Loan bhoy Tony Ralston has had a week that he won’t forget in a hurry.
Six days ago talks were progressing about a loan deal to Queens Park pitting him into the real world of senior football at the coalface of the game.
Fixtures with Annan Athletic, Elgin City and Montrose awaited as he supplemented his training at Celtic with first team football under Gus MacPherson.
Within a week of moving to Hampden he’s enjoyed a derby win away to Clyde, been selected for the SPFL Team of the Week and helped dump Championship high flyers Dumbarton out of the Petrofac Training Cup.
A goal from former Celt Joe Bradley did the damage in extra time last night to put some sparkle into the early season form of the Hampden side.
Speaking ahead of lst night’s cup tie MacPherson said: “Tony had an outstanding first game and we are grateful to Chris McCart and Celtic for their help in getting him here on-loan. Chris told me that nothing would faze Tony and he was right.
“He only came in to meet us on Thursday and was up for the challenge of first team football despite not even having played a lot of under-20 games. Clyde had a lot of experienced players on the pitch however Tony handled that well and he is very much in my plans to face a Dumbarton side that have made a great start to the season.”
On Saturday Queens travel to Arbroath who are likely to include former Celt Jordan Lowdon.
