Belfast is a changed city since the height of the Troubles.

Back in 1984 I was Celtic manager when we headed to Cliftonville for a friendly game, a game that the club felt obliged to take given the requests to take the team to Northern Ireland.

In any case, we know how it went and maybe in retrospect it was ill-advised to go there but more about that later.

I would like to think that now, 33 years down the line, from what was arguably the height of The Troubles, that what many have predicted will come to pass next month in actual fact doesn’t transpire.

I was in Belfast last October with my wife, my daughter and my grandchildren and I have to say what an amazing experience it was. We went to the Titanic exhibition, we toured the city and we felt the sense of change in the environment.

I have also been to Stormont in a working capacity and you can feel the change in mood in a city where the vast majority want to cultivate a different culture.

But this game comes at the height of the Orange Order’s marching season, a time not only when tensions run high in the city but when policing resources are considerably stretched.

The bottom line form that is that it is the police then who ultimately had to make the call about where and when the game is played.

As I said, I do think that things have changed considerably since 1984. I recall the Celtic chairman at the time, Desmond White, describing that night as “Gdasnk all over again” and vowing that Celtic would never set foot in Northern Ireland again.

But I firmly believe there has been a change since then and I would like to think that this is an encounter that will pass off as peacefully as possible with all eyes on the football rather than anything else.

To be absolutely honest, when I took Celtic there in ’84 I actually thought the RUC were responsible for inflaming things with an approach that could liberally be described as overly-aggressive. There were tensions in Northern Ireland that week due to an incident that had occurred in Belfast where a Catholic who was either wanted or in custody had escaped south of the border and it felt in many ways like retribution from the RUC.

I say that as someone who was there and watched what unfolded with my own eyes. The brutality was horrendous and completely over the top.

In a game that was basically incident free, things seemed to kick off with no obvious catalyst as to why. Before we knew it there was a full scale riot going on and the police were incredible heavy-handed.

No-one wants to see anything like that again at a football match and I do hope that this is a game that can pass without major incident.

Moving it to the Friday night appears to be the concession made, a decision I am sure will have been made with the safety of everyone in mind.

There has been a suggestion about Celtic refusing to take tickets for the game but I don’t think that ever really stops people going. There will be a lot of Celtic fans in Northern Ireland who will feel that they have the right to go and see their club and in many ways you are damned if you do and damned if you don’t.

The one thing I think you can be certain about is that whatever is going off the field, Celtic will be properly prepared on it.

Linfield still have the San Marino side, La Fiorita, to play in their opening leg and it would be ironic if after a week of consternation about this fixture if it never actually came to pass.

Still, having being in the stadium where La Fiorita play I would suspect that Linfield – who will be highly motivated given what is at stake in the next round – will prevail and go on to meet Celtic.

Last year’s debacle with the Hillman Imps came about when Rodgers was just in the door but I suspect that there will be a full focus on this one as Celtic look to get themselves back into the group stages of the Champions League.

from a purely football perspective, this is the ideal opening round for them as they bid to repeat last season’s antics of getting into the groups. There is little travelling and they should expect to prevail without too much trouble.

You just have to hope that it is all about the football and nothing else.