Darnell Fisher put in a typically impressive performance in his competitive Celtic debut as Neil Lennon’s side drew 1-1 with Hibs at Easter Road.
Having caught the attention of the Celtic boss in pre-season the 19-year-old was given his first team chance due to injuries to Adam Matthews and Mikael Lustig and looked perfectly at ease alongside team-mates who were almost all on international duty in midweek.
It’s unlikely that Fisher will be called on to face Ajax on Tuesday but with doubts over the fitness of Lustig and Matthews absent for three months Lennon knows that he has a more than able deputy ready to step into the side without any fuss.
Fisher himself is only recently back from injury and has been playing at left-back in the u-20 side due to an injury to Callum Watters.
Playing a little further forward than his three defensive partners the new bhoy barely put a foot wrong, pushing forward impressively in support of the attackers and was never outsmarted defensively.
Fisher took a rather exotic route to Glasgow coming to the attention of the Jimmy Johnstone Academy in a match against Reading based Eldon Celtic.
After signing in the summer of 2010 he became a regular in the u-17 side before starting to make in-roads as a central midfielder into the u-19 side in the 2011/12 season.
Following the winter break he was tried at right-back and never looked back with his powerful tackling matched by his ability to pound up and down the right flank with the season ending with another youth double clinched in an 8-0 route of Queen of the South in the Hampden final of the SFA Youth Cup.
As many other young prospects have already found out the competition for places in the modern game is intense. Two years ago Dylan McGeouch scored a great solo goal against St Mirren but now finds himself behind Nir Biton, Tom Rogic and Liam Henderson in Lennon’s plans.
Circumstances will dictate Fisher’s future- hopefully it’ll be at Celtic as he attempts to become the first player to come through the Academy to become a first team fixture- just like today’s goalscorer James Forrest.
This lad looks the real deal get him on a long term contract asap
Agree with Andy fantastic prospect.
I agree too. He looked like he was a first team regular. He also took a couple of hard hits as they didn’t like him running at them.
I remember a tough tackling r/b that played for us in the 70s .Danny McGrain was his name.I’m not sayin he’s as good as DM ………but the in the future ???The young bhoy done good,love his appetite!
The physical abuse that lad had to put up with yesterday, with next to no protection from match officials, was obscene.
HH
Have to be honest and say its the first time I’ve seen the Bhoy play but I was mightily impressed at his composure on the ball and his movement off it. Cracking prospect!