Celtic Football Club 2013/14 Training Shirt

A collection does not live on match shirts alone. This is what Celtic's players wore stepping onto the pitch before kick off: the 2013/14 warm up top, grey with the hoops confined to the front and the club's name in bright green across the back. On the chest, the debut of Magners, the Irish cider from Clonmel that replaced Glasgow's lager as main sponsor, a change of drink with symbolism attached: after a Scottish beer, a brand from the island the club's founders came from. The 2013/14 season was Neil Lennon's last on the bench and ended with a third consecutive championship, won at a canter in a Scotland still without Rangers in the top flight. In Europe, it left the epic qualification night against Shakhter Karagandy, a 3-0 comeback at Celtic Park sealed in stoppage time, before a nightmare group with Barcelona, Milan and Ajax. A backstage piece from an end of cycle season, made for the minutes when the stadium is still filling up. Match shirts tell the ninety minutes; these tell what comes before.

Here at Hoopster we also keep the minutes before the whistle: this is the warm-up shirt, hoops on the front only and the Irish cider debuting on the chest. Serious archives do not keep only the days of celebration.