It should have been one of the highlights of his career but Lewis Toshney won’t forget his trip to Barcelona for other reasons.
A fortnight ago Celtic’s under-19 side lined up against their Barcelona counterparts full of confidence on the back of two emphatic wins over Manchester City.
In the home tie against Barca Celtic had acquitted themselves well but some slack defending helped Barcelona to a 3-1 win which flattered the visitors.
A win in Barcelona would have provided Celtic with a chance of qualifying for the next phase of the Next Gen Series but within five minutes of the kick-off it had all gone horribly wrong as the home side raced into a 2-0 lead.
Toshney and his team mates trudged off the pitch on the end of a 5-1 thrashing with a number of emotions running through their minds. Three days later the majority of the players lost two late goals to Hearts surrendering the initiative in the SPL to the Edinburgh side.
For ten days the players worked on the training ground to get put those set backs behind them with the hard work paying off on Wednesday night with a convincing 3-0 win over Marseilles to finish the Next Gen Series with nine points.
While the style of football was impressive the character shown by the players to bounce back from the defeat against Barcelona was just as heartening.
“We went to Barcelona on a high, we needed a result but never really got going,” Toshney recalled. “We lost two cheap goals very early on and let them dictate the play.
“The result was devastating, we knew we had to end this campaign on a high and I think that we did that.
“Against Marseilles we had something to prove, the boys had that eagerness to get on the ball, we passed it brilliantly, defended well and carved them open on several occasions.
“There’s no regrets about how the group has worked out. Maybe in Barcelona we should have tried a more containing game but they came at us from the start.
“We did the video analysis on the match, it was painful to watch and I don’t want to go through that ever again.
“The tournament has been brilliant for everyone. Some of the boys have had a taste of first team action and others like right-back Mikey Miller, whose only 16-years old was outstanding, for his age he was exceptional.
“Going to places like Marseilles, Barcelona and Man City is a great experience for everyone and a few of them were over in Rennes with the first team.
“Without being disrespectful to Scottish teams the Next Gen matches are at a totally different level. Barcelona are at a totally different level and just kept the ball for fun, it was unbelievable at times.”
Toshney was an ever present in last season’s double winning youth side and made a brief first team appearance in February as a substitute against Aberdeen.
Playing at Celtic Park means the world to the hoops mad defender who managed to finally find the net in front of his own personal fan club from Lochee.
“That was my first ever goal at u-19 level,” Toshney smiled. “Big Matty (Hughes) scored a few last season so it was great to finally score, especially at Celtic Park.
“All last season I was going up for corners so to finally score was brilliant. The head down from Marcus (Fraser) was perfect and my grandad was in the crowd to add to the feeling. It was a comfortable win and we’ll all take a lot from the match.”
The win against Marseilles was the first time that Toshney had played alongside Dylan McGeough although the two players are hardly strangers.
Last November McGeough ran the show in a 4-2 win for Rangers over Celtic at Barrowfield in a match that convinced Neil Lennon to make his move for the then Rangers star.
Against St Mirren McGeough marked his home debut with a stunning goal with Toshney delighted to see the midfielder back in the green side of the city.
“I knew Dylan as an u-12 when he was at Celtic then later on he left,” Toshney recalled. “He scored a cracker against us last season in a 4-2 defeat and ran the show that day.
“He’s an exceptional player and no one was really surprised by the goal that he scored against St Mirren, he’s that type of player.
“It was a big thing that he did moving to Rangers but everyone is delighted to see him back playing for Celtic. He’s settled in quickly and I’m sure that the fans will see a lot more of him in the first team.”
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