Scottish champions Celtic avoided a second banana skin in the Champions League qualifier by overcoming Gibraltar's part-timers, the wonderfully-named Lincoln Red Imps, in comfortable fashion with a 3-0 victory at Celtic Park on Wednesday night. There was to be no repeat of the "Shock of Gibraltar" when the former European champions suffered a humiliating 1-0 first leg defeat by a team which included a customs officer, labourer, policeman and taxi driver.
New manager Brendan "Buck" Rodgers claimed there was "no embarrassment" in the first leg defeat, but he wasn't fooling anybody. Celtic fans were not amused. It was the most humiliating defeat in Celtic's long history, even worse than their shock loss to Inverness in the Scottish Cup back in 2000 which prompted the classic Sun headline "Super Caley Go Ballistic, Celtic Are Atrocious".
Rodgers still has plenty to do. Next week his team face a gruelling trip to Kazahkstan to face Astana on another artificial pitch. The manager said he was looking forward to it, but it didn't really sound like it when he remarked: "Apart from the six-hour flight, five-hour time difference, 35C heat and plastic pitch with no water, we should be alright."
Being the highest paid manager ever in Scottish history at £45,000 a week, Rodgers knows it won't take long for the fans to turn on him if results don't go their way.
Someone who might have some sympathy for Rodgers is former Celtic boss Gordon Strachan who also lost his first game in charge, thrashed 5-0 by Slovakian champions Artmedia Petrzalka in a Champions League qualifier in 2005.
It was definitely not the way Rodgers wanted to begin his new career with the Scottish champions since taking over from Ronny Deila. The defeat to a team of only five professionals put unnecessary pressure on the manager before the Scottish season really gets underway. But it will soon be forgotten if results go his way.
To his credit, Rodgers stood by his players after the first-leg farce, blaming the synthetic pitch in Gibraltar for the poor display.
But he has admitted the defence needs strengthening and he is looking to sign a central defender soon, presumably to replace the error-prone Efe Ambrose. His only other acquisition since joining Celtic in May is 19-year-old striker Moussa Dembele from Fulham.
Celtic have won the last five Scottish league titles, but for four of those seasons they didn't have Old Firm rivals Rangers to contend with as Gers had to wallow in the lower divisions after getting into a financial mess. Motherwell and Aberdeen did their best against the Bhoys, but were no match for their Glasgow rivals.
But Rangers are back, and judging from promising recent displays they could well provide Celtic with a much-needed challenge this season. And of course they knocked Celtic out of the Scottish Cup last season. It was interesting to see that among those on display for Rangers in a recent cup win over Annan were two familiar names, former Tottenham midfielder Niko Kranjcar and Joey Barton, coming off a successful season with Burnley. With his fiery temperament, it will be interesting to see how Barton handles the intense atmosphere in the matches against Celtic.
Many Scottish fans are happy at seeing the Old Firm doing battle once again as it just wasn't the same without Rangers. But others are less enthusiastic. They argue the Old Firm's dominance has not been healthy for Scottish football. The fact that either Celtic or Rangers have won the title for the past 31 years really says it all.
Rangers have been champions 54 times while Celtic have 47 titles. The last non-Old Firm team to win the title was Aberdeen back in 1985, managed by a gentleman called Alex Ferguson who is rumoured to have gone on to bigger things.
The Celtic job is Rodgers' fifth post as a manager. He had brief spells with Championship sides Watford and Reading, with few indications of what was to come. He left Reading in December 2009 under a cloud after a very unhappy six-month period.
However, his fortunes changed dramatically at Swansea City with whom he won promotion to the Premier League. More importantly he kept them there, even though they were favourites for relegation.
Under Rodgers, Swansea were noted for their attractive playing style with plenty of short passing. Despite his success at the Welsh club, it was something of a surprise when Rodgers was appointed by Liverpool. He apparently received a strong recommendation from Jose Mourinho who he had previously worked with at Chelsea as an assistant coach.
Rodgers' time at Liverpool was highlighted by a brilliant but ultimately frustrating 2013-14 season. Coming off a great run of 11 straight victories, with just three games to play Liverpool were five points clear. What's more, they were playing the most attractive football seen at Anfield since the "glory days" two decades earlier.
But then the wheels came off, the Reds finishing runners-up, two points behind Manchester City. Rodgers had almost done it, but "almost" is not good enough in football.
After a disappointing sixth place finish the following season at a club demanding success, Rodgers started feeling the pressure and by October of the 2015-16 season he was gone.
Although there are assorted Scottish cups being played at the moment, the real business doesn't begin for Celtic until their first Premier League game of the season on Aug 7, away to Hearts, one of the stronger teams they will face. That could prove another big tester for Buck Rodgers and his Bhoys.