I haven’t been as nervous as I feel now since Seville. But it isn’t a negative nervousness I feel. It’s exhilarating and terrifying at the same time. It’s not even that the prize at hand is so great that it warrants such emotion – it’s an SPL title, not a European title at stake. Perhaps it’s the collective culmination of a seasons work, compressed into a 90+ minute act which will define success or failure. Perhaps it’s also having been through the same mill 5 years ago but with the shoe on the other foot as regards standings going into this final denouement. I can’t define it as an emotion. However, it raises a belly laugh each time I think of it. It’s so typically and uniquely Celtic one can only laugh. Can we do this? Can we win actually this title? And one overriding answer...“Absolutely. Yes we can.”

To be within one victory of clinching a championship that was seemingly beyond reach is testament to both the mentality of the team, coaching staff and management as well as the fortitude of a playing squad who will emotionally be wounded by the passing of a mentor, coach and friend. There could be no more a fitting a tribute to the memory and legacy of Tommy Burns than for the dramatic turnaround in fortune that has led Celtic to a position seven weeks ago many thought nonsensical to lead to a third SPL championship in a row. While football has a way of toying with the fates I suspect there may well be an extra pair of hands in heaven helping steer this Championship home to Celtic Park.

The recent revelation of a meeting between Strachan, Burns and Reid to discuss how to proceed in the middle of our ‘mini-crisis’ and the offering of a change in tack to playing football in a more defensive, results oriented style and the subsequent rejection of same with a message that we are Celtic and we play this way represented a mini-watershed for me personally. My previous expectations would have been “win first – performance secondary” mentality and a decision to go that way – delve into anti-football if you will – would have been regrettable but acceptable if it lead to results. The commitment from Reid to Strachan and Burns to continue as you were with full backing from the powers that be is, for me,  as forceful and dynamic a statement of what Celtic represents as I’ve ever heard. I now see the flaws in my original assessment of how Celtic as an entity operates.

I look forward, come what may this evening, to raising a glass to Tommy Burns and Celtic. I’ll do it with a tear in my eye but also the crack of a wry smile. Why? Not just the incredible emotional outpouring of a collective grief we have witnessed in the last few days. The events of this past few weeks has rekindled in me something that I feared I was losing. The trials and tribulations of a terrifically difficult season are now but irrelevant given the passing of a man who, for me, was the epitome of all things Celtic. But it has galvanised once more the pride I have in Celtic, of being a Celtic Fan, of supporting a club that is more than just a football club. I also sense a new unified purpose among a support that has at times been fractured this season – albeit through the same unifying purpose, simply a love for Celtic. Sometimes grief unites in a way that no other emotion can. I sense this now.

No matter how this final act plays out this evening – and I pray it’s positive – one thing shall remain constant. We are Celtic. Onwards we continue on this magical journey.

Hail! Hail!