The Celtic squad are based in Chapel Hill in North Carolina but there’s not much going on in the university town when the students are on hols.
Instead it’s nearby Durham that’s the place to be for Hoops fans. A huge whack of them set up camp in the local Irish bar, the brilliantly named Bull McCabe’s. It’s a real down to earth joint, right in the heart of the town. The other night they had a live Irish band and you could hear Celtic tunes getting belted out for miles. The locals didn’t seem to mind. This is a live and let live kind of place. Apparently it’s an ‘arty town’, according to our man in the know...or maybe our barman in the know.
By that I think it means it ‘smells of marijuana’. Honestly, a five minute walk can give you a serious dose of the munchies. Weed is legal in some states, but not here, yet it doesn’t seem to bother the cops. Maybe that would explain some of the questions at the Celtic press conference ahead of the Man City game.
One local reporter asked Brendan Rodgers to describe the rivalry between the Hoops and City. Rodgers just smiled and explained there was none... There was another cracker when he was asked how he got into football. The Irishman politely explained that in our neck of the woods it’s not really a choice, but it really took the biscuit when he asked Kasper Schmeichel the same question.
The new No.1 had to stifle a snigger as he calmly explained it might have been in his blood given his dad is generally considered one of the greatest goalies of all time – and that after he was born he was taken to Old Trafford before he even got home.
Schmeichel’s a pro – and he was even more impressive on the training pitch. It was his first workout with Celts but within about two minutes the fans at the open session watched him make an incredible triple save. A huge roar went up – and it brought back flashbacks of when Joe Hart made those saves against Jablonec soon after arriving to banish the memories of the poppadom-handed previous keeper.
The punters were on a high, but thankfully, it was nothing to do with the whiffs of spliffs up the road.