The Celtic Old Bhoys head to Liverpool on Sunday looking to win the British Masters for the first time.After seeing off Rangers, Hearts and Dundee United the old hoops find themselves in the British final which must have turned into a marketing nightmare.
Think Merseyside and you get Tranmere, think London and it's QPR, think Manc and it's Bolton!
TRANMERE
No doubt the organisers would have been looking for Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester United to join the hoops but it's not such a funny old game when you end up with Tranmere, QPR and Bolton Wanderers.
Celtic face Tranmere in the quarter finals with former Hoops keeper Stewart Kerr looking forward to a reunion with an edge.
Any outsider looking in may think that it's a jolly for the old boys on show but with an indoor arena under the lights of Sky TV things get intense and very competitive.
Kerr said: "Obviously it's different to play in these events from watching on telly. The standard is quite high, over the years younger players are getting involved and it's definitely a hard shift.
"When I watched it on telly I never realised how wide the goals are, that was quite a surprise.
FORGIVING
"It's a good format and hard work. The surface isn't the most forgiving, goalkeepers are heavily involved, the goals are quite big and the organisers are wanting to see plenty of goals flying in.
"The secret is just to keep the ball, we really found that out in the Scottish event, when we were keeping the ball our luck started to change.
"The Scottish Masters was very enjoyable, after a bad start it turned out well and now we're looking forward to the British event and going on to win that.
"There is no form in these events especially with this stage being a straight knock out. In the Scottish Masters we lost our first game 3-1 against Dundee United but beat them in the final."
ATTRACTION
The social side of the event is a big attraction with players from different eras getting together to exchange stories and catch up with each other.
The Celtic side that won the Scottish event covered a few playing eras dating back to Andy Walker and Mark McNally from the troubled early 90s to the excitement created by Pierre van Hooijdonk with Tom Boyd a constant through to the trophy winning days on the naughties.
Kerr's Celtic career covered the good, the bad, the painful and the memorable with the stories certain to flow when they meet up again in Liverpool.
"It's great to meet up with folk that you haven't seen in years," the keeper said. "You quickly go back into team-mates mode.
"There's a few square-ups when you're playing as usual but afterwards they are quickly forgotten about. It's great to get competitive again.
"Everyone just switches back into their playing mode, there is always pressure on you to win at Celtic and the supporters are there to see you win."
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