Aston Villa v Celtic Pre match

[astonvilla82]

My anxiety levels are building up about a half n half scarves breakout on Wednesday night .

For first time in my life i might actually get one. Just to wind up the EDL chaps around me. Nah, I probably won’t.

Indeed Bren, i had some twenty something who sits in front of me (has done for years) ranting in my ear at the end of Sundays game about Bobby Sands loving wankers coming here on Wednesday etc. cant wait for my villa brethren belting out the first chorus of no surrender.

Had the brother in law over for the Villa Manchester United (he's united by the way )game about 20 years ago and were in the upper holte and some twats singing about sands and chicken in a basket shit , heard the same shit a few years ago behind me in the lower holte a few seasons ago and another arsehole when we played Tottenham calling Harry Kane a Irish c**t,look around,I thought to myself go on repeat it, we got our own dick heads that live in the dark ages

[astonvilla82]

Just checking the Irish TV listing for Wednesday night and we've been relegated to the chanel nobody has in favour of Man City vs Brugge and Liverpool vs PSV.

I'm shocked that our game isn't getting proper coverage considering its Celtic we're playing.

Don't be, the level of interest in Scottish club football in Ireland has declined hugely. Was a lot different when MON was up there and both Glasgow clubs were getting to European finals and swapping league titles.

Celtic will always have some level of support, especially in Donegal with the huge generational ties to Glasgow and up north generally for political reasons. But down south honestly you wouldnt see many Celtic jerseys around these days.

And they get piss poor crowds at league of Ireland games

[Brazilian Villain]

Wear it with pride Tim.

Beautiful, think I might buy two (if they're not already sold out by the time I get there).

[Pat McMahon]

Were any of you at the infamous friendly v Rangers in 76?

I was 13 and my dad wouldn’t  let me go on my own. He didn’t have to do much to stop me other than not give me any money! As a Dubliner he knew what would happen.

Back then on a saturday we used to go to our nan’s in Newtown and then head down the Bull Ring markets to buy food.  My dad would work on a Saturday morning and then come to our nan’s for a few cobs and then the two of us would head to Villa Park. The day of the Rangers game there were groups of drunk Rangers fans at the Crown and Cushion when we passed on the bus around 10am and when we got to Newtown my aunt told us not to go into town as the Rangers fans were causing problems everywhere, even in Rackhams.

We went home to Great Barr while the game was on and heard the events unfold on the radio. Most of our friendlies back then would get gates of 7-8;000 so having 10,000 Rangers fans was crazy.

[tomd2103]

Wear it with pride Tim.

Unfortunate caption to use with that picture PWS!

[Pat McMahon]

Wear it with pride Tim.

Beautiful, think I might buy two (if they're not already sold out by the time I get there).

If you don’t get one Gary I’ll sell mine to you 😊

I am actually tasked with buying one for my nephew’s lad but hoping he can get it himself.

[Bent Neilsens Screamer]

For context, Young Boys really should have beat them last week .

Apart from Celtic missing a penalty and having 3 goals disallowed.

[tom jennings III]

The main issue with that scarf is "C/LEAGUE", are you seriously telling me the eggheads can't make "Champions League" fit on a scarf?!

[dave.woodhall]

The main issue with that scarf is "C/LEAGUE", are you seriously telling me the eggheads can't make "Champions League" fit on a scarf?!

The name's probably copyright.

[Percy McCarthy]

My anxiety levels are building up about a half n half scarves breakout on Wednesday night .

For first time in my life i might actually get one. Just to wind up the EDL chaps around me. Nah, I probably won’t.

Indeed Bren, i had some twenty something who sits in front of me (has done for years) ranting in my ear at the end of Sundays game about Bobby Sands loving wankers coming here on Wednesday etc. cant wait for my villa brethren belting out the first chorus of no surrender.

I'm sure you pointed out that Bobby Sands was actually a Villa fan

Indeed he was. I remember reading about how his comrades, who mostly supported Celtic, Liverpool or Man Utd, found it sad that he wasn’t around to see Villa win the league and the European Cup. I was one of what the National Front referred to as ‘the remote control boot boys of the Socialist Workers Party’ at the time and every now and then I sold their newspaper on the ramp leading to the Pallasades, a busy shopping mall in Birmingham city centre. One week the paper was plastered with a pro-IRA headline and I had to stand there and sell it, about fifty yards from one, and a hundred yards from the other, of the two pubs blown up in the Birmingham pub bombings.

As you can imagine, it was quite a day and I vowed never to have so many heated arguments on a subject ever again. I kept my promise until, decades later, a bloke on the internet tried to convince me that the more goals a defence concedes, the better it actually is.

[Percy McCarthy]

Were any of you at the infamous friendly v Rangers in 76?

I was there. A Rangers fan asked me if I was Catholic or Protestant. I was 12 and it meant so little to me I didn’t even know. I said Church of England and got away with it, but I had no idea that made me a Protestant as people in England rarely used that word to describe their faith. (I was actually an atheist at the time - my family did a lot to help build a church in our area and I was a rebellious child).

I quite like Buddhism these days, because they abhor cruelty to dumb animals. So in the spirit of Buddha, I apologise for being nasty to you on the other thread.

[Flamingo Lane]

Were any of you at the infamous friendly v Rangers in 76?

I was there, yes, along with my dad and two sisters. Quite what dad was thinking, taking us, I don't know. It was a seriously scary couple of hours.

[JD]

Were any of you at the infamous friendly v Rangers in 76?

I was there. A Rangers fan asked me if I was Catholic or Protestant. I was 12 and it meant so little to me I didn’t even know. I said Church of England and got away with it, but I had no idea that made me a Protestant as people in England rarely used that word to describe their faith. (I was actually an atheist at the time - my family did a lot to help build a church in our area and I was a rebellious child).

I quite like Buddhism these days, because they abhor cruelty to dumb animals.

So in the spirit of Buddha, I apologise for being nasty to you on the other thread.

I was there with the old man, a Catholic Glaswegian Celtic fan.
He wanted to take them all on when they invaded the pitch, but saw sense and got me out of there, as I was only 12 at the time. Was very frightening. 

[Percy McCarthy]

My tickets have come through. Can’t wait.

[Dick Edwards]

Were any of you at the infamous friendly v Rangers in 76?

I was there as a naive 14 year old. Similar to other recollections I was surprised to see so many away fans in the city centre in the morning, particularly for a friendly game.They were all over town and all seemingly drunk. As the day unfolded I became fearful for my safety for the first time at a football match. I had a wake up call and learned the art of being street wise, very useful to going to a football match, particularly away from home in the 1970s and 1980s.  I still look back on the day as a valuable life experience. And I’ve never liked Rangers since.