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Celtic

Ground: Celtic Park

Visits: 1

Date: 2nd January 2013

Match: Celtic - Motherwell  1-0  (Scottish Premier League)

Attendance: 48 002

 

After the final whistle at Liberty Stadium on Tuesday afternoon I went to the train station for the 17.55 train taking me to Manchester. I spent the night at a hotel close to Piccadilly station and on Wednesday morning I boarded a train to Glasgow. There was a couple of matches in England this evening but only at grounds I had already visited. In Scotland 2 January was a Bank Holiday meaning a full schedule of matches. My choice for the day was Celtic vs Motherwell at Celtic Park. Having been to only one Scottish ground I had plenty of matches to choose from and to be honest I wanted to save Celtic Park for an Old Firm derby. With Rangers being in Division 3 at the moment the next derby will not take place for a while though. I decided Celtic vs Motherwell was a good enough match for me to finally pay a visit to Celtic Park, the ground where fellow Swede Henrik Larsson became a legend.

 

Staying at a hotel close to Glasgow Central I didn´t have far to walk and 25 minutes after arriving in Glasgow I had checked in and was back on a train. This time it was a very short journey. Bridgeton is the station closest to Celtic Park and after a 12-minute walk I was then standing outside the impressive home of Celtic Football club. It was by now raining (again!) and I quickly took some pictures before picking up my ticket. My seat was behind the goal in the upper tier of the Jock Stein Stand. The view from up there was really good and thankfully I was protected from the rain as well. Celtic Park has a capacity of around 60 000 and has three big stands. The old main stand is dwarfed by its neighbours but for most matches the current capacity is more than enough. In total 48 000 fans turned at Celtic´s first match of 2013. Around 400 of those were from Motherwell. The match started with Celtic dominating but despite several chances they couldn´t break down the Motherwell defence, 0-0 at half-time. The second half was more even but Celtic always looked more likely to score. Still no goals and then suddenly with seven minutes to go Motherwell was awarded a penalty. For the first time this afternoon the atmosphere was like I had expected. The penalty was saved and three minutes later Celtic scored the winning goal. During these five minutes the noise inside Celtic Park was as good as I had expected but for most of the match it was a bit dull. Nevertheless a great ground and I would love to come back, for an Old Firm derby or maybe a big international match.

 

flags

Flags

 

staty, jock stein

Statue of Jock Stein

 

celtic fc

Rear of the South Stand

 

players arriving

Players arriving

 

celtic park

Celtic Park

 

north stand

North Stand

 

east stand

East Stand

 

south stand

South Stand

 

celticfan

A young Celtic fan

 

north stand2

North Stand

 

green brigade

Green Brigade

 

avspark

Kick-off

 

east stand2

East Stand

 

penalty

Penalty, Motherwell (saved)

 

motherwellfans

Motherwell fans

 

spelbild

View of play

 

south stand2

South Stand

 

celtic park, vy

My view

 

pano, celtic park1

Pano

 

pano, celtic park5

Pano