Dylan McGeough will make his youth team return tonight when Celtic complete their Next Gen campaign at home to Marseilles.
The midfielder scored a spectacular goal on first team duty against St Mirren and is more likely to be available to Neil Lennon than John Kennedy as the season advances.
McGeough has played just four and a half youth team matches which included both games against Manchester City where the young hoops hit top gear.
Marcus Fraser and Paul George have also sampled first team football this season with others such as Joe Chalmers and Callum McGregor hoping to showcase their ability tonight in front of Neil Lennon.
“We’ll have all the boys who’ve had a sniff at the first team available and we’re looking forward to the match,” Kennedy confirmed.
“Marseilles will be a great test for us and other than in the away match to Barcelona our players have stepped up and played well in this tournament, we’re looking for the same again.
“We felt that we deserved something away to Marseilles so we’d like to set that straight. If we finish the group with nine points that’ll be a good achievement and we want to finish on a high.
“The players have an opportunity to impress against a top side, their motivation shouldn’t have to come from the coaches or staff.
“We’ve got a busy time of it before Christmas, we’ve got the Next Gen game, a cup tie with Dunfermline on Sunday and league matches with Rangers and St Mirren. It’s a big time for us and we want to win all these matches.”
Celtic’s qualification hopes came to a shuddering halt when they lost 5-1 away to Barcelona in a game where no-one did themselves justice.
Three days later they lost the initiative in the SPL when two late goals gave Hearts full points at Barrowfield.
After eight straight wins those defeats came as a body blow to the players but Kennedy has been encouraged by their reaction in training over the last ten days.
The hoops coach added: “Learning is the most important thing. If the players had come away from those two defeats thinking that they couldn’t have done anything differently then there would be something wrong. That’s not what we’re looking for.
“We’ve spoken with them, gone over things, gave them our thoughts on what went wrong and why they didn’t perform as they can. Hopefully the players will pick up from that and become better for the experience.
“In football you are only as good as your last game and hopefully we can put on a good performance and get back on track. When they do work hard as a team and play as they can we are a good side.”
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