Shamed Euan Norris faces the television cameras tomorrow in his first big appointment since failing to spot Leigh Griffiths sensational ‘goal’ for Hibs against Hearts.
Norris has been dropped down the divisions and kept away from the high profile fixtures since his Easter Road howler made Scottish football a laughing stock with pictures showing that Griffiths’ shot was almost a yard over the goal-line before bouncing back into play.
Neil Lennon will push the phony controversy of the Player of the Year vote to one side as he begins the build up to the Scottish Cup Final against Hibs next month.
Kris Commons, Efe Ambrose, Joe Ledley and Kelvin Wilson are all on holiday giving the Celtic boss the opportunity to make a number of changes particularly in central defence.
Thomas Rogne played for Celtic’s title winning u-20 side at Inverness on Wednesday and could be given another first team chance but with contract talks stalled Lennon may look to put Charlie Mulgrew and Victor Wanyama together to combat the threat of Michael Higdon.
In midfield Tom Rogic and Dylan McGeouch will be keen to impress knowing that Wanyama and Beram Kayal are suspended from the cup final with a huge question mark over the fitness of Scott Brown.
The last time that Lennon was in a similar position was in February where he rested half a dozen regulars at Inverness before the Champions League clash with Juventus.
In that occasion Rogne was partnered in defence by Marcus Fraser with Rami Gershon making a scoring debut with most supporters delighted by the show of strength from the fringe players.
The remaining fixtures could prove to be a damp squib but with a cup final to aim for there are no shortage of incentives for the players to target.
CELTIC at Inveness CAaley Thistle: F Forster, N Miku, B Kayal, A Stokes, M Fraser, T Rogic, T Rogne, D McGeouch, K Commons (Chalmers 45), R Gershon (Matthews 65), P McCourt (Watt77)
SUBS: Zaluka, Herron, Atajic, Lassad
If we can’t use the remaining games to give much needed first team experience to several youngsters then it really is a poor show. Very few of the young guns have ever let the side down while it would be completely pointless giving game time to some who are clearly destined for the exit door.
Get the likes of McGeough, Watt, Rogic in from the start….if young Keatings is showing signs of returning to his pre-injury sharpness get him on the park. Twardcik, Herron are others more than deserving of a starting slot.
Yes let the young Bhoy show what thy can do
Well Tony Watt certainly showed more than a few up today…if he doesn’t get the nod ahead of others then something is badly wrong.
How we can waste a jersey giving it to Rogne again, then to compund matters by asking Samaras & Kayal to cover our attacking fullbacks….suicide, little wonder Motherwell ran amok down the wings. Send some more on holiday and don’t hurry back, I can take a lot more of the attitude shown by Watt than the garbage shown by others.