Melbourne bhoy Jackson Irvine was delighted to enjoy a weeks recovery after helping Celtic’s youth side to the double of SPL crown and the SFA Youth Cup.
After missing out on the first half of the season due to injury the powerful midfielder found himself pitched in at the deep end as the fixtures came thick and fast.
Seven league matches and a cup final win over Rangers added to Irvine’s medal collection with the month of April unlikely to be forgotten.
“The last two months have been absolutely nuts!” he smiled. “I played an amazing number of games and it’s been chaos- enjoyable chaos.
“The cup final was the best night of my life, I’ve never experienced anything like that before. I went along to the cup final last year while I was over on trial and got an idea of what it was like but to actually play in it was something else.
“When you walk out at Hampden, stand there and hear the Green Brigade and everything else it’s unbelievable. The fans were outstanding to us.
“There was two weeks of nerves leading upto the match but that eased when we went out to the pitch and did the warm up, that’s when it turned into excitement.
“I was nervous about the occasion, the crowd, the stadium. It was the other factors but I knew that if we played well we’d win the game and that’s what happened.”
After signing for Celtic at the start of the season Irvine’s hopes of making an impact were hampered by injury as he attempted to settle into a new country almost as far away as possible from his home in Melbourne.
Alls well that ends well however with the likeable midfielder looking forward to a long break back home after a stop-off at the weekend to take part in the Hong Kong Sevens event.
“At the start of the season I ruptured my ankle ligaments and that put me out until just before Christmas,” he recalled.
“With the amount of games that were postponed I didn’t miss out on too many matches and then was lucky enough to play a part in the run-in at the end of the season.
“The injury was horrendous. I was away from home, missing my family and I was still studying for exams. Luckily I was able to complete my schooling on line, finished my exams in November with a superviser and passed with flying colours!
“My parents have been over from Australia, my grandad was over as well, they’ve been able to see some games and it was great to have them all at the cup final including family coming down from Perth and Aberdeen.”
He added: “When I first came into the side I was played on the right wing and wasn’t really comfortable out there. Obviously I was trying my hardest but I just couldn’t get the positional sence of things.
“After a few decent games there I got moved into centre-mid that I felt I started to come into my own and over the last few weeks I felt that I started to hit my stride.
“It’s probably been perfect timing and the season finished well for me.
“Everyone is tired, it’s been chaotic and I can’t wait to get home, it’ll be really good to get back to Australia to see family and friends, that’s what I’m looking forward to after the Hong Kong trip.”
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