New bhoy Dylan McGeogh scored a spectacular first goal for Celtic against St Johnstone ahead of his return to Murray Park to face Rangers on Saturday.
It takes a special type of character to switch directly from Rangers to Celtic with the 18-year-old adapting quickly to life at his new club.
McGeough has been singled out to be fast tracked towards the first team scene and put down an impressive marker with his goal against St Johnstone.
With Celtic 1-0 up from a disputed John Herron goal McGeough collected the ball just inside his own half with 73 minutes on the clock.
After evading one challenge and creating some space for himself the pitch opened up with only one thing on his mind. Sidestepping a despairing lunge from a midfielder he worked his way onto his left foot before delivering a low drive into the net from twenty yards out.
“He’s a clever player with a surge of pace that takes him by players,” John Kennedy explained. “He’s a creative player, he plays in the areas that are hard to pick up and is a real threat when he’s on the ball.
“It was only his second game for us but he scored a great goal and helped the team win.
“Dylan has a bit of character about him which is something that you need in this game. Sometimes the quieter types can fall by the wayside and aren’t noticed so much. There’s substance to Dylan and he uses it in the right manner, nothing fazes him, he wants to get on the ball and make things happen.
“We give the players a bit of freedom where they recognise each other’s movement. If you make things too rigid it makes you easy to play against.
“We try to create problems for the opposition and Dylan does that when he plays further up the park or drops off. He’s playing the role very well and it’s good to have him in the side.”
For much of the game Saturday’s match was as tight as the recent home draw with Motherwell.
After a goal-less draw Herron opened the scoring with a shot across the keeper that struck the woodwork and flashed across the line before being grabbed by the St Johnstone keeper.
Opinion at the match was mixed as to whether it had crossed the line but the referee was well placed to judge and the main protests from the St Johnstone team didn’t come from their goalkeeper.
Celtic notched up a gear after the break with Kennedy revealing that three of his players had missed training during the week due to illness.
“We had a few problems with illnesses and suspension,” the hoops coach added. “Marcus (Fraser) had an illness through the week, Michael Miller and John Herron also missed some training and Stuart Findlay was suspended.
“Marcus hadn’t trained for a few days but did fine. He probably played with half a tank but he got through the game.
“St Johnstone made it hard for us to play but we stuck by our guns. We tried to force the play and make things happen but for a lot of the first half it never worked out.
“We seemed to have something missing in the final third but in the second half it was a bit different. St Johnstone seemed to tire a bit, that gave us a chance to get on the ball and make things happen.
“The boys are learning all the time, I spoke to them before the match about finding consistency, they played very well in the last match against Hearts and we’re trying to keep that standard going.
CELTIC; Thomson, Miller, Irvine, Fraser, Chalmers; Herron ( Atajic 77), F Twardzik, Kidd, McGregor; McGeogh, Bogle (Watt 77)
SUBS: Daniels, Gormley, Williamson, Fisher
THIS SEASON’S SPL SCORERS: Watt 4, F Twardzik 3, Herron 3, Williamson 2, George 1, Atajic 1, Gormley 1, McGeough 1, McGregor 1, OG 1
