Kristoffer Ajer and Jack Aitchison are in the Celtic Development side for tonight’s Irn Bru Cup tie with Annan Athletic at Cappielow.
Under the title of Celtic Colts the Development side are competing in the Challenge Cup for the first time with the revamped tourney also including teams from Northern Ireland Wales in the last 16.
Ajer was signed from Start of Norway by Ronny Deila but came under the watch of Brendan Rodgers who has been impressed by the way that the central midfielder has helped out in defence.
At the age of 16 Aitchison scored with his first touch on his top team debut against Motherwell after a successful season with the Celtic u-17 side. In a move away from last season’s rigid 4-2-3-1 formation Aitchison will be joined in attack by Calvin Miller.
Discussing the combination of winning with developing players McIntyre told the Celtic website: “Our young players want to get to the first-team and there have been one or two training with them under the manager.
“He has been really impressed by the young players that have come up so that’s good but obviously we want to progress as far as we can because we feel we need these types of games.
“We get it in the English Premier League International Cup and we get it in the UEFA Youth League so it’s one of many opportunities we have to develop our young players.”
CELTIC: Ross Doohan; Anthony Ralston, Jamie McCart, Sam Wardrop, Aidan McIlduff; Kristoffer Ajer, Joe Thomson; Aidan Nesbitt, Regan Hendry, Calvin Miller; Jack Aitchision
SUBS: Conor Hazard, Dan Higgins, Mark Hill, Theo Archibald, PJ Crossan, Mikey Johnston, Innes Murray
