Liverpool had beaten Standard Liege, Budapest Honvéd and a strong Juventus team to reach the semis. They would be facing Celtic for the first time in the club’s history. A solitary home goal, scored by the legendary outside left, Bobby Lennox, left Shankly’s side with work to do in the return leg at Anfield. To my enormous surprise, I was presented with a Celtic scarf as a Christmas present in 1980. It was one of the modern scarves of the period which had the team name Glasgow Celtic emblazoned over it by laser print. I was overjoyed. My Dad was perplexed by my delight at receiving this festive gift. He couldn’t see the need to wear a scarf, unless for practical reasons in winter, and certainly not a Celtic one. In all the years he supported Celtic he never possessed a Celtic scarf and would always make a point of stating that you weren’t a bigger Celtic fan just because you wore a scarf.

Five days later, Tommy Smith and Geoff Strong were the scorers as Liverpool overturned the one-goal deficit but the night was marred by crowd trouble amongst a section of the travelling Celtic contingent.Whilst some of the country stared scornfully at Merseyside, it was neighbours Everton, then Celtic, who stood strongest by Liverpool’s side. On getting to our seats, we found we were sitting next to a group of family and friends who had made the trip up from Liverpool for the match. They were still raw with emotion but grateful for the welcome given by fans around them on their journey. Ian St John, born in Motherwell, scored the goal which won Liverpool their first-ever FA Cup in 1965 against Don Revie’s formidable Leeds. The trophy success meant that the Reds qualified for the next season’s Cup Winners’ Cup.

The fan cultures encompassing each club, which form the basis for these emotional atmospheres, share similarities too. In 1989’s pre-match memorial programme, Burns said: “There are parallel lines to be drawn not only between the teams but also the cities we are proud to represent. Glasgow and Liverpool both have much in common. We both suffer from deprivation and the scourge of unemployment.” There was one occasion, in 1990 when I was driving along Ingram Street in Glasgow city centre and I noticed a Celtic scarf lying ahead on the road, which someone had obviously dropped or lost. I couldn’t bear the thought of cars driving over the green and white colours, so there was I like a daftie, holding up the traffic until I retrieved the scarf from the road and could then dispose of it in a civilised fashion. Liverpool had just won the European Cup, but Kevin Keegan had left for Hamburger SV and they needed a new talisman.

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You’ll have experienced different nights in Turkey and in Greece, and it’s just different. But Celtic Park and Anfield on European nights take a little bit of beating, they really do. By percentage, the Archdiocese of Liverpool is the by far the most Catholic part of England, Scotland or Wales, even dwarfing Glasgow’s numbers. It’s only a small part of it, but the strong Irish Catholic presence on Merseyside has fed into the disdain that some right-winger factions seem to have for Liverpool.