Stevie Frail has revealed that he was slaughtered by South African fans for substituting Aidan Nesbitt.
The 18-year-old finished last season with a hat-trick in the final of the SFA Youth Cup and scored twice against Partick Thistle on Monday night in the first Development League match of the season.
In-between times Nesbitt became a local hero at the Durban International Tourney where his skills on the ball and bravery went down a treat with the local supporters.
Within four days of arriving in Durban Celtic played against Arsenal and PSV Eindhoven with Frail public enemy No. 1 after substituting Nesbitt late on in the game against the Dutch side.
“I was getting booed in South Africa but I had to take him off,” Frail admitted. “He could hardly move, I had to substitute him and the supporters at the match were giving me dogs abuse.
“The South African fans loved him and he was feeding off their energy. The crowd really got behind us against PSV, they like to see flair and players taking their man on and Aidan certainly did that.”
Nesbitt had a quiet first half playing wide right on Monday against Partick Thistle but moved inside for the second half with Luke Donnelly, in his first outing for a month, substituted at the interval.
Celtic upped the tempo in the second period with Nesbitt scoring twice either side of Regan Hendry as Ronny Deila looked on from the stand at Cappielow.
“We know Aidan is a good player, he’s used to playing out wide but maybe the role inside behind the striker suits him better,” Frail added.
“At half time we took Luke Donnelly off and put Aidan into that area, he is really effective in there. He is a good finisher with a real eye for goal.
“The manager has got a lot of quality to pick from but Aidan trains every day with the first team. It can only help his development training and playing alongside, Forrest, Mackay-Steven, Commons and all the great midfielders at the club.
“He can’t fail to learn, he is young and has got plenty of time. He wants to get involved as quickly as he can but it’s important that we don’t push him too far too fast. He’ll get there in his own time, he trains alongside quality every day and is developing fast.”
Celtic’s Development side face Aberdeen (kick off 2pm) at Cappielow on Monday before facing Hibs on Thursday at Ainslie Park (kick off 2pm). On Saturday Celtic’s u-17 side play St Mirren at Barrowfield, kick off 2pm.
