathered - so much for ‘one Scotland – many cultures’! It seems that large sections of the Scottish media, particularly the tabloid media, cannot get their head round the fact that both these players made an entirely justified decision in line with their consciences and, once again we see an anti-Irish racism emerge from some aspects of Scottish society. I look forward to the case of Kris Commons and James Morrison’s’ patriotism being examined (as both were born in England) and Shaun Maloney (born in Malaysia) and a review of Richard Gough (born in Sweden), Stuart McCall (born in England), Bruce Rioch (born in England), Andy Goram (born in England) – all of whom played for Scotland despite not being born in Scotland. Oh, and do I need to mention Kris Boyd?!? So much for patriotism there!

This cannot be happening!!!!

Sean Huddleston — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:20:19 +0100

What a truly awful 72 hours in the life of Celtic eh? We suffer our heaviest defeat to Rangers in over fifteen years in a manner that was freakish yet not entirely surprising (especially considering that Strachan had once again bottled it on the selection front…). Then, when Celtic supporters possibly could not feel any lower, reports emerge of Artur Boruc giving a one-fingered salute to the away end on Sunday and Neil Lennon being assaulted by two sectarian scumbags on Sunday night. All in all, a truly dreadful end to last week and an even worse start to the new week! All these incidents were played to the background of zero activity toward the end of the transfer window and the lack of ANY substantial signings – both in terms of monies spent and quality of personnel.

So where do you begin to analyse a mess like this? Well, first of all, it is clearly obvious that our squad has not been strengthened properly. There is still only ONE recognised left back in the entire first team squad. We have a squadron of midfielders whose effectiveness is debateable and whose value for money is entirely questionable. We have a defence whose reputation and statistical performance do not together add up with so many supporters remaining, at best, unconvinced and, at worst, dismissive. We, also, have a manager whose post-match analysis NEVER matches those of the supporters or commentators – particularly when we lose – and, for having such a reputation as ‘training ground manager’ has not fixed any of the teams glaring problems for a number of years now. We, lastly, have a board of directors whose only evident ambition is to drive up the profit levels of the club at the expense of team strengthening and to constantly take advantage of the supporters in various ways (when did the board actually make any gesture to thank the support either financially or practically by the way?).

I have also been angry at the complacency of some elements of the Celtic support in recent times. Some parts of the Celtic cyberspace community have been openly dismissive of our main rivals’ threat this season with constant misplaced confidence in our esteemed management team and our supposedly more skilful and better squad. While Rangers’ tumble may have provided short term laughs, these laughs have stopped pretty sharpish with two main events, namely A) David Murray actually living up to one of his promises and providing ‘Uncle Walt’ with a significant war chest, and B) Rangers beating Celtic so comprehensively. It is not enough just believing that you have the better players – you need the best team and the best management.

We have fundamentally failed to deal with any of the problems that have plagued the squad for the last two years. While last years championship win was, ofcourse, wonderful and courageous in its own way, we also played some truly awful, disjointed football – particularly at home while also allowing possibly the most negative Rangers team in living memory to trounce us in the old firm games at ibrox.

Once again, I wait to be proved wrong by Gordon Strachan (and the board of directors for that matter). That’s my big problem with this whole sorry episode – why does it always have to come to some drastic and wrenching situation? As I mentioned in my last article, Celtic were at a crossroads after Rangers’ spectacular implosion in Kaunus. As I fearfully pointed out Celtic had never taken the chance to bury any potential rivals in the past and we have failed to bury them now. The big fear amongst the Celtic fans is ‘are we being left behind’?

Schadenfreude and the Champions League

Sean Huddleston — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 23:01:53 +0100

Philosopher and sociologist Theodor Adorno defined the term ‘schadenfreude’ as "the largely unanticipated delight in the suffering of another which is cognized as trivial and/or appropriate". Well, after last night’s cataclysmic result for our cousins from across the city, the jokes/texts/emails that embody Professor Adorno’s definition have been flying around at the speed of light! However, Rangers’ result last night has such a big impact that schadenfreude should be the least of our concerns. What last night means to Celtic could yet define the club’s progress for the next three to five years at least.

First of all, there is obviously the UEFA co-efficient issue. This is a very important factor that concerns Celtic. Ranger’s’ progress (or lack of it) last night will undoubtedly have a negative affect on any future champions league campaign for the champions of the SPL in the short-term. It will be up to Celtic to mirror their amazing progress of the last two years in order to keep a semblance of the present co-efficient the SPL has had and allow Celtic in the future to enter the champions league group stage rather than go through any qualifying rounds.

On that note, the champions league provides another compelling point. This year, champions league prize money will not be divided between competing SPL teams. The result of this is that Celtic will now be due a prize amount of around ten million pounds – solely in appearance money. When you add ticket revenue, match-day sales, merchandising then it becomes pretty clear that Celtic have certainly landed a jackpot (in relative terms). What Celtic actually does with this money is already a key issue. If Celtic uses the money on the transfer market (wisely!) then Celtic could start a process of cementing their position as the strongest team in the SPL and ensuring a level of continuous dominance over their main rivals.

We have reached points in time very similar to this recently at Celtic. During Martin O’Neill’s tenure, Rangers seemed to take significant steps back due to squad, and club, down-sizing and Celtic never seemed either to have the will or the courage to take full advantage of this. The first two years of Gordon Strachan’s’ tenure in charge would possibly suggest that continued to be the case.

During the 1990’s, I, like a lot of other Celtic supporters unfortunately went through their ‘formative’ years of supporting the club. We never knew success, league championships, or even the champions league. We watched quite helplessly as the club lurched from crisis to crisis, failure to failure. The mediocrity that crept up on the club was a very difficult problem to deal with and was not significantly dealt with until Martin O’Neill initially destroyed Dick Advocaat’s Rangers side. Now, Celtic are at a point in time where, if they utilise the transfer market imaginatively and positively and continue with their sound fiscal policies, then there is no telling what the club can achieve. The club also look on their rivals whose position (both on and off the park)looks as precarious as their own was at the start of the 1990's. While it looks like our rivals are regressing (possibly even imploding), our club can look heartily to the future. How starry that future actually is depends on how far our club dares to dream.

And so it starts…

Times Online — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 09:41:03 +0100

Pre-season has finally arrived and the question has to be asked – has that much changed since last season? In my view, pre-season has always been the time to refresh things, in terms of personalities, tactics and of-course new strips!

At the end of a long, hard season, a lot of fans, both Celtic and Rangers, were glad to see the back of it. However, with the month of June passing quietly (at least for us) and a couple of friendlies under our belt, the most potent point has been that little has actually changed at Celtic.

Firstly, under Gordon Strachan, pre-season performances has always seemed to go quite slowly with little energy or vigour. This has culminated in the last few seasons starts being quite slow with last seasons’ opening game/letdown against Kilmarnock (that actually typified the season as whole to a large extent) and of course the infamous Artmedia Bratislava debacle both springing to mind.

Secondly, it also has an effect on the fans. Look at this time last year, Celtic’s performances against Newcastle United were a joke while the previous pre-season had seen morale sapping defeats against American opposition. If the management and the team aren’t going to put much worth into these games, then how can supporters? Consequently, the attendances at home friendlies in the last three years has also further entrenched the notion that a lot of season-ticket holders are picking and choosing their games more carefully (I know I was).

What all this has done is create a stale and negative atmosphere at the club before a serious ball has been kicked in anger. While Martin O’Neill’s pre-seasons were generally quite positive and noteworthy due to high profile games against English Premiership opposition, Gordon Strachan’s are exactly the opposite – games that have more to do with commercialism than entertainment or rewarding fans for their loyalty. Indeed, the club nearly scored an own goal with their Irish supporters when it was announced that the Celtic under-21 team would play Glentoran, a Belfast team with a large loyalist following!

My advice to Gordon is therefore very simple and pragmatic – plan at least some PR and passion into your next pre-season. Take the team to Ireland and/or the north of Scotland to reward fans to travel hundreds/thousands of miles and spend thousands of pounds to support the team. The team should then play a few home games against top-drawer opposition. It’s nice to be nice, and for once, the supporters might even give you the benefit of the doubt for a change….

Sean Huddleston