PLENTY of home debuts have been made at Murrayfield but nearly all will have involved kickers of the egg shaped ball rather than a football. There’s one player who made his debut at Murrayfield and has probably never kicked a rugby ball in his life – the Celtic and Scotland midfielder Callum McGregor.
And we have Ronny Deila to thank for this as he had enough faith in the player who had been on loan at Notts County, to push him straight into European action. With Celtic Park being otherwise occupied by the Commonwealth Games, Murrayfield became our home venue for the qualifiers and the first game we played there was against Iceland’s KR Reykjavík and it was in this match that Callum made his ‘home’ debut for Celtic. Speaking to this week’s Celtic View, McGregor recalls what happened.
“I made my debut for Celtic in the away leg against KR Reykjavík and scored the only goal of the game. The return leg was my second game and it was technically my home debut for Celtic, even though it was at Murrayfield. It was because of the Commonwealth Games that we weren’t able to play at home.
“I remember it being a good game at Murrayfield. The stadium was nice and the pitch was decent too. We won the first game so we were favourites to go through and we ended up winning the second leg 4-0. I set up the first one in the second leg so I was off to a good start in the senior side, having scored the winning goal on my debut.”
It’s fair to say that playing Hearts at Murrayfield rather than at Hampden is not a concern for McGregor.
“The stadium was near enough full when we last played there so it was a really good atmosphere. I enjoyed playing there. Obviously I’d have preferred Hampden but we got good results at Murrayfield. It’s not a bad second choice to play there. The stadium makes for a decent atmosphere so I’m sure it’ll be good.
“At the time, you don’t notice a massive difference in the atmosphere compared to when you play at Hampden. Obviously at Hampden you have the space between you and the fans in the stands, but any time I’ve played at Hampden with Celtic it’s been a big game like a semi-final or cup final and the atmosphere of the day is always special.
“For us as players, we experience a good atmosphere at Hampden. Obviously it’s nothing like Celtic Park but no ground is. With Murrayfield that’ll probably be the same with the stand being that wee bit closer to the pitch, so we’re expecting it to be loud.”
