by Joe McHugh
Two goal James Forrest was the star of today’s 4-0 win over St Johnstone for the Celtic u-19 side.
Forrest’s early season form has been recognised by Tony Mowbray who has called the 19-year-old up to join the squad travelling to Toronto to face Benfica on Wednesday.
It was a good co-ordinated team performance from Stevie Frail’s side against St Johnstone with Forrest adding an extra dimension that caught the eye.
Notionally playing wide on the right, he was happy to drop deep to take the ball off the central defenders, cut inside to add to the midfield or push up front to support the strikers.
DISTINCTIVE
I’ve only watched Forrest play a few times but his distinctive hunched running style isn’t the only stand out feature.
There’s a maturity and intelligence about his game, an awareness, to match his skill, pace and bravery that marks him down as someone to watch although graduation from youth football through to senior professional can be very fickle.
Forrest is clearly in the potential category with Frail honest in his praise without going overboard about the talented young Celt.
The Celtic coach said: “We’re all aware of what a good player James Forrest is, he has a long way to go but you can see that there is a wee sparkle to his game. People like seeing wingers and he goes at players.
“We’re glad to have him in our set up and we hope that he can progress. We ask him to come in off the wings and mix things up a bit, he can go at players and has good pace. James can also play through the middle or off the strikers. He can play in a variety of positions.”
INJURY
Forrest missed the majority of last season through injury but returned at the tail end of the campaign to score in his reserve team debut at Celtic Park against Dundee United.
Frail added: “It’s good to have him back after missing most of last season, I’d just arrived at the club when he scored a fabulous goal for the reserves. When I arrived people mentioned to me to look out for James.”
Forrest wasn’t the only Celt to impress against St Johnstone who competed well for most of the game but failed to carry any real threat to the Celtic defence.
STARK
Celtic opened the scoring in the 23rd minute through Ritchie Towell who timed his run perfectly to the back post to net from Jordan Louden’s pass.
Watching the match was Scotland u-21 boss Billy Stark who made scoring goals like that a feature of his career.
Four minutes from half-time Forrest doubled Celtic’s lead after a brilliant pass from Luca Santanocito split the St Johnstone defence wide open, Forrest latched onto the pass, side stepped the keeper and confidently planted the ball in the net.
New Bhoy Greig Spence, signed from Alloa, scored Celtic’s third in the 76th minute from close range with Forrest completing the scoring in the final minute from the penalty spot.
Looking at his side’s early season form Frail said: “We’ve got good players, we’re building on the work that has been done before. There are a lot of good players here and my job is to progress them into the manager’s plans.
“At Celtic we need to win but the emphasis and focus has to be on development. If we win the league but don’t produce players then we’re not doing our job.
“We have to marry together developing players with winning. Development is the emphasis and that’s to produce players for the SPL and the Champions League. By developing players properly you should be able to do that with a winning mentality.”
CELTIC: Giordano; Toshney (Hughes) D Gallagher, G Gallagher, Brennan; Forrest, Towell, Santonocito, Lowden; Spence, Keatings
GOALS Towell 23, Forrest 41 & 89, Spence 76
