Pre-Match Session: Watt’s The Story? – Big Cup Glory!”

So Celtic face probably their biggest game in five years with an interesting dilemma. Do they start the tried and tested likes of Samaras and Commons in the attacking roles, or do they keep faith in 18 year old Tony Watt? I would go for the latter.

Celtic should approach this game without fear. We have a two goal lead, and scoring another goal would leave Helsingborgs in deep trouble, as a result we should play the clubs’ natural finishers, namely Tony Watt and Gary Hooper.

The way two combined at times on Saturday was excellent, reminiscent of the Stokes and Hooper partnership when it was at it’s best. Watt also obviously benefited from Hooper encouraging him and giving him advice during the game.

Even though I feel that Georgios Samaras has a ‘maverick’ quality that is not found in any other member of the Celtic squad, being a natural finisher is not one of them, whereas Watt seems to have that quality in abundance.

If we look at Watt’s first goal on Saturday, it was almost identical to Samaras’ chance in Helsingborgs last week. The difference is, Watt took his chance with aplomb, whilst Samaras, as he often does when he has too much time, fired his shot wide of the post.

His second goal was a finish of sheer instinct, the fact he kept up with play and was hungry for the ball showed an aspect that some players at Celtic don’t seem to have. He doesn’t seem interested in scoring the perfect goal, any goal will do, and that’s always a good sign.

I’m not saying that Tony Watt is THE FUTURE of Celtic, and many young players have crashed and burned at Celtic after promising starts, but Watt seems to have a chance of a good career ahead of him. Neil Lennon knows that he will have to keep his feet on the ground, but I feel to get the job done early on Wednesday and avoid yet another tense night in Europe Watt has to start.