CELTIC hold an important 5-0 lead going into next week’s second leg against Astana, but the scoreline was a lot closer when the side’s met in a Champions League Qualifier last season…

SCOTT (Crookston) – Celtic have been drawn against Astana for the second year in a row. How many times have Celtic made the trip to Kazakhstan and am I right in saying one of their opponents sacrificed a sheep before their tie?

Celtic have played Kazakh opposition twice, last year at Astana drawing away from home with Leigh Griffiths scoring a crucial equaliser and winning 2-1 at Celtic Park – Griffiths again scoring.

Astana would equalise before Moussa Dembélé scored a last-minute penalty.

They played Shakhter Karagandy in season 2013/14 and it was during this tie that the sheep sacrifice took place.

Before Karagandy played the tie they sacrificed the sheep for good luck at the Astana Arena, as they do before their games.

It appeared to work as they won the leg 2-0, but Celtic would win the return leg in dramatic style.

Kris Commons and Giorgios Samaras levelled the tie before James Forrest scored in the 90th minute to send Celtic through to the group stages of the Champions League.

GEORGE (Cowglen) – Your recent answer about Maurice Johnston reminded me of been taken to the match when he made his Rangers' debut along with Trevor Steven. It was a pre-season game but I cannot remember who it was against. Can you refresh my memory?

On July 29, 1989, Rangers played Airdrieonians at Broomfield in a testimonial match for two of their long-serving players John Martin and Brian McKeown.

Maurice Johnston's much publicised signing took place only 19 days earlier and this being his first game in a Rangers' shirt ensured a greater than normal interest in the match.

As you say, Trevor Steven, who was in the Everton team which beat Johnston's Watford in the 1984 FA Cup Final, also made his Rangers' debut, scoring in a Rangers' 3-1 victory.

COLIN MILLER (East Kilbride) – After Celtic lost 2-1 on aggregate to Liverpool in the semi-final European Cup-Winners’ Cup in 1965-66, Bill Shankly said to Jock Stein: “Do you want half the gate money or a share of the empty bottles?” What exactly was he getting at?

Shankly would have been referring to the deluge of bottles thrown from the stands during the ill-tempered affair at Anfield on April 19, 1966.

Missiles were thrown by members of the crowd on more than one occasion in incidents that were well-documented in the following day’s press.

The most notable flashpoints came after a Tommy Gemmell tackle on Liverpool’s Callaghan incensed the home crowd and in the aftermath of Bobby Lennox’s late disallowed goal for Celtic.

Shankly was presumably jesting that instead of receiving a payment from Liverpool for their share of the ticket revenues from the match, Celtic could instead make a killing by taking the huge amount of discarded glass bottles back to Glasgow with them and cashing them in for thruppence a time.