All of us invested emotionally in Celtic will know the feeling

As Celtic head to Linz in the return leg of their Champions League qualifier, many have been debating whether we are in for a relatively relaxing evening or will Celtic once again put us through the wringer and see us living on our nerves as the minutes tick away towards full time?

It’s certainly a good question and one that I can see both sides of the argument on.

Many are predicting that even though we head to Austria with a three goal advantage, we could be in for another night of drama and I fully understand why some people are thinking this way.

It’s what psychologists would call historical trauma, and being a Celtic fan watching us over many years in Europe, I can testify it’s certainly a real thing.

All of us invested emotionally in Celtic will know the feeling.

Every year I head off for at least one European away day and it’s always the same feeling. You know the trip is going to be great but then the fear sets in when you think about what you’re actually going to witness during the match.

I’ve been to plenty of away day drubbings. Munich, Dortmund, Madrid. Just some of the ones which still haunt me. They hurt and instil a sense of fear on your mindset.

The other day my mate sent me a picture of a time when he was back from Australia visiting home. It was a group of us out for a Celtic game. He said it came up on his timeline saying nine years ago today.

I had to Google the match, it was Astana away. The memories started to come flooding back. 5-0 at Celtic Park the week before, we were home and dry. We were out for drinks to celebrate and watch Celtic cruise through to the Champions League group stages. It didn’t turn out that way. Even with a five goal advantage we nearly threw it away. I remember at 4-1 and with Celtic under the cosh we all looked at each other like ‘this can’t be happening again’.

Thankfully it didn’t. The fear was real however.

So I can totally understand why people are apprehensive about tomorrow night. Personally however I feel like last season under Martin O’Neill helped heal some of my mental wounds.

I was in Rotterdam for the Feyenoord game and we put in an almost perfect away performance. The away games against Bologna and Stuttgart were two more examples of Martin O’Neill showing his nous when it comes to getting a result on our travels.

This is why I think my nails will remain intact tomorrow night. Martin O’Neill seems to have instilled a belief in this Celtic team that they can put in credible performances away in Europe, but even more importantly they can also achieve positive results.

Those performances and results I have mentioned from last season will have finally blown away that sense of fear that has infected Celtic teams for far too long. I hope our demons have been buried for good.

LASK proves last week that they are certainly no European cannon fodder.

3-0 was extremely harsh on them. They will be champing at the bit to prove they are better than that. This will not be an easy match. I am confident however that the mentality to see this game out exists amongst this current squad and management team.

This is exactly the kind of situation Martin O’Neill excels in. While the on-field stuff is clearly more in the hands of Shaun Maloney and the other coaches, this is where O’Neill comes to the fore.

He wont have allowed this squad for a second think this tie is over. He will demand they give it everything. If we do, we will qualify. I have absolutely no doubt about that. We are a better team than LASK.

Under Martin O’Neill I don’t think it’s possible. I’m confident we will advance into Thursday’s draw. More than that, I’m going to stick my neck out and say we will do it with relative ease. Our nerves barely frayed. Another step in proving we will be a wiser team in European competition moving forward. No more drubbings. No more having to win all our home games, as we know we won’t get anything on our travels.

I hope I’m right. By 10pm tomorrow evening we will know if we can finally kiss goodbye to that historical trauma, or whether we will be adding yet another scar to an already heavily damaged psyche.

See you all on the other side