Days Like This by Dave Macren
The day was finally here! It was a warm July morning and I was very excited about the big day that was here at last. The day of course - when Celtic take on their arch rivals, Rangers. Rangers are based in the same city as Celtic and yet half of Glasgow supports each team. The stadium, which today would be the home turf of Celtic, would be Parkhead, and it will be packed to the rafters!
I ran down stairs and asked my dad what time we would be leaving. He said 11.30 in the morning. As soon as I heard that I was immediately upset. It was on 6 o’clock in the morning. Oh well, I thought.
Finally the time came. We got in the car and began driving to the train station in Leuchars. The drive was only a few minutes but it felt a lot longer because of the excitement. When we arrived at the train station we went to the ticket booth and bought our tickets. Our train was at 11.45 so we didn’t have a long wait.
After about 5 minutes we saw the train. It was big. They must have put a big train on because of the game. The train slowly rumbled into the train station. So we got on and found some seats. I was very tired so I slept the whole way to Edinburgh.
When we arrived at Edinburgh we had to get another train to the station in Glasgow. We found the train and once again we got on. This time the train was full. We had to stand most of the way because other supporters took up all the seats. It seemed all the Rangers fans were in one half of the train and all the Celtic supporters were in the other half. When we arrived in Glasgow the atmosphere of the game got big. All the supporters were walking down each side of the street and screaming their team’s name. It was a very loud walk up to Parkhead. When we reached the stadium, there were thousands of supporters, from teenagers to old men. We had to first buy our tickets and find our allocated seats. This took us about half an hour and by the time we were all settled the teams began to walk onto the pitch. The whole stadium was electric, everyone was on their feet cheering on their team. As they did their ceremony thing the whole stadium went quiet and just turned into a giant flash. Wherever you looked you could see camera flashes, all trying to get a good shot of their team.
As the ceremony ended it began to get louder, as people got excited. The ball was finally in the middle of the pitch and the whole of the supporters go onto their feet and cheered. The ball was kicked off. It was passed from player to player getting further and further into the Rangers area. Unfortunately, the Rangers defender tackled the ball off him and passed it further up the pitch. This happened another few times until then something great happened. Celtic got the ball off a corner taken by Rangers. All the Rangers players were in our box, the pitch was virtually empty of Rangers players. So Celtic took advantage of this and passed the ball to another player then another, then another, until the ball was in the Rangers box. So Celtic took the shot and missed, then out of nowhere a Celtics player smashed the ball into the top right hand corner. The Celtic side went crazy with delight. We were screaming. It was a great first half for Celtic and not so good for Rangers. When the teams came back onto the pitch it got quite loud again. The ball was kicked off once again and once again Celtic did what they do best. They were doing great. The score was now 2-1 to Celtic. As the game came to a close everyone expected Celtic to win, but that was not to be. Rangers took a shot from way back and it bounced off the left post. The whole stadium was quiet because of the tension. Then the ball was taken by Rangers and got past all the Celtic defenders. Celtic was in trouble now. He punted the ball and it hit the post again. I had never felt so tense. Then he took another shot, the goalie saved it but accidentally dropped the ball. So it was a clear open goal for Rangers to take a shot. So all they had to do was just to pass the ball into the goal. I was devastated. The whole of the Rangers side was screaming. The game had just got really exciting.
The game didn’t have that much more to go. After that goal both teams were playing really hard. But at the end of stoppage time the score was still the same. So it had to go into penalty shoot outs. This just came down to luck I thought. Celtic took the first shot. It smacked it into the top corner. YESSSS, I was screaming. Then Rangers took a shot. That also went in. This went on for a few more shots. The penalty shoot outs were an unbelievable draw - 4 each. So it all came down to the last 2 shots. Celtic let Rangers go first. He got lined up for the shot. I was so tense. He began the run up, struck the ball but ... … It hit the post and bounced right back. The Celtic side were screaming. But we all knew that if we didn’t score then it would be a draw. So we lined up the ball. This had to be a perfect, I can remember thinking. He began to run up took the shot. It went high. Then it began to curl into the goal. It went right into the top left corner. The Celtic side was amazed. We were so happy. So the final score including penalties was 7-6 to Celtic.
I was so happy.
When we got home I was so tired. The game was on the news channel and the sport channel.
I was too tired to stay up. So I just went to bed.
