Stevie Frail believes that a look around Goodison Park opened the door to Celtic’s 1-1 draw with Everton on Tuesday night.
The hoops coach was left frustrated by conceding an 80th minute equaliser but took compensation from the way Celtic’s u-21 side played in their opening match in the Premier League International Cup.
Two seasons ago Celtic found themselves 2-0 down after half an hour when they played Aston Villa with Frail making a vital change to the preparations before playing Everton.
“When we played at Villa Park a few seasons ago players had their phones out taking pictures,” the Celtic coach recalled. “They were at a ground they’d seen on Match of the Day and they were caught out in the first half hour.
“Against Everton we went along to the stadium in the morning, got our bearings, on and off the pitch. The boys were speaking with their groundstaff, had a look around the dressing room then when we came along in the evening we had our game-head’s on.
“Goodison is a great stadium and getting along on the morning of the match certainly helped us start on the front foot.”
Celtic set the tone from the first whistle and had enjoyed a few half chances before Filip Twardzik opened the scoring in the 27th minute.
After the break Everton came out looking for an equaliser but Leo Fasan wasn’t under any real pressure until Courtney Duffus scored in the 80th minute after a break down the Celtic left.
Celtic travel to Sunderland on December 18 with Frail hoping that the players can take plenty from their match with Everton into their domestic matches before heading to the Stadium of Light.
“We had a few really good performances,” Frail added reflecting on the performance against Everton. “The whole of the defence did well and set the tone- getting on the ball and putting in some crisp passes to get things going through the midfield.
“I’m really pleased with the performance but it’s tinged with a wee bit of disappointment at the result, with the effort that we put in for 60 to 70 minutes I feel that we’ve merited three points.
“We were out on our feet towards the end, we gave away a cheap goal, that was disappointing but I can’t fault the players effort. They’ve set a standard not only for this tournament but also domestically.
“We didn’t do so well in the second half but there wasn’t a failure in our side, the players have to take that performance and use it to advance their own careers towards the first team.”
Next Saturday Celtic travel to face Dundee United in the fourth round of the SFA Youth Cup, on the same day as the first team are in action at Motherwell.
