ONE of the benefits of having a career in the professional game which now spans 40 years is that there are few types of situations which Kilmarnock manager Steve Clarke has not faced.
At lunchtime today he and his players will have to contend with a tsunami of emotion from 60,000 supporters as well as league leaders Celtic as they take the field at Parkhead in the champions’ first game since the death of iconic former captain and manager Billy McNeill on Monday.
Clarke was coming towards the end of his playing career with Chelsea in October, 1996, when Matthew Harding, the club’s benefactor in those pre-Abramovich days, died in a helicopter crash on his way home from a League Cup defeat at Bolton.
Harding was a regular visitor to the training ground and dressing room and as popular with the players as he was revered by the fans after sinking £26.5m of his money into the club. Clarke played that night at Bolton and again four days later when Chelsea beat Spurs at Stamford Bridge.
READ MORE: Steven Gerrard reckons Aberdeen raise their game more when they face Rangers
Consequently, he knows exactly what to expect in Paradise today.
“It was a difficult day for us, although it was a slightly different scenario in that Matthew was a relatively young man who died in a tragic accident while Billy had led a very full life,” Clarke said.
“But it was an emotional occasion and the players had to deal with it. The heartfelt pre-match tributes can play on your mind but once the game kicks off you concentrate solely on that and I’m sure that will be the case for the Celtic players tomorrow.
“We have to respect the emotion of the occasion, which will be felt by everyone connected with Celtic and everyone who knew Billy McNeill. So we go there as the outsiders, if you like, and – while being respectful – trying to put on the kind of performance that can add to our points total.”
READ MORE: Rainer Bonhof - Shaun Maloney and Darren Fletcher can step up again with Scotland
Veteran winger Chris Burke, for his part, fears that Celtic will be determined to put on a show in McNeill’s honour.
“Celtic need a reaction, so I’m sure they’ll make a fast start and come at us looking for an early goal. They are good players who will want to get the fans on their side as quickly as they can.
“Neil Lennon will have them set up for that and we have to try and stop that and play our game.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here