A night to focus on the football

Celtic’s crucial Champions League play off first leg provides fans with what feels like a rare opportunity to park off field issues and focus on the football.

Indeed, recent months have seen collision between the board, authorities and sections of the support over gestures of support for Palestine; there has been the never ending transfer saga and Rodgers’ contract situation, the season ticket price and Newcastle friendly debacle, barriers within the stadium and so on. Despite all the success of recent times, it has felt difficult to enjoy things surrounding the club on occasion, with so much going on away from the field. Tonight is the perfect remedy for that as supporters can park their concerns, complaints, anger and whatever else for 90 minutes to focus on a vital game of football, where all parties benefit from a Celtic victory.

Paradise hasn’t been at its ear splitting best, in terms of atmosphere, since the Slovan Bratislava game almost a year ago. There has been a bit of a subdued noise level around the ground on what always used to be famously raucous big games. Tonight would be a wonderful moment to rekindle the European atmosphere for which we are renowned, focus all our attention on the football and hopefully drive the team onto a positive result.

The away leg poses various problems, such as travel and time difference, so a healthy lead is desired to make the tie more comfortable. Beyond the simple task of navigating this tie, it would also be beneficial if we could earn a strong result this evening, so that players can be brought off in the away leg if the aggregate scoreline allows for such luxuries – a trip to Ibrox looms just days after that fixture of course. That said, the players cannot have such an attitude of complacency and will need to simply deal with the task at hand in its own right, without any focus on domestic matches or looking ahead.

Players such as James Forrest and Callum McGregor have learned in the past how ties against opposition from Kazakhstan can be tricky, despite their unfancied status. Meanwhile, Brendan Rodgers will recall the Red Imps embarrassment from nine years ago, as a means of keeping the players on their guard and at their best.

Finally, it feels there is a big and important game upon us, with a modicum of excitement. The atmosphere should be electric, the team have been in good form and the off field issues can be parked for 90 minutes.

What a relief!