Celtic’s youth side turned in their best performance of the season to beat Rangers 3-0 at Murray Park and take a massive step towards retaining the SPL title.
Early goals from Callum McGregor and Tony Watt gave Celtic a grip on the match with Patrik Twardzik completing the scoring early in the second half.
Goalkeeper Nick Feely had little trouble keeping a clean sheet as Stevie Frail’s side gained full revenge for their only defeat of the season when they lost 4-2 at home to Rangers in November.
Celtic are now just one point behind Hearts with two games in hand with the Edinburgh side completing their campaign at home to Rangers and away to Celtic who have to visit St Mirren, Motherwell and Inverness Caley Thistle before the final fixture with Hearts.
“We played very well to take all three points from a very tough venue,” Frail admitted. “The manner of the performance was very satisfying.
“In the first half we played some great stuff and after the break we were very professional. Our approach was spot on.
“You have to be very guarded when you get an early two goal lead, there was still 75 minutes to go. If Rangers had got the next goal the momentum could have swung their way but thankfully we go a third early in the second half and kept control.”
There was a blow for Celtic before the match with news that top scorer James Keatings will miss the rest of the season after picking up a knee injury in the 3-2 win over Hamilton on Saturday.
Patrik Twardzik replaced Keatings to form a five man midfield with Kieran Brennan returning at left-back in place of Jordan Lowdon.
Former Airdrie striker Tony Watt was picked as the sole striker and responded magnificently with his best performance since joining Celtic in January.
Celtic set the early pace and were rewarded in the fifth minute when Callum McGregor latched onto a weak pass-back from Darren Cole to reach the ball before Wayne Drummond and loop his shot over the keeper into the net from 18 yards out.
The visitors were dominating the match and it was no surprise when Watt doubled the lead in the 15th minute.
Racing onto a ball out of midfield Watt held the ball up well waiting for support to arrive but found a yard of space to drill a low drive beyond Drummond.
Stephen O’Donnell and Filip Twardzik both came close to adding to Celtic’s lead with the visitors dominating the midfield and pushing forward at every chance.
Watt was taking up positions all across the front line and carved out the decisive third goal seven minutes into the second half.
Tracking the ball down towards the right corner flag he turned his marker two or three times before delivering a cross deep into the Rangers penalty box. Patrik Twardzik controlled the ball with his back to goal then turned quickly to shoot past Drummond from 12 yards out.
The outcome was never in any doubt after that with Celtic enjoying long periods of possession as they moved to a point behind Hearts with two games in hand.
On Saturday Celtic travel to St Mirren on the back of three consecutive away wins with Frail ready to turn the focus towards the buddies after enjoying the elation of a derby success.
He added: “We could easily have said ‘see you on Thursday’ but we’ll have them back in tomorrow.
“St Mirren on Saturday is now the most important match of our season and that’s the approach that we have to take. We’ll give that match the exact same emphasis and approach.”
CELTIC: Feely; O’Donnell, Hughes, Toshney, Brennan; McGregor, Bagshaw, Irvine, F Twardzik, P Twardzik; Watt
SUBS: Thomson, Lowdon, Jones, Spence (Watt 82), Atajic (McGregor 85), Fraser, Gormley
RANGERS: Drummond, McAusland, McIntyre, Cole, Heggarty, McCabe, Mitchell, Dick, Naismith, Crawford
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Hi Joe, how is the Aussie kid Jackson Irvine doing? Does he have a touch of class or just run of the mill player?
Jackson had a fantastic game in centre midfield today.
He’s made an impact, a bit raw in some early games but improving game by game.
Great to see him get his first goal on Saturday against Hamilton and playing a big role in a 3-0 win away to Rangers will do him the world of good.
To get to Celtic you have to be special and I think that next season’s u-19s are going to be very impressive with Jackson, Callum McGregor, Paul George, John Herron, Marcus Fraser and Joe Chalmers all pushing themselves further and further.
Fantastic result once again for the Bhoys. A lovely sunny day for a game, if a bit cool and windy, I thought the team to a man played very well with possibly the three best being Irivine (won everythin in midfield), Filip T (kept Kal Naismith quiet and was a constant threat) and Watt (strong, hard working, fast and skilful). Though, as I say, several others had a fine game too. On this form, I’d be happy to see any of the lads step up to Neil’s team.
well done bhoys, once again doing the celts proud, hopefully some of these bhoys can step up to the 1st team eventually as im sure some will if they keep playing like this. hail hail