The Ange Postecoglou era gets off to a winning start then.
Friendly matches are usually just that. Friendly. There’s never much to learn from them. And the quality of the opposition wasn’t the best today, and the team is still getting up to speed. Even accounting for all of that, one or two things were obvious.
Albian Ajeti was determined to seize the moment, and he did with a goal. The new boy Liam Shaw is a big lad who also happens to have a flash or two of real skill about him, and it’s obvious why Wednesday are gutted to lose him. And we have one or two excellent prospects in the youth setup who deserve further opportunities to shine.
Head and shoulders above them all was Owen Moffat, a kid I’ve heard quite a bit about but never actually seen up until today. I told my old man at the start that he was going to be one to watch and not only did he impress but he scored an excellent goal.
I enjoyed that today, in spite of a commentary team who sounded like they’d stuck a couple of Quaaludes in the pre-match coffee and maybe the worst cameraman since the guy who missed the second half of the 7-1 game.
The team fought hard, which is rare enough in a pre-season game, but a few people showed us a thing or two which we hadn’t expected.
Moffat would probably have found himself in the squad come what may, but when you consider that a player – any player – who gets a chance has to grab it, he’s certainly taken advantage of James Forrest being left at home for this one.
It’s early to be making big predictions but he lived up to the stuff I’ve been hearing today and a couple of others showed it as well. I would have liked to have seen more of Connell. It would have been good if the big defender had played at some point.
It would have been good to have seen a few more signings out on the park … unbelievable that we’d not done further business yet.
But that opens the door for these players to stake their claim … and we’ll see this kid Moffat again on this tour, and in the next few matches. If he can replicate todays display in the other games, there’s no reason he can’t make the breakthrough next.
That would be all to the good.
Overall, a pleasing return to the “real football.”
Celtic are back, and the new era is underway.