131.
First Old Firm derby of the season, and I was getting all excited with the anticipation of it all. For those of you who don't know about these things, let me explain. Glasgow is Scotland's largest city, and football (soccer to the Philistines) is Scotland's most popular sport. In Glasgow there are four senior football clubs: Queens Park, Partick Thistle, Glasgow Rangers and Glasgow Celtic. This last two - Rangers and Celtic - have a huge support base, rivalling Manchester United. Together, Rangers and Celtic are known as the "Old Firm", and their meetings as the "Old Firm derby", which is one of the biggest and most bitter-fought derby games in club football anywhere in Europe (and possibly the world). Put quite simply, this game is about as big as it gets - bigger than AC Milan v. Inter, bigger than Liverpool v. Everton, bigger than Arsenal v. Chelsea, bigger than Man. Utd v. Man. City, bigger even than Real Madrid v. Barcelona or Sporting Lisbon v. Benfica. It is huge. The game itself is not usually very pretty, as the players are often as psyched up as the supporters. Players are frequently sent-off as the tempers flare, and once, back in the late-1980s, the police arrested several players for brawling. Rarely is there any trouble between the fans, however (at least not at the stadium). In recent years, Celtic have dominated this fixture, winning the last six meetings of the two sides. Today that record was extended to seven wins, as Alan Thompson, Celtic's Geordie left-midfielder, shot the ball into the Rangers' goal in the 85th minute. This result stretches Celtic's lead at the top of the table, after four games, to four points over Aberdeen and 5 points over Rangers. All in all, today was a good day to be a Celtic supporter. Hail, hail ;-)