Bahrudin Atajic raised his domestic goal tally to 11 from 9 games with a double in Celtic’s 4-0 win over Dundee tonight.
The on-form striker scored Celtic’s first and fourth goals of the night in-between strikes from Lewis Kidd and Rabui Ibrahim.
Atajic has taken on the baton previously held by Tony Watt, James Keatings and Greig Spence as Celtic chase their fourth consecutive youth double although this is the first time that the competition is at u-20 level.
Atajic joined Celtic almost three years ago but found his progress cut short by a bad injury collected scoring against Rangers at Barrowfield in March 2010.
The 2010/11 and 2011/12 seasons followed a similar pattern with flashes of quality matched to an inability to hold down a regular spot with the main goal threat coming from Watt and Keatings playing as sole strikers.
This season however has been different with Atajic carrying the main goal threat and showing great link up play to spearhead the team with his stunning equaliser away to Hearts in the SFA Youth Cup one of many highlights.
Goals in each of the opening three matches, against St Mirren, Motherwell and Hamilton Accies laid down a marker before a great hat-trick in the 3-2 win over Dundee United at Firhill.
The scoring run continued with the only goal of the match away to Aberdeen before Hearts finally stopped Atajic with a 0-0 draw against a Celtic side led by Lassad Nouioui.
Atajic missed out on the 2-1 defeat from St Johnstone to play in a development squad match against Sunderland but was on target with the equaliser against Hearts in the SFA Youth Cup before setting up Jamie Lindsay for the winner.
Against Dunfermline he was the provider for Jack Kirwan to score the only goal of the game but missed out on last week’s 1-0 win over Falkirk because he was in the first team squad to face Barcelona.
Neil Lennon has included the 19-year-old in a few first team squads this season but has yet to name Atajic as a substitute. That could change this weekend with Celtic’s striking options limited and the match with Benfica on the horizon.
Gary Hooper seems unlikely to be risked, Miku has an international date with Nigeria in Miami and Tony Watt has pulled out of the Scotland u-21 squad after taking a knock against St Johnstone.
By tea-time on Saturday it may be more than just youth team followers that are in the know about the vision, delivery and goals of Bahrudin Atajic.
YOUTH TEAM ROLL OF HONOUR 2012/13
Celtic 1-0 St Mirren: Atajic
Motherwell 1-3 Celtic: Atajic, Fisher, Johnstone
Celtic 4-1 Hamilton Accies: Atajic 2, P Twardzik, Johnstone
Celtic 3-2 Dundee United: Atajic 3
Aberdeen 0-1 Celtic: Atajic
Hearts 0-0 Celtic
Celtic 1-2 St Johnstone: Miller
Hearts 1-2 Celtic: Atajic, Lindsay
Celtic 1-0 Dunfermline: Kirwan
Celtic 1-0 Falkirk: George
Dundee 0-4 Celtic: Atajic 2, Kidd, Ibrahim
SCORERS: Atajic 11, Johnstone 2, P Twardzik, Fisher, Lindsay, Kirwan, George, Kidd, Ibrahim, MillerÂ
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He is certainly starting to look a player. Someone on the huddleboard posted a while back that he was going back to Malmo in January, can you confirm if this is true or not Joe? Thanks.
There was some talks about a loan move to Malmo at the end of last season to get some game time.
Whatever he did over the summer is certainly paying off!
Hope he gets a first team chance. I much prefer to see a youth player do well than a regular first team player.
He should have had a chance on Sunday. I don’t see why we don’t play these guys in home SPL games. If they are good enough they are old enough. Tony Watt, Adam Matthews and Vic Wanyama have proven this.