Let the good times roll

THE sight of two bedraggled Celtic supporters sitting in the sun outside Parkhead Stadium all day yesterday summed up Glasgow's celebration hangover.

Less than 24 hours after they watched their team clinch the league championship the shellshocked duo had returned to the stadium just, they said, to try to let it all sink in.

All around them, supporters and their families were rolling up in their droves to mill around aimlessly and try to recapture some of the atmosphere.

For the fat man on the corner selling the league championship flags at ''three quid a go'' and the staff in Celtic's new superstore it meant business was booming. The stadium restaurants were fully booked while the tours were a total sell-out.

''I've never seen anything like it on a Sunday,'' said the grinning doorman as he turned away the umpteenth request for a look around.

On nearby Gallowgate and London Road, it was publicans who were making money hand-over-fist as supporters bedecked in the hoops spilled out on to the streets.

At Bairds' Bar - a mecca for Celtic supporters - dozens of boozy but happy fans sang and chanted noisily on the pavement for the press cameras.

Anxious to please but perhaps a little befuddled by celebration lag, they changed their song for every different photographer, but not their pose.

The scenes were echoed all over the city as supporters showed no intention whatsoever of scaling down their parties. At the Brazen Head in the Gorbals, fans were queuing to get in when the doors opened yesterday. By mid-afternoon the bar was a sea of green and white striped football tops as they danced and sang.

As the morning after the night before wore on, magnaminity became the order of the day. Fans - many who had not been home and said they had no intention of going to work today, or the rest of the week for that matter - were even keen to share their good fortune with the gallant losers from Perth.

Gerald McGettigan, 46, from Barrhead, had nothing but praise for their rivals in Saturday's match at Parkhead. ''I just want to thank the St Johnstone fans,'' he said. ''They stayed on to watch our celebrations after their team was beaten and it was a magnificent gesture on their behalf.''

That gesture was probably prompted by the St Johnstone supporters' realisation that the scenes they were about to witness were unlikely to be repeated in their lifetime. And so it was across the city as fireworks over Parkhead and a cacophony of car horns, which continued all evening, signalled the result.

As the ridiculously happy Celtic supporters went in search of a pint or six, they found their own solutions to the rapidly overcrowding city pubs. In Duntocher, on the outskirts of Glasgow, the community halls were opened, a banner was stretched across the road, and hundreds drank happily from carry-outs as a band played.

In Glasgow's Merchant City dozens took their drinks and sat down to sing in the road. Yards away on High Street they did the same while at the Montrose Bar, and in numerous other pubs across the city, fans stood on the tables and chairs to sing.

In the city

centre, police stepped in after hundreds of supporters reconstructed their team's famous pre-match huddle in the middle of the road.

''Some guy was leaning out of a window shouting that the cops were miserable b's for stopping us,'' said John Smith, of Drumchapel. ''They warned him that if he didn't shut up they'd arrest him. Sure enough he kept on and a couple of coppers piled up the close to get him. Two minutes later they came back down smiling saying he'd refused to open the door and there was nothing they could do about it.''

Astonishingly, given that 30,000 Rangers supporters and 50,000 Celtic fans had poured on to Glasgow's streets after the big matches ended on Saturday, Strathclyde Police said trouble had been little and minor.

''We can't put a figure on arrests,'' said a spokesman yesterday. ''But the conclusion seems to be that there was a lot less trouble than there normally is after an Old Firm game.'' Police generally kept their presence low profile on Saturday night although supporters trailing Celtic scarves from their cars were pulled over and politely told to put them away.

At the Gallowgate, a road was blocked by police after a fight and there were reports that fans were stopped entering certain bars as they became overcrowded. ''The police don't close bars,'' added the spokesman. ''It's possible that publicans were advised to do so, perhaps because of overcrowding, but I have no knowledge of it.''

Nowhere was the mood of celebration more prominent yesterday than in Germiston in Glasgow where residents hung anything that was green and white from their windows including tea towels and, from one flat, a Celtic bedspread.

On a tenement an enormous tricolour, spanning perhaps 50ft, was draped around the corner of the building.

Back at Parkhead Stadium, the two bedraggled supporters were still trying to get to grips with what they had seen.

Eddie McNally, from County Kildare and JJ Lynam, from County Meath in Ireland, both 29, had come to Scotland to see their first Celtic game on Saturday. Two months ago, unaware of just how important the match would be, they had paid #250 for an all-in package including flights, accommodation, and crucially tickets.

''I was offered #1000 for my ticket last week, but this was a chance in a lifetime,'' said JJ. ''There was no way I would sell it.''

After a night on the town - ''I don't know where we went but I know we ended up in a disco,'' said Eddie - they woke up with 12 hours to kill before their flight back.

The pair headed straight for Parkhead and sat looking at the stadium all day - ''You can't put it into words. It has just been unbelievable, the whole experience was too much.''