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After that bombshell from Carrick, Gardai moved quickly to investigate the situation, though "quickly" in police terms means weeks, if not months will pass before anyone is charged.

Football wise, attention turned to Celtic again, as they were off to unchartered territory: Champions League Phase Two land, a trip to Croatia to be precise.

Tuesday 20 November 2012, European Cup, 2nd Group Stage, Hajduk Split v Belfast Celtic, Poljud

Croatian fans "welcomed" Celtic's players and fans with banners one would expect in Turkey v England clashes, and with deafening whistling and fireworks. If their strategy was to intimidate the Irish, their team followed it up with a couple of bone-crunching tackles in the opening ten minutes. It was to become a very nasty game...

Gary Malone wasn't impressed, and set out to give Hajduk a taste of their own medicine, going down inside the box like he'd been shot early on. The referee didn't fall for it though, and gave the striker a strong talking to.

Malone answered in the best possible fashion: by opening the score with his next touch. That silenced the home crowd. For a couple of minutes, anyway.

Nine minutes later, Petar Jozic pulled Hajduk level, with a carbon copy of Malone's strike, to secure a 1-1 half time score.

After the break, things went from bad to worse. Flying tackles all over the pitch, swearing, spitting and threatening as the referee lost control of the game. On 56 minutes, Dave Fitzgerald was the first to completely lose his head, as he landed a left hook on his opponent Nikola Safaric. The Croat needed treatment after the blow, but didn't even seem surprised. Needless to say, Fitzgerald was dismissed.

That came just seconds after Bruce Arena had brought on Paul Scholes to replace the ineffective Barry Burns. The Croats had packed their midfield, and Arena decided to follow that lead in an attempt to regain control of the middle of the park. A man short, that wasn't going to work now though, and Celtic made an uncharacteristic decision to go more defensive and settle for a point.

Twelve minutes from the end, Glen Keddy made sure Safaric paid for his provocation tactics by "accidentally" putting his elbow into the midfielder's jaw, right on the spot Fitzgerald had hit him. Safaric was carried off the pitch unconscious.

In the 87th minute, the inevitable happened, as Mladen Horvat, the Hajduk captain of all people, had enough of Colin Morton's tight marking, and tried to deck him. Morton reacted quicker than Safaric had though, and avoided contact. Horvat was sent off all the same, and Celtic considered taking advantage of this by pressing forward for a final time. But then Arena showed Celtic had learned their lesson at his level, and settled for a point instead. in a four-team group, denying your opponents a home win was worth as much as winning a game yourself.

Hajduk 1 (Jozic 25, M.Horvat s/o 87)
Celtic 1 (Malone 16, Fitzgerald s/o 56)
Attendance: 11,236

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Belfast Telegraph, Wednesday 21 November 2012

Unrest in Celtic dressing room

While the jury is still out on whether Belfast Celtic gained a point, or lost two in Croatia last night, one thing is for sure: the aftermath of the Battle of Split has caused trouble in the Irish champions' dressing room.

Celtic midfielder Dave Fitzgerald, sent off early in the second half for landing a left hook on his marker's chin, was fined for violent conduct by his manager and left the dressing room furious. Talking to the media afterwards, Fitzgerald said he felt treated unfairly, and that manager Bruce Arena had instructed his side to "do whatever it takes to win the war".

Arena refused to comment on the matter, saying it will be dealt with internally. UEFA officials are ready to launch an investigation into last night's dirty game and resulting trouble on and off the pitch, and said massive fines and/or points deductions would be considered for any player, official or club bringing the game into disrepute.

The Celtic dressing room was allegedly split over the manager's decision to fine the player, especially in the immediate aftermath of the game. The incident comes less than a week after the latest reports of internal unhappiness with the Belfast side's current League position.

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Saturday 24 November 2012, Premier Division, Kilkenny City v Belfast Celtic, Buckley Park

By Saturday, rumours about dressing room rifts still hadn't disappeared, and Arena knew the only thing Celtic could do to get them off the back pages was to come up with something else for the press to write about. Like a 3-0 away win to go top again, for instance.

That was the outcome of Celtic's trip to Kilkenny, and after only four minutes, the win wasn't in doubt. Glen Keddy was brought down with the goal at his mercy, Ljubo Milicevic converted from 12 yards.

Malone and Foley Sheridan added a second and third goal before half time, which enabled the Belfast side to take it easy in the second forty-five. Rivals Cork and St.Pat's dropping points was a slightly unexpected bonus, but welcome all the same, as the champions were now topping the table once more, and looking good for a fifth title in a row.

Kilkenny 0
Celtic 3 (Milicevic pen 4, Malone 35, Foley Sheridan 45)
Attendance: 4,042

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By Sunday lunchtime, the outcome of the Irish presidential elections was revealed. As expected, Fianna Fáil's Bertie Ahern won comfortably. The only question had been whether he'd win the presidency on the first or the second count. As it happened, the latter was the case, as the former Prime Minister moved into a non-executive role for the coming seven years.

As far as the new coalition government was concerned, Ireland's leading party had aborted talks with Sinn Féin, and agreement between FF and the Progressive Democrats was imminent.

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Wednesday 28 November 2012, League Cup, Semi Final, Belfast Celtic v Bray Wanderers, Casement Park

Despite all the glamour involved with Celtic's European ties these days, the club's fans still flocked to Casement Park en masse for their side's "Third Time Lucky" night. For the third time in as many years, Celtic were in the semi final of the League Cup, but on each of the previous occasions, they had failed to take the penultimate hurdle between them and the trophy. The penalty shootout defeat against NUI was still a painful memory, as was the unlucky defeat against Shamrock Rovers a year ago. A win tonight, though, would wipe out both, and set up a final with those same Rovers. Trying to prevent that were Bray Wanderers...

Casement Park, meanwhile, had had its capacity reduced slightly, to 27,000, to satisfy UEFA demands. It was sold out to the last seat for this clash between Premier Division leaders and First Division promotion hopefuls. Those inside the GAA ground witnessed a nerve-wrecking affair, a very tense game of football.

It wasn't nice, it wasn't pretty, and it certainly wasn't good, the football on display, but people came to see grit and determination. That, both sides showed in abundance. It suited Bray more than it did Celtic though, and so nearly saw the visitors leave their hosts traumatised once again.

In the end, and not before extra time was played, Celtic's class made the difference. It took almost the full two hours for Gary Malone to finally break the deadlock and put the Belfast side into the two-legged final, but eventually, it was there.

The vast majority of the 27,000 went home happy.

Celtic 1 (Malone 117)
Bray 0
Attendance: 27,000 (sold out)
After Extra Time

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On Friday, ILCA members confirm Jonathan Bartley gets to stay on as ICLS chairman and member of the TV contract negotiating team until the end of the season. Backed by this vote of confidence, the ex-Rangers chairman makes appointments with the three remaining candidates for a final offer meeting in December, after which a decision would have to be made.

Frost has his doubts regarding the wisdom of eliminating other interested parties without offering them the chance to table a last-minute bid, but Bartley's game of raising the stakes for the three remaining parties, RTE, UTV and Sky, gets the backing of the third person on the panel, the Bohemians chairman.

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The Frost family didn't travel to Dublin for Celtic's game that Saturday. Instead, they were celebrating their son Kevin's 10th birthday at home. Poor Kevin's birthday was forever overshadowed by the death of his twin brother Jason five years ago though, and their kidnapping in late 2007 had left a permanent mark on the boy, as had his and his family's exile from Ireland. Mark and Katie feared for the future of their son, who at times seemed quite vindicatory for such a young kid...

Saturday 1 December 2012, Premier Division, Shelbourne v Belfast Celtic, Tolka Park

Celtic essentially fielded a second-string team in this game between two vital cup clashes. Determined to win the lot, they decided to possibly sacrifice one of their games in hand to make a League Cup final and a fresh first choice team for the game against Real Madrid possible.

And still they came very close to getting a result at Tolka Park...

Shelbourne, on the up again after the return of Dermot Keely, had no answer to the visitor's squad rotation players' desire to prove themselves. For 70 minutes, they were pushed back into their own half, even if Celtic didn't really create goalscoring opportunities. Shels, needing a win in their quest for a European place, didn't do anything noteworthy in front of goal either.

Suddenly, in the last 15-20 minutes, it all went pear-shaped for the Belfast side. Passing became sloppy, marking and backtracking suffered similarly. The home side finally capitalised on a defensive error in the 83rd minute, when right back Adam Cassidy, back in action after a long-term injury showed why he deserved the Shelbourne captaincy. A fabulous curling shot from the edge of the area, usually associated with the world's finest strikers, rounded off a quick counter attack and secured the points.

Shels 1 (A.Cassidy 83)
Celtic 0
Attendance: 18,335

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Monday morning saw the arrival of the world's historically most successful club in Ireland. Real Madrid were in town, and while it'd been a dozen years since their last European Cup win, many still considered them the biggest fish in the pond. Nevertheless, despite winning La Liga more often than not in the past decade, six years had passed since Real last made it past the group stages of the Champions' League. If Celtic could avoid showing them too much respect, a result could be on the cards...

Political developments made the headlines that day though, as the expected coalition between Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats didn't materialise. Instead, Ireland's leading party reached an agreement with the Alliance Party, so vital in securing what now seemed like a lasting peace in the North.

Tom McEllistrim, the new Taoiseach, underlined their role in the end of the war and spoke of the start of a new era for Ireland, one in which parties thriving on sectarian sentiments would find themselves on the sidelines of the political process, as the real issues of every day life would be addressed from now on. A bold statement, and one that could come back to haunt him by the next election, but certainly a hopeful sign.

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Wednesday 5 December 2012, European Cup, 2nd Group Stage, Belfast Celtic v Real Madrid, Casement Park

Then Wednesday night came, and everyone seemed to want to be part of the occasion. The only reason Casement Park wasn't sold out completely was the fact Real Madrid didn't sell all their tickets, many Spanish fans still not convinced it was safe to travel to Belfast.

Despite Real's recent lack of European glory, their squad was still an awful lot stronger than Celtic's, so the Irish team knew they had to compensate for this by putting in a tremendous amount of effort. Grit and determination might just do the trick.

The visitors had a slight edge in terms of possession and threatening situations in front of goal, but it was Celtic who had the half time lead. Moments after Sidney Govou, Madrid's star striker, had a strong penalty appeal turned down, Paul O'Connor took the ball out of his own half and dribbled forward. Having gained 60 yards this way, the wingback sent in a brilliant cross, which was met by the head of Glen Keddy. An equally impressive finish ensured the ball ended up in the back of the net.

After the interval, Real allowed Celtic more of the ball, but applied more pressure themselves. It proved a decisive change in approach, as the home side started to make mistakes. On one of these occasions, veteran Paul Scholes of all people gave the ball away in midfield, and three quick passes later, Govou rounded off the counter attack with the equaliser.

Both sides had one more great opportunity to win the game, but both John Dodds and Cesar Lainez proved their worth between the sticks, and it finished 1-1.

In the other game, another Spaniard made the difference between Club Brugge and Hajduk, as José Mari, in his 12th season at the club, converted an injury time penalty kick to give his team a 1-0 win and top spot in Group A.

Celtic 1 (Keddy 31)
Real Madrid 1 (Govou 57)
Attendance: 26,956

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Tiocfaidh Ar La, Issue 125, December 2012

Where are they now?

Seven-and-a-half years ago, at the age of 32, Celtic striker Steve Darlington decided to hang up his boots, in the aftermath of the club's second consecutive Irish title.

In the four seasons the Englishman spent in Belfast, he notched up 36 goals in 64 appearances, including 25 in Celtic's first season back in action. All of those goals came in First Division matches, and that tally still stands as the modern day club record for League goals in a single season. Three players have since gone on to beat the 25-goal mark, but required Cup goals to do so, and Gary Malone's 23 League strikes five years ago is the closest anyone came to breaking it. As squad rotation is likely to become more of an issue in years to come, chances are Darlington will remain in the record books for a considerable amount of time.

Yet even if another player beats his 25 goals, Darlington's place in Celtic history is secure. Having joined the club from Farnborough Town for a mere £7,000 in July 2001, the physically strong forward was awarded the #19 jersey, scheduled to serve as a backup for the very first modern-day Celt, Jamie Hughes. Before long though, Darlington earned himself a place in the starting XI and made powerful headers his trademark. About half his goals were scored with the head, a most useful attribute in the First Division.

For Darlington, the 2001/2 campaign ended in personal drama though. A training ground accident involving Kenneth Gill saw the striker collide with a goalpost, resulting in a spinal injury that kept him out of action until December. A month later, Celtic failed to win promotion via the playoffs, and were forced to spend another season in the First Division.

After the Englishman's return, he never reached his old level again. The arrival of other strikers such as Paul McVeigh, Rory Hamill and Fishton Mputu, combined with a lack of match fitness, restricted Darlington to just nine appearances in Celtic's promotion-winning 2002/3 campaign, scoring twice in the process.

The striker staked his claim for a regular first team place again in the following season, the Double winning one, with 7 goals from 17 games. By then, however, technically more gifted forwards (by his own admission) had joined the club and a second individual record of two-from-nine in 2004/5 was only a bit-part in Celtic's successful title defence. Rather than playing on well into his 30s, Darlington decided to retire from the game to pursue a career in the IT sector in his native England.

Three years down the road, still only 35, Farnborough Town came calling again, approaching Darlington for a coaching role. With his computer hardware business on the brink of bankrupcy, the former player jumped at the opportunity to get back into football, and took responsibility for one of the club's youth teams as well as coaching the first team strikers.

In his third season on Farnborough's coaching staff, Darlington moved up to the position of assistant manager behind Keith Mason, who struggled to keep the club in the top division of the Southern League. Eventually, after a poor start to the current campaign and early elimination from the FA Trophy, the club's board ran out of patience with Mason. Darlington was appointed caretaker manager and made enough progress to be awarded the job full time until the end of the season.

Despite retiring over seven years ago and leaving football altogether at first, Steve Darlington's role in the beautiful game is far from over it seems.