TWO Easterhouse teenagers scrambled together at least five weeks’ worth of wages to make their first trip abroad - to Lisbon.

Frank Carrigan and his friend Jim Devine were both just 17 when they made arrangements to travel to the European Cup final.

The best friends, who both went to the now defunct St Gregory’s High School in Springboig, put their deposit down for the flight at the start of the football season.

Frank explained: “Me and my best friend, we were 17 years old at the time, we lived in Easterhouse but his uncle lived in Linwood and there was a supporters club there called St Brendan’s

“At the start of the season, they had chartered a flight and anyone was invited to put a deposit down, so we did.”

The pair both turn 67 on the year of the 50th anniversary of the 2-1 win against Inter Milan which Frank admits is “a nice coincidence”.

They left from Abbotsinch Airport, which is what Glasgow Airport was called at the time - and the journey is one Frank has never forgotten.

The grandfather-of-three, who now lives in Cumbernauld, said: “It was tremendous to go, it was a dream come true.

“We went on an old aeroplane and we were worried. When it hit a certain altitude, everyone was able to get a drink - except us as we had soft drinks. The plane, however, then hit an air pocket and all the drinks hit the roof.

“We got a fright at first but then it was like a supporters bus and we all started singing.”

Frank admitted the supporters even stuck to the tradition of giving a tip to the ‘driver’ or in this case the pilot.

He said: “It was like a supporters bus, the hat went round as we landed in Lisbon. Except we put a tammy round for the pilot to give him a wee bung.”

A former Celtic player even joined their flight. Jim Kennedy, who died several years ago, was also a member of St Brendan’s supporters club. The left-back played for Celtic from 1955 to 1965.

With the rocky trip behind them, the next memorable experience came from Celtic becoming the first team in Britain to lift the European Cup.

Frank said: “It was phenomenal. At the old Celtic park, we always changed ends so we could see the goals. We actually did that in Lisbon too.

“At the end, I also took a photograph at the press gallery with my fingers up 2-1 which I still have.”

In a scenario only Celtic fans can dream of, Frank ended up bumping to the entire team at the airport.

He explained that the players wives travelled separately from the team. The Lisbon Lions therefore ended up at the airport at the same time as Frank to see off their wives.

He said: “The airport was chaos and I ended up getting autographs from the goal scorers Stevie Chalmers and Tommy Gemmell.

“Myself and Jim still talk about it. What an experience it was, not many did it.”