TOMMY Wright, the St Johnstone manager, feels it would be regrettable if Celtic feel they can't bring any travelling fans to Belfast in the event that they face his first club Linfield in a second round Champions League qualifying tie next month - but the Parkhead side will be hot favourites to progress in any case. Uefa yesterday scheduled the potential powderkeg tie - which will only occur if Linfield first take care of San Marino side La Fiorita - for Friday July 14, setting aside their traditional Tuesday and Wednesday slot as the first leg would coincide with the marching season in Northern Ireland. While Wright feels it would be a 'shame' if Celtic refuse to take their allocation, he suspects some Parkhead supporters may make it into the ground in any case.
"It is a shame, but I guess it means there will be 18,000 blue men there and no Celtic supporters - although I am sure some Celtic supporters will be able to get tickets easy enough if they wanted to," said Wright. "I don't know how they are going to stop them.
"But I think Linfield's focus should be on getting through that first match because all this is in danger of maybe affecting them," he added. "Because of the enormity of the game, it is important that David [Healy, the Linfield manager] keeps the players focused. Because what they don't want is to lose that game and miss out on the chance to play Celtic, one of the biggest teams in the world, which would have a huge financial impact for Linfield.
"To go back to the security thing, Celtic have probably looked at it and whatever decision they will make will be the right decision for them. Maybe their decision will be influenced by the police and the security - but it would have been nice to have seen Celtic fans there.
"In football terms it is a good draw for Celtic. Linfield are part time, and while they won't make it easy for them, a full time team with all the quality Celtic have there is no doubt they would be red hot favourites for the game."
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