Celtic’s Development Team complete their pre-season build up away to East Fife tomorrow night, kick-off 7.45pm.
Stevie Frail takes his squad through to Bayview following pre-season fixtures in Inverness, Ireland and at the FA showpiece training centre of St George’s Park where they lost 2-0 to Fulham on Saturday.
While losing to Fulham Darnell Fisher, Calum Waters, John Herron and Callum McGregor were on first team duty against Borussia Moenchengladbach.
Most coaches look for some sort of consistency of selection at this stage of pre-season but Frail has a different task with all of their efforts geared towards feeding the first team squad with ready made players
“We have to try and harness a team spirit but the nature of this job is to develop players into the first team plan,” the Celtic coach explained.
“You can see that in the team sheets for the first team over the last few weeks and hopefully that can continue.
“We’re constantly telling the players that they never know when they are likely to get a chance with the first team, whether that’s in a pre-season match or just training with the top team. They are always being watching and assessed.”
Frail added: “We were lacking a bit of sharpness against Fulham, there was a hazy sunshine about and we weren’t at our best.
“The facilities down at St George’s Park are first class and we’ve been down there a few times, we’ve played three games there and were based there for the Aston Villa match in the Next Gen Series last season.
“Monaco were there at the same time as us which tells you all you need to know about the place.
“It’ll be totally different for the players at East Fife on Tuesday and one we’ll adapt for.
“The competitive season starts next week and we’re ready for it- regardless of which players are involved.”
CELTIC: Trialist: Hoareau, O’Connell, Findlay, McIlduff: McManus (Thomson), Kidd, Lindsay: McMullan (Nisbet), Johnstone, George (Donnelly)
SUBS: Hart, Kelleher
