Football

PAUL JOHN DYKES: With a League Cup already in the cabinet; the ninth league title in succession clearly on the horizon; and four trebles in-a-row a distinct possibility, Captain Scott Brown has described his Celtic team as “not perfect” in the lead-up to tonight’s encounter at the

The following is an extract from Paul John Dykes’ interview with Bernie Slaven: GROWING UP A CELTIC FAN My abiding memory of going to Celtic Park as a kid was my father taking me to the Rangers end; he never took me to the Celtic end. My

The Quality Street Gang were mentored by the greatest football team Scotland has ever produced. The result was a group of audacious young prospects who even threatened for a spell to emulate their trailblazing predecessors. The Lisbon Lions cultivated their underlings on the Barrowfield training ground, and

PAUL JOHN DYKES: The dreadful home support was matched only by the state of the McDiarmid Park pitch, which cut up badly down Celtic’s left in the first-half. Whether or not the poor surface set the tone for Greg Taylor’s overall performance is another matter for debate,

The extraordinary 33-match winning cup sequence is once again on the line on a threadbare Perth field. If Celtic had to hand pick their next opponent after the bewilderingly poor performance against Copenhagen, then it might be St Johnstone. There is no team Celtic have found easier

After Thursday night, it felt like a few lines from The Smiths’ ‘There Is a Light That Never Goes Out’ had summed up the period between 81 and 85 minutes: And in the darkened underpass, I thought, ‘Oh God, my chance has come at last’. (But then

KEVIN GRAHAM: Is it ok to have doubts? I think it is. When those missed chances start popping up in your mind when you’re sitting at traffic lights or making lunch. When you see other results and see managers bemoaning missed chances and not being ruthless. Not

Bertie Auld was speaking to Paul John Dykes: I was fortunate to sign for Jimmy McGrory in 1955. The reserve-team coach at that time was a guy called George Paterson, and either Willie or Jimmy McStay used to come up and help us with training. Don’t ask

Scotty Sinclair was so wonderful, Stuart Armstrong’s hair was so fine, and apparently Mikael Lustig used to turn us all on. Well that was according to the Celtic songbook a couple of seasons ago, as composed and performed by The Green Brigade with a backing choir of