McIntyre: There's more to come from McMullan

Tommy McIntyre believes that there’s much more to come from Paul McMullan.

The young striker scored a hat-trick in Celtic’s 3-2 win over Dinamo Kiev yesterday and will lead the line against Benfica today in the Spartak Moscow Cup.

Yesterday’s win against Dinamo Kiev leaves Celtic in third place on 4 points behind Barcelona (7) and Spartak (5) but a point ahead of Dinamo Kiev, Spurs and Benfica.

McMullan shows a great touch and awareness outside the penalty box but has been challenged to become more ruthless in front of goal.

“Paul still has to work on his finishing, I think there is more to come from him,” coach Tommy McIntyre said. “That’s pleasing after he’s scored three goals against Dinamo Kiev, a top European team.

“Without doubt it could have been more, we could have scored a lot more than three with the number of chances we created. I’d like us to be a bit more ruthless.

“When you get to the top end of the game the margins are fine, you might just get one chance in a game and you must take it.

“We scored the goals yesterday and if we had taken some of the chances against Spartak and Barcelona it could make the difference between winning a tournament and not.

”We were well deserving of our win against Kiev, I watched Spartak and Barcelona draw 0-0, it was a top class game and I felt that we should have taken something from the match with Barcelona.

“It was great to get a win over Kiev and now everyone is looking forward to playing Benfica.”

The schedule of a game a day has been demanding of the players and coaching staff involved with the full squad utilised and long days for the staff involved including Ian Coll, Dave Clark and Hugh McGovern.

On the park the players are thriving with McIntyre balancing the desire to win alongside the benefits of being involved against top quality opponents at the first stage in the players careers.

“The fitness levels are great, I thought that a game a day would have been really difficult but the players seem to be recovering quickly,” the hoops coach added.

“This tournament is about development, we’re up against the best in Europe and it’s great to be involved at this level.

“The young players want to do well but we want to look at the benefits they’ll gain in future from playing against top youth teams- hopefully one day they’ll be playing against these clubs at first team level.

“It’s important to be at these tournaments, players are forever learning outside their comfort zone.

“Our staff are up at seven in the morning then not getting to bed till midnight. We’ve got to prepare for a match then get ready for the next one, watching a dvd of our match and then analysing the team that we are playing against.

“It’s full on despite the games only being 30 minutes each way- everything surrounding the matches is draining and also exciting. It’s a first class tournament, Spartak have put things together very well and we’re delighted to be part of it.”

CELTIC v Dinamo Kiev (3-2): Hart: Barrowman, Breslin, McDonagh, Waters: Thomson, Henderson, McManus: McLaren (McIlduff 60), McMullan, Donnelly (Donnelly 60)

CELTIC v Barcelona (0-1): Hart: Eadie (McDough 36), Barrowman, Breslin, Waters: Thomson, Henderson, McManus: Donnelly, McManus, Nesbit (McIlduff 36)