When Celtic take to the field against Bristol City on Wednesday night, they will be wearing black armbands as a mark of respect to former Celt, Charlie Gallagher who sadly passed away at the weekend at the age of 80.

Respect was something Charlie had in spades from his former Celtic team-mates and when your team-mates were the Lisbon Lions, that means you were part of a special group as you could never be a ‘former Lisbon Lion’.

That distinct camaraderie between the Lions has made Charlie’s passing all the more poignant and his former team-mate and fellow Lisbon Lion, Jim Craig spoke emotively of his friend.

Jim said: “There was in actual fact that special camaraderie between the Lions, it was maybe one of those things that comes along every few years. For instance, if you went to a restaurant or came down for breakfast at the team hotel, you just sat at the nearest table with whoever was there.

“There were no cliques or anything like that at all in the Lions, so Charlie was a pal to everybody, and for that he will be remembered.”

It was a camaraderie that went beyond the normal fellowship between team-mates – after all it endured the passing decades and emerged as good as new every single time the group got together over the years, and is still there over five-and-half decades later.

Jim added: “That special Lions camaraderie has endured, and I've kept in touch with Charlie’s wife, Mary over the past few years just to make sure that when he went into hospital that everything was okay.

“Back in our playing days he was the type of inside-forward that lay a wee bit deep and sprayed wonderful passes all over the field. By that time as well, it was important for them to mark the man in front of them, and that was not Charlie’s forte, but that was more than compensated for by the fact that he had this wonderful touch on the ball with both feet.

“He could just strike a pass at any distance any time he wanted, and he certainly did a few of those for Celtic.

“His forte was making sure that both wings were brought into play and that the centre-forwards got a good service. When he played he certainly provided that.

'And as he proved once or twice, he was also pretty good a taking a corner as well – and finding the head of certain captain on a couple of very famous occasions.'

That ‘couple of very famous occasions’ were his corners providing goals for Billy McNeill in the 1965 Scottish Cup final, and the 1967 European Cup quarter-final – both vital and pivotal goals in the history of the club, something that Charlie would’ve loved as much as a Celtic supporter as he did as a player.

Jim said: “He was a great Celtic supporter from early childhood and the great thing that happened to him later on in his career because of the ruling re parents coming from a different country, he managed to a get a couple of caps for the Republic of Ireland.

“He was absolutely delighted about that, really over the moon because he was a regular visitor to Ireland from childhood. The Irish fans knew that he had this Irish connection and he was one of their favourites. That was a wonderful way to top a career.

“I will miss him, I liked his company as he was great to chat to, and that’s important.

“He was a lovely man, Charlie, he was very quiet and he made himself a friend of everybody, there were never any bad moments with him.

“I was always very pleased to be in his company and that’s the biggest tribute you can pay somebody, that people were glad to be with them and you were happy to be in his company.

“He was certainly a very popular guy with all of the players and his passing came as a shock to us all.”

Jim Craig in tribute to Lisbon Lion team-mate Charlie Gallagher