BARRY RUSSELL insists he will be unfazed by Scott Brown’s infamous death stare having spent recent weeks being watched over by a 60-foot likeness of the Celtic captain.
The East Kilbride skipper works as a plumbing and heating engineer and is currently fitting boilers and radiators in a housing scheme in the shadow of Celtic Park in Glasgow’s East End.
He is forever confronted by the sight of Brown gazing down from the giant mural that surrounds the stadium and admits, for the first time in life, he has become weary of the sight of Paradise as he waits for the opportunity to go up against their Class of 2016 in the fifth round of the William Hill Scottish Cup at Airdrieonians’ Excelsior Stadium tomorrow.
“We are there for three months and it’s been like the stadium has been haunting me since the draw was made,” said the centre-back, a self-confessed Celtic fanatic. “I just hope it is not haunting me on Monday morning.
“Every time I need to go and pick up a tool, I see Celtic Park.
“They’ve got all those big murals up at the ground. They’ve got Scott Brown, John Hartson, Henrik Larsson, Paul McStay. It looks cracking right enough, but it’s been a bit surreal.
“I’m just trying to get Celtic out of my head. I’m a Celtic fan, but I’m sick of the sight of Celtic Park and I never thought I would say that.”
Russell is likely to be the man handed the task of keeping Leigh Griffiths in check, but he admits it is Brown’s shirt that he covets as a souvenir of the day.
“I could try and ask him for his jersey when we are tossing coins at the start, but he doesn’t speak to captains,” said Russell. “He just stares at them.
“I will just stare back. People ask if I am going to get starstruck, but I don’t want that to happen because that could affect my game.”
Russell almost pulled off a huge shock in the tournament in March 2014 when part of the Albion Rovers side that led Rangers 1-0 at Ibrox until Bilel Mohnsi clearly fouled goalkeeper Neil Parry before heading home an equalising goal and forcing a replay with 11 minutes to play.
He allowed the lead-up to that match to get the better of him and is making sure that doesn’t happen again this time round.
“We should have beaten Rangers,” he recalled. “The build-up to the match was massive. I was paranoid, couldn’t sleep.
“I was doing my mum’s head in by walking about the house at 3am, but I’m a lot calmer now and I’ll be telling the boys to chill out. People won’t expect us to do anything, but they could be in for a shock.”
As Russell admits, though, that afternoon at Ibrox did have some redeeming elements.
“My mate Ciaran Donnelly scored the goal, but the stadium announcer gave the goal to Barry Russell,” he smiled. “As a Celtic fan, I was buzzing to hear that at Ibrox. I was running about daft like I had scored.”
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