MARINERS midfield maestro Michael McGlinchey says he is looking forward to a “special” evening when Central Coast host Sydney FC at Bluetongue Stadium on Saturday night.
MARINERS midfield maestro Michael McGlinchey says he is looking forward to a “special” evening when Central Coast host Sydney FC at Bluetongue Stadium on Saturday night.
McGlinchey says he and his teammates are excited by the prospect of playing in front of over 15,000 fans on the banks of the Brisbane Water against the Sky Blues.
“I think we-re all looking forward to it,” McGlinchey said of the game against Ian Crook-s team.
“We-re hearing the attendance could be the highest since I-ve been here, since Arnie-s (Graham Arnold) been here.”
“We-re looking forward to playing in front of a packed crowd and we usually do well at home so hopefully with more people there to watch us we-ll put a show on for them.”
He added: “It’s good to play at home with the Mariners in front of a packed crowd. I’ve played in front of 15,000 there but maybe if we get to pushing 20 (thousand) it would be something pretty special.”
Indeed, McGlinchey was a ball boy at Celtic Park in Glasgow when ‘the Bhoys’ met Juventus in a UEFA Champions League tie on October 31, 2001 – 11 years ago yesterday!
As a Glasgow Celtic junior, McGlinchey stood behind the goals feeding balls to then Hoops custodian Robert Douglas to take goal kicks.
That night, McGlinchey watched on as Alessandro Del Piero struck a wonder free kick to hand ‘the Old Lady- a 19th minute lead.
Celtic would eventually overturn the deficit to win 4-3. Chris Sutton, brother of former Mariners striker John Sutton, scored twice on the night.
“I remember the game at Celtic Park when he (Del Piero) scored the free kick,” McGlinchey said. “I was actually a ball boy in the game behind the goals.”
“I thought he was some player then watching him so he-s a class act and I am looking forward to playing against him.”
Meanwhile, McGlinchey today commenced a month of sculpting his facial hair in the name of charity, helping out the Soccer5s Movember team “Moccer5s”.
While the crafty New Zealand international ordinarily sports some facial hair in any case, teammates, rivals and commentators may instead opt to call him Michael “MoGlinchey” throughout the next month.
Please CLICK HERE to contribute to Michael McGlinchey-s Movember efforts!
Central Coast Mariners vs. Sydney FC
Saturday 3 November, 2012; Kick-off: 7:30pm (local)
Bluetongue Stadium, Gosford
Tickets: Please CLICK HERE to purchase tickets to the match.
Twitter: Get involved with the match conversation on Twitter! The official match hash tag is #CCMvSYD
