Two days after their first team outing in Helsinki, Celtic’s development side found themselves back at Cappielow kicking off the domestic campaign.
A 1-1 draw with St Mirren will have done little to impress Ronny Deila who watched from the stand as St Mirren took the lead in the 52nd minute before substitute Joe Thomson equalised 22 minutes later.
Eight of Stevie Frail’s starting XI had played at some stage against Spurs with Deila leaving the first team squad at home to prepare for tomorrow’s match against Legia Warsaw.
In the most demanding of circumstances Callum McGregor and Liam Henderson have set the benchmark for aspiring first team players with few of last night’s side taking the chance to impress the new manager.
“Listen, some of them played 65 or 80 minutes against Spurs and if I had left them out because they had played on Saturday they would have said ‘I’m fit to play’, ” Frail said afterwards. “They can’t feel sorry for themselves, we are a massive club and sometimes you only get one or two opportunities to impress.
“Some of them got that on Saturday, tonight there was a perfect chance for them to reinforce that and I think that a lot of them let themselves down with their performance, especially in the second half.”
On the positive side of things Aidan Nesbitt, last season’s match winner in the Glasgow Cup Final, caught the eye with his impressive wing play.
The 17-year-old wasn’t afraid to take on his marker, former Celt Mo Yaqub, and delivered some telling crosses into the penalty box as well as tormenting Yaqub.
“Aidan was like an old fashioned winger,” Frail added. “In training and games over the last few weeks he has been in great form. As well as his natural ability we work on how he reacts when we lose the ball and he is very switched on to that.
“He took confidence from his first run and just wanted to keep going at him after that. He is working on his end product, to pick someone out rather than just cross and that is an area that is improving. With maturity and game time, confidence other things will fall into place.”
The Celtic goal was scored by Thomson who netted less than ten minutes after coming onto the park.
Thomson has the priceless gift of getting into the penalty box at just the right moment with Frail pleased to see the impact that the substitute made on the match.
“When you have Joe on the bench you know that you have a goal threat,” the hoops coach added. ” He has a lot of energy, when the ball goes forward his first thought is to get up in support.
“We need a bit more discipline from him, he can’t just go charging around, he needs to slow down and we are working on that.
“He could maybe have got a second goal with a bit of composure, he took his goal well and that’s a great quality for any midfielder to have.”
CLICK HERE for last night’s match report