Tony Watt took just four minutes to notch his debut Celtic goal and enjoyed it so much that he scored his second three minutes later.
The 18-year-old from Coatbridge made one of the most dramatic debuts in Celtic’s history to liven up a tame end of season affair at Fir Park which had goal-less draw stamped all over it.
Drifting into the penalty box from the left Watt volleyed Victor Wanyama’s cross low into the net off keeper Darren Randolph.
Four minutes later he was drilling a low drive past Randolph before sprinting away to soak up the adulation of the visiting fans who were still celebrating his first goal with the ‘Tony, Tony Stokes’ song switched to ‘Tony, Tony Watt’.
Football is notorious for the way that fate plays it’s hand with Watt’s debut mainly down to a red card that he picked up three weeks ago when Celtic’s u-19 side beat St Mirren 4-1 in the semi-final of the SFA Youth Cup.
Watt scored twice to put Celtic in front but was harshly given a second yellow card for confronting a Saints defender after setting up Celtic’s fourth goal of the day for John Herron.
That red card rules him out of tomorrow’s SFA Youth Cup Final at Hampden but a goalscoring first team debut should make up for that.
Watt has been the main striker for John Kennedy’s youth side this season with 22 goals to his name including goals home and away to Barcelona in the Next Gen Series.
In the autumn of 2010 Watt was in demand after making a big impact for Airdrie’s first team that brought the offer of trials from Liverpool, Celtic and Rangers.
Celtic won the chase for the then 16-year-old who scored his first goal for the youth side in a 3-0 win over Rangers at Murray Park last April.
Last month Watt scored four times in the first half of a 5-2 win for Celtic’s u-19’s against Motherwell as Kennedy’s side powered in on the title.
With his powerful running and eye for goal it’s likely that the name Watt will be in the headlines for some time to come.
A star is born ? I’ll certainly be keeping my fingers crossed.
Why have stewards at games, at half-time or subs were warming and 2 of our coloured players had to undergo MOTHERWELL fannies doing the MONKEY signs no warnings given but police came to Celtic end looking for Palistine flag it was political they never found it
That’s sickening. Monkey noises are fine, but we’re going to arrest you for waving a countries flag. How can it possibly be illegal to have a Palestinian flag ? It seems to be a big problem in Scotland that a lot of the ‘authorities’ are idiots. Do any of them even know their own rules or do they just make them up as they go along ?
Absolutely delighted for the young lad, he showed the appetite / desire to make things happen which was missing from more experienced players.
I’m sure this will give him & his teammates all the incentive they need to work even harder in future to enjoy more days like today.
None of the lads who have featured to date have looked out of place which speaks volumes for the excellent work done at the younger levels.
I am so excited as this Celtic squad is a very young but gifted one and could dominate scottish football for years to come.