Celtic’s u-19 side begin the defence of the SFA Youth Cup at home to Kilmarnock today, kick-off 1pm at Lennoxtown.
Two Hampden cup wins over Rangers are still fresh in the memory of the current squad as they set out to create their own piece of history.
Only Jackson Irvine, Callum McGregor and the Twardzik twins, Filip and Patrik, from last season’s cup winner’s are in contention for today’s match with coach John Kennedy looking forward to the fresh challenge of a cup tie that has to be decided on the day.
“This is another competition that we want to progress in,” he admitted. “Cup ties can be dangerous games, if you don’t start it properly you can quickly find yourself out the competition.
“We won recently against Kilmarnock so we’ll go into this game full of confidence but you get nothing if you become complacent so it’s important that we show the right attitude and play as we can.
“We have plenty of options which will leave some players disappointed, they’ll feel hard done to but that’s the nature of football. You have to work away and take your chance when it comes along and Patrik (Twardzik) did that at Kilmarnock the other week.
“Our midfield is a strong department with a lot of competition. As a coach it can be tough trying to find the best combination which is great to have that rather than be struggling to put a team togethe.
“Midfield is a position that we’re particularly strong in, we’ve got good options and can change it during the game if we have to.”
Against Manchester City on Monday Celtic fielded a midfield five of John Herron, Callum McGregor, Jackson Irvine, Dylan McGeough and Paul George. With the Twatrdzik twins, Darnell Fisher, Lewis Kidd and Rhys Williamson also available the strength in depth is obvious.
Fisher and Bahrudin Atajic scored in midweek for the development squad in their 2-1 win over St Johnstone with Kennedy delighted with the progress and attitude of his players ahead of a busy schedule before the winter break.
The Celtic coach added: “Darnell has came in in the last couple of games, he started against Aberdeen and was also excellent in the development match against St Johnstone. He’s getting time on the pitch and that’s what players need.
“There are a lot of games coming up and competition for places, we’ve got good depth to the squad, we’ll need everybody ready to step in at anytime.”
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