A very youthful Celtic XI lost 2-1 away to Sligo Rovers tonight.
With Brendan Rodgers taking half a dozen prospects to the Algarve to train with the first team Darren O’Dea and Stephen McManus had to dig deep into the u-18 squad for tonight’s match.
A year ago Sligo were knocking Motherwell out of the UEFA Conference League, this season they are sitting in seventh place in the League of Ireland after 23 matches.
The home side raced into a two goal lead after just 25 minutes with Frank Livak and a Trialist scoring.
Ronan Ferns replaced Kyle Ure at half time, six minutes after the break Jude Bonnar pulled a goal back with a close range finish from a Magnus MacKenzie cross.
Lenny Agbhair, Hatton and Aidan Cannon replaced Robertson, Turley and Lewis Dobbie in the 58th minute with Hale replacing Ben Quinn three minutes later.
There was no equaliser but it seems that the Celtic XI got exactly the sort of test that they needed ahead of their first competitive match a week on Saturday away to Cumbernauld Colts.
??? #SLICEL Team News! ?
Here is how the young Hoops line-up for this evening’s friendly against @sligorovers ??#COYBIG? pic.twitter.com/9rykYREIst
— Celtic FC B (@CelticFCB) July 11, 2023
90’ FULL TIME
An entertaining game with two young sides playing good football throughout
Thanks to Celtic for coming over and congrats to all our young players on a fine performance
Next up is Cork City on Saturday here at The Showgrounds
ROV 2-1 CEL#bitored pic.twitter.com/2bAVYU6t6f
— Sligo Rovers (@sligorovers) July 11, 2023