Charlie Mulgrew and Auston Trusty may have both represented Celtic in Glasgow derby matches, but the pair revealed they approached the pressure of those games in very different ways.
The defender turned TV pundit was playing a round of golf with Trusty recently and discussed the mental side of football, particularly the build-up to Celtic’s meetings with Rangers.
It led to an interesting conversation about nerves, anxiety, pressure and the expectations that come with pulling on the green-and-white jersey in the footballing-mad city of Glasgow.
Mulgrew admitted that pressure often weighed heavily on him during his playing days, especially when it was against Rangers.
“From my point of view, I used to be really anxious and stressed before games,” said Mulgrew. “Any game. Never mind a Celtic and Rangers game. Riddled with fear.
“Sometimes I would have been happy if the game had been cancelled. It’s mad because you are only kicking the can down the road. I used to get so uptight.”
Trusty, meanwhile, explained that he has learned to embrace those feelings rather than fear them.
“I get happy when I feel something in my stomach, like the butterflies, and I feel a bit nervous,” said the American defender.
“I get thankful that I have it because that means I actually care about the game, so I twist the story in my head. To be grateful and thankful.”
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The difference between playing in Celtic-Rangers games as a boyhood fan and an outsider
Mulgrew was born in Glasgow and raised as a Celtic fan. A contrasting difference to the world Trusty grew up in.
The Celtic centre-back believes his upbringing in the United States has helped him deal with the unique pressures that come with representing the champions of Scotland.
Unlike players such as Mulgrew, who grew up fully aware of the significance of Celtic and Rangers, Trusty does not feel the weight of generations of family expectation on his shoulders.
Speaking on Mulgrew’s Pitch to Par YouTube channel, Trusty explained that it allows him to be ‘free’, because he is just ‘living my dream’ of playing the world’s biggest game outside of the four walls of Glasgow.
Mulgrew: “How do you feel before Celtic and Rangers games? What’s the feeling you get in the build-up to them and stuff?
“From my point of view, I used to be really anxious and stressed before games. Any game. Never mind a Celtic and Rangers game. Riddled with fear.
“Sometimes I would have been happy if the game had been cancelled. It’s mad because you are only kicking the can down the road. I used to get so uptight.
“But when you get into it, especially if you start well, you are fine. I am always interested in that side of the game. It’s unspoken about a lot of the time. The fear and anxiety that players go through. The pressure because you are living your life in a glass bowl, basically.
“How do you feel?”
Trusty: “I don’t really feel it too much. I get happy when I feel something in my stomach, like butterflies, and I feel a bit nervous.
“I get thankful that I have it because that means I actually care about the game, so I twist the story in my head. To be grateful and thankful.
“Instead of being scared and having different types of feelings.”
Mulgrew: “So, you dealt with it well.”
Trusty: “But it has taken years, obviously doing the experience of the opposite to get there, so I kind of trick myself into being appreciative in the moment that I actually really care about this game. That’s when I have amazing games. When I feel that. I am about to have a banger of a game.
“As much of a downside as it was not growing up in a footballing country. It’s such an advantage for me not to have grown up in a football country because I am free. I am here living my dream. I am here for a certain reason.
“I don’t have the your grandpas grandpa was a Celtic fan. Now it’s pushed all onto me. I am here. I am free. I can do my thing. I can live my life.”
Mulgrew: “I used to run out at Ibrox and Celtic Park knowing how much it meant to my friends and family from generations, and how much pressure. I would feel every bit of that. Probably didn’t deal with that.”
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