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Frail looks for players to display the mentality of champions

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Stevie Frail newsThe disappointment was obvious all around the away dressing room at Victoria Park, Newtongrange on Tuesday night.

A 2-1 defeat from Hearts was bad enough but with four games left to play Celtic are opening up the race for the u-20 title although they can still clinch the championship by winning all of their remaining matches.

On Tuesday night the hurt and disappointment ran deeper following a performance that didn’t belong to a team that looked in control of the league flag.

In previous campaigns Stevie Frail’s side have found an extra gear at this stage of the season to build a momentum that disheartened challengers as they fell by the wayside.

Back in 2011 Celtic won six away matches in 20 days to take the title but after back-to-back defeats from Hibs and Hearts the outcome of this season’s championship is far from certain with Hibs and Sevco also eyeing up the prize.

“We have to win this league,” Frail admitted afterwards. “As individuals it’s about development, about getting into the first team but to be good enough to get into our first team you have to win the league.”

Victoria Park is a perfect junior ground, tight and well maintained but not the best for developing football skills with short passing ruled out on a bobbly surface.

A more direct approach was needed but Denny Johnstone and Holmbert Fridjonsson got little out of the Hearts defence while Jamie Walker cracked in two opportunist goals before Joe Thomson came up with a late ‘consolation’.

“We slightly changed our shape due to conditions, we knew the pitch would be fiery but we just never coped with it,” Frail added. “Hearts thoroughly deserved to win.

“You have to learn to do your own job and we didn’t do that, it’s something that they have to, and we have to do as a group.

“We have a lot to work on in training for the next match, we know that you can’t guarantee performances but we were second best and that’s not something we’ve said before about this team.”

Celtic seemed to be in the driving seat after beating Sevco and Motherwell but those back-to-back defeats have left the door open for the other sides to eye up the title.

“The win at Murray Park, the first game at that level for a few years was a great result, it was a win but we bossed the game,” Frail highlighted. “Anyone that watched that night would say we have good players but it’s not just about an isolated game.

“In the two matches since then we’ve been really disappointing, we don’t set out out to draw matches but even when the conditions aren’t great and you’re not playing well you have to make sure that you don’t lose.”

One crumb of comfort from Tuesday night was the way that substitutes Thomson and Kieran Tierney combined for the goal with the full back pitching in a perfect cross for Thomson to header powerfully into the net.

Both players will be in Amsterdam this week as the u-17 side take part in the Aegon Futures Cup where Celtic have been drawn alongside Ajax, Liverpool and Corinthians.

While their contribution is important for the u-20 side both bhoys will continue to double dunt between the u-17 and u-20 teams.

“Joe has been involved a lot this season in the league and more so in the Champions League, he has scored a lot of goals.” Frail added. “It was a brilliant cross from young Kieran and Joe attacked it really well for our goal, he likes to get forward and beyond strikers while Kieran is very young and looking good for next season.

“At Academy and youth level the u-20’s is the pinnacle but the u-16’s and u-17’s work hard and have a big tournament at the weekend. We want them to go with as strong a squad as possible.

“Joe and Kieran will be back on Monday night and we’ll have a look at them on Tuesday before completing our plans for the Falkirk match.”

Celtic host Falkirk at Cappielow on Tuesday, kick off 7pm, before completing the season away to St Mirren and Dundee United either side of a visit from Sevco to Lennoxtown.

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