Dad flew in from Melbourne to watch me play Barca
Celtic’s u-19 gave a great account of themselves before going down 3-1 to the next generation of Nou Camp wizards with Irvine in the thick of the action.
The midfielder made the long journey from Melbourne last year and got the fright of his life at the weekend when he found that his dad had dropped in on a surprise visit.
“My dad is from Aberdeen and I didn’t know that he was at our match on Saturday (at Aberdeen),” Jackson smiled.
“I came out of the dressing room at half time and saw him on the sideline. I was shocked, absolutely shocked! He flew over to surprise me for the Barcelona game and it’s great having him here for a week.
“He’ll be at the game with Dundee United on Saturday, my parents have supported me all the way and I’m glad my dad was able to see me playing in the biggest game of my career so far.
“He used to play in the same team as Scott McDonald’s dad and I loved watching Scott when he was at Celtic.
“He had a hard time getting in the national team but came to Celtic and scored in the Champions League against AC Milan and Manchester United.
“These matches are our equivalent of the Champions League, we’ve had two great games so far and now we’ve got to focus on the league before thinking about the matches with Manchester City.”
After Campabadal Claros opened the scoring for Barcelona Celtic enjoyed their best spell of the match with Tony Watt scoring a great solo goal to level the scores.
Barca hit back with goals either side of half time from Patricio Gabarron and Jean-Marie Dongou that deflated the homeside with Irvine experiencing a mixture of pride and frustration over the 90 minutes.
He added: “It was mainly a good experience, my first start at Celtic Park, a good crowd and fantastic opposition but I felt that we were a bit hard done by.
“We conceded two scrappy goals and one from a set-piece that we should clear. Overall I really enjoyed the experience and we’re looking forward to the remaining games in this competition.
“The third goal was a kick in the teeth, we tried to get back in the game but they flood the midfield and that’s hard to counter. Our full-backs weren’t sure whether to come in or the strikers to drop back, sometimes me and Filip Twardzik were working in a two against five situation in the middle of the park.
“Obviously it’s difficult but I felt that overall we dealt with it really well. We had some great play going forward, Paul George and Rhys Williamson had a few strikes at goal and I had a header that went straight up in the air.
“Before the match we had a laugh about facing a team of little Messi’s and Iniesta’s but they are 18-year-old kids the same as us, I knew going into the game that technically we had some very gifted players like Paul Geirge who can produce magic in the final third.
“We all knew that we could play with them, after five minutes it hit everyone that ‘wow we’re really in this, we can go on and win this game’. I didn’t think that we deserved to be on the end of a 3-1 defeat.”
CELTC (4-4-1-1) Feely; Fraser, Toshney, Jones, Chalmers; Herron (Gormley 88) Irvine, F. Twardzik, Williamson (Alabi 83); George; Watt (Atajic 71)
Not Used: Thomson, Fisher, Miller, McNally
BARCELONA (4-3-3) Anton; Campabadal Claros, Ayala, Bagnack, Olivan; Samper, Gabarron, Calvet (Quintilla 63); Cornejo, Dongou (Moreno 90) Sainz-Maza (Herrera 71)
Not Used: Julio, Tienda, Bakoyock, Quesada, Moreno
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