Scotland’s First Minister has announced that the roll-out of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine is the “best news in a long time”.
According to the BBC, the vaccine could be made available within days. Frontline NHS staff and care workers will be amongst the first to receive the immunisation jab.
That’s great news for everyone. While being able to hug your loved ones and see your pals is top priority in the event of the Covid nightmare being over, another thing comes to mind:
Football.
Paradise beckons
Supporters of clubs around Scotland have been unable to attend the majority of fixtures since March. The last time Celtic fans attended a game at Celtic Park, Leigh Griffiths scored a hat-trick, as the Bhoys pummelled St Mirren 5-0.
With a vaccine on the way, Celtic supporters could look to a mid-February/early March return. That means it’ll have been nearly a full year since a packed Paradise made some noise for the Bhoys.
With the chaos and despair of 2020 behind us, Celtic Park should be rocking for our first trip down the Gallowgate. Regardless of our form, it’ll be a date in every supporter’s calendar.
Whatever your pre-match rituals, whatever route you take to Paradise, the players clearly need our influence and it’ll be up to us to deliver at the first opportunity.
Big games to come
If indeed Celtic fans can get back into stadia for March, there are some mouth-watering fixtures to greet us.
An away trip to Tannadice is always a treat for travelling supporters, while Celtic Park hosts local derby with Rangers on the 20th March.
In the last game before the split, Ross County await Celtic for a match that the Bhoys will be looking to win emphatically.
If a March return is pushing our luck, then we can at least see supporters returning for the post-split Premiership. Every league game is huge in the run-up to the season finishing in May.
Let’s hope that life can get back to normal sooner, rather than later. Of course there are more important things to consider here than football, but in the words of A.C. Milan icon Arrigo Sacchi:
“[football is] the most important of the unimportant things in life”.
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