August 22, 2002: Neil Lennon is 24 hours on from the loyalist death-threat telephone call that terminated his Northern Ireland career and is back in Glasgow at his club, Celtic.
Awaiting him there is his manager Martin ONeill who, like Lennon, is a Northern Irish Catholic and who, like Lennon, captained his country. ONeill did so in the turbulent days of the early 1980s. So there would be understanding, sympathy, or so Lennon thought.
As he tells it, though, on returning to Celtic, ONeill met Lennon with the words: ;Ah, Neil, so you got my phone call, then?
On target: Martin O"Neill scores from Distillery in the Irish Cup Final, April 1971
"Once a players in me, its hard to shift him out. Thats been the nature of my management.
;Ive done that probably because Ive always wanted that belief from managers myself. It matters.
"Brian Clough had his own way.
"When I left Forest for Norwich, Mel Machin was the manager. In my second match for Norwich we lost at Wolves, but he came in after the game and said to me, That was world class.
;That made you want to go out and perform, and to play for people. McAlinden had that. In my career he was fundamentally important.
"I was speaking to some old Distillery players recently and it wasnt just me he treated that way.
;What he did for Distillery, he had us up there challenging, we won the Irish Cup. He got a group of players, both Catholic and Protestant, in very, very difficult times, to knit together.
"Wittingly or unwittingly he had these players who would have died for him. I think thats a wonderful sign in a manager.
Distillery winning the Irish Cup is a bit like Leicester City finishing in the top half of the Premier League four seasons in a row, winning the League Cup twice in that time and going into Europe.
With Distillery, the Irish Cup also meant Europe. They drew Barcelona. In the first leg in Belfast, ONeill scored. He was still a law student at Queens University.
High point: O"Neill prods home for Northern Ireland against Portugal 1973
;We were staying in Scarborough. Met up at lunchtime. Bestie didnt arrive. Then he turned up at 10 oclock blitzed. Hed been on a pub crawl from Manchester to Scarborough. I remember him in the dressing room clattering his boots on the floor to get the mud off. They hadnt been cleaned from his last match.
;He always roomed with Pat Jennings, two world-class players together. Our family moved up to Belfast in 68 and I was at Windsor Park in 70 the day he got sent off against Scotland.
;I never saw a player want to get sent off as much. I think he finally spat at the referee. Driving rain. I was there, in the crowd at the Kop end by the tunnel. I swear to God, I could have reached out and touched him. George Best...
That game in Hull in 1972 against Spain came a fortnight after Bloody Sunday. Northern Irelands Troubles had another atrocity and here was its football team in Hull.
As Neill recalled: ;We ended up at places like Hull, Coventry, Hillsborough and Fulham, we were gypsies. But there was never any problem within the squad.
"We talked about things, yes, and there was a heightening of feeling about what was going on at home. If it doesnt sound too self-righteous, we hoped we could give our wee place a lift.
"Once a players in me, its hard to shift him out. Thats been the nature of my management."The geographic dislocation meant ONeills first Northern Ireland goal was scored in a ;home game against Portugal, in Coventry.
;Myself, Id say being a professional footballer shielded you to an extent but not every way, ONeill said of the developing turmoil.
;There was bombing in England too. To be Irish in England then was never unbelievably bad, but it was uncomfortable at times.
"But my memory of that Portugal game was purely football, because Eusebio was playing. He might have been on his last legs but he played and I scored.
;I remember in the last 15 minutes starting to hope I might get Eusebios shirt. I noticed then that Bryan Hamilton was standing very close to Eusebio and not because he was marking him.
;So Hamilton took the shirt, much to my disgust. I exchanged shirts with another Portuguese player lovely shirts, great colouring but I walked off not completely happy.
"I was still needing something from Eusebio. So I went up to him in the tunnel and pointed to his shorts. And he took his shorts off. Went into his dressing room in his underpants.
ONeill laughed at himself again: ;Great shorts, wee stripe down the side of them.
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