Opinion: Celtic crowd can play big role in vital fixture

The Celtic support will be looking forward to tonight’s Glasgow derby against Rangers and you can’t blame them. This is will be the first league fixture between the sides played with fans at Celtic Park since December 2019.

As there will be no away fans at the game, the stadium will be full of Celtic fans, ready to support the team.

The fans could actually play a part in helping Celtic during the game. The support will naturally get behind the team at the start of the match, and when the Celtic players get into the pre-match huddle, there will likely be a crescendo of noise from the crowd. That will surely give the Hoops player a boost.

Hopefully that level of noise will continue throughout the game, and you have to imagine that it will, as fans have been waiting for this fixture for a long time.

It will be important that the crowd sticks with Celtic if the Hoops start slowly, or even worse, conceded a goal. It would be no help to anyone if the support started to get any player’s back. That can’t be allowed to happen, and hopefully the Bhoys get off to a fast start, which will get the crowd totally on side.

It is sometimes a cliché to say that a crowd can make a difference in a game, but it is happened in the past, when a team has been inspired by the support that they have been given by the fans.

Ange Postecoglou and the players will be tasked with the getting the win to put the Hoops top of the league. But that does not mean that the fans can’t influence the game. A constant wall of noise, of singing and supporting the club, really could make a difference to the game.

With the match only a few hours away from kicking off, fans will soon be making their way to Celtic Park, and an experience that has not been felt at the