Youth/Development Team Thread

Caffrey on for Johnston

Savoury on for Aitchison

 

Miller scores his Hat-trick 6-0 now.

 

Welsh makes it 7-0

 

Henderson makes it 8-0

 

And that's full time in the SFA youth cup v Alloa.

 

ALLOA ATHLETIC…0

CELTIC…8
(McInroy 2, Aitchison 21, 33, Miller 47, 66, 68, Welsh 81, Henderson 83)

CELTIC got the defence of their Scottish FA Youth Cup off to a magnificent start after brushing aside Alloa Athletic in the third round. The Young Hoops ran out 8-0 winners in a dominant display which could have included many more goals, given the number of chances created.

Kerr McInroy opened the scoring early on before Jack Aitchison grabbed a double in the first-half. A hat-trick from Calvin Miller and goals from Stephen Welsh and Ewan Henderson completed an impressive display for the Celts, who will go into the fourth round draw high in confidence.

Tommy McIntyre made one change to the side that face Bayern Munich in the UEFA Youth League in midweek, with Ross Doohan replacing Ryan Mullen in the Celtic goal.

The young Hoops showed no sign of fatigue from their midweek game and started with a high tempo which the home side struggled to deal with, particularly in the wide areas. And it took Celtic just two minutes to find the back of the net when Mikey Johnston dribbled into the Alloa box and fired a low pass across the six-yard box. The clearance fell to Kerr McInroy on the edge of the area and the midfielder drove the ball into the bottom far corner.

Alloa struggled to keep Celtic at bay and a second goal came midway through the first period when Ewan Henderson found enough time and space inside the penalty area to have a shot at goal and Jack Aitchison slid in to divert the ball beyond Andy Wilson in the Alloa goal.

Goalscorer McInroy turn provider with just over 10 minutes remaining in the first half to help extend Celtic’s advantage. The midfielder shrugged off a challenge out wide and drove into the Alloa box where he slipped the ball to Jack Aitchison. With his back to goal, the Hoops striker turned and fired the ball beyond Wilson to grab his second of the afternoon.

There was to be no respite in the second-half for Alloa who found themselves further behind two minutes after the restart. A free-kick out wide on the edge of the area was cleared only as far as Calvin Miller who fired the ball across goal and into the bottom corner.

As the game progressed the Wasps saw less of the ball and Celtic continued to assert their quick passing on the home side. Miller grabbed his second midway through the second-half when he lashed the ball into the top corner from just inside the box.

The Hoops defender completed his hat-trick minutes later when he sprinted down the left beyond the Alloa defence and fired a thunderbolt of a shot into the top far corner. Defender Stephen Welsh then compounded Alloa's misery with less than 10 minutes remaining when he scored from close-range.

Ewan Henderson, who had been fantastic all afternoon, rounded off the scoring in the 83rd minute. His quick footwork and pace, which had troubled Alloa throughout the 90 minutes, carried him into the box and his shot across goal found the back of the net.

CELTIC (4-2-3-1) Doohan; Bell, Welsh, Deas, Miller; Hill, McInroy; Johnston (Caffrey 52), Hendry, E. Henderson; Aitchison (Savory 52)
Subs: Willison, Duffy, Watson, Potter


Website Man of the Match: Calvin Miller

 

How does our youth team compare to the rest of Scottish youth teams? Are there any that do better or any that are close to us if we're the top youth side?

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

 

Seems to be a few bhoys close to breaking through at the minute,a team of

Gordon​

Ralston Simunovic Boyata​

Forrest Brown McGregor Tierney​

Johnston Miller​

Dembele

Think this team would beat anyone in Scotland and we would win the League with 6 academy graduates in it​

 

Almost an entirely scottish team. In fact, Jozo still havent played a game for Bosnia or Croatia and there is still time to naturalize him scottish.

 

Any news on the colts going to Highland/lowland leagues?

 

Game against Raith in the next round of the SFA youth cup.

 

Seen the Scotland under 19's were losing in a qualifier away to Luxembourg so just checked the back 4 on flashscore..

Duffy (jeez), Welsh and Deas are a part of it. Diddies..

 

You really do not like those Bhoys, do you?

 

As soon as I saw the score I was hoping they were involved

 

Wallace Duffy equalises

 

And Scotland win 3-1.

 

Any of the youth games I have watched. Duffy has been the weak link

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

 

In a tucked away pocket of Lennoxtown, Chris McCart’s office is small and unremarkable.

And yet from this quite hub stems much of what is current about Celtic.

As Brendan Rodgers’ side have embarked on a 63-game unbeaten domestic run, the players who emerged into that environment from the tutelage of McCart has been notable.

The values that have been sown into the philosophy of Rodgers’ first-team are evident in McCart’s academy with hard-work and a drive for continual self-improvement at the heart of the mantra.

The Parkhead side’s head of youth development watched with satisfaction as three of his protegees turned it on against Bayern Munich in the UEFA Champions League a couple of weeks ago with Kieran Tierney, James Forrest and Callum McGregor all shining against the Bundesliga giants.

But what has resonated more than anything this season is a quote Rodgers gave to the written press a couple of months back.

“One of the best things that I have heard from the manager is that no young player should be saying they play for Celtic,” said McCart. “They train with Celtic, that is it. It is so true. It resonated with everyone in here what he was saying.

“He doesn’t like lazy days. He wants the best and seeing where your best will take you. We will all make mistakes, but it is how you learn from them.

“Certainly, that culture of tattoos, big cars, designer toilet bags, big watches, the bling….it is always going to be an attraction to any young player. We live in a world now where it is about overnight sensations so there is that culture within society as a whole but here we are trying to create an environment where it is about working hard and seeing the rewards that come from that.”

Rodgers himself sets his own example.

Little more than 48 hours before Celtic faced Bayern Munich, Rodgers was at Lennxtown to coach an under-14 side.

And as McCart went on to explain, that wasn’t all he was busy with.

“In that same working week he came in and asked to meet with all the coaches,” he said. “He spoke to every one of them. We put it on during the day with 99.9% attendance with coaches who aren’t full-time making sure that they had a day off work to come in for it.

“That goes from us right down to the guys in the development centres for the kids at 5. He invited them all to watch training after it, he invited them into his office, he talked to everyone.

“In my role here, I went to Tony Mowbray, to Neil Lennon, to Ronny Deila – they all gave in-service sessions to the academy. But what I am finding now is that it is the manager chapping at my door and saying this is what I want to do, what can do we think about that, where can we improve on this. “He comes and tells us what he is thinking and there has been a significant shift in that he drives myself.

“It is incredible. He doesn’t want there to feel as though there are boundaries between youth level and first-team level. He wants the under-8 coach to feel as important as the development squad manager. He wants everyone to be part of it. Whenever the first-team win anything he thanks everyone. The greatest value he brings is that humility. He is the first-team manager who is thought of very highly not just at Celtic and within Scottish football but in the wider football environment too.”

The photographs that adorn McCart’s office wall would not be out of place in a headmaster’s office.

Giant squad photos with little kids from the under-8s all the way up to late teens are grouped together in annual team snapshots, with hooped jerseys instead of the shirts-and-ties.

There is something pastoral in the scholarly approach of McCart too.

Overseeing his own academy, his remit is to graduate players who are capable of playing in the pressurised environment of first-team football.

In the last decade, 18 of them have featured for Celtic in the Champions League; 55 have debuted at first-team level, 168 have forged careers elsewhere with McCart in charge of the most successful academy in Scotland.

But the bar is always being raised.

“We don’t want to develop players just to play in Scotland and the Premier League, we want to be able to produce players capable of performing in the Champions League,” said McCart. “To see three of our academy graduates play and perform really well against Bayern Munich in the competition here at Celtic Park is a great credit to the manager.

“We also have Anthony Ralston and Liam Henderson who have featured in Europe for us so that is five academy players that have played at that level. We have a number who have supplemented the squad at domestic level but we feel as though we are a Champions League club and so if we bring players through then they have to be good enough to feature at that level.”

Inevitably, they will not all get there.

“It is not always about the success, it is about the development of young people not just about bringing through players,” he explained. “Yes, we want to create elite players but not every player will make it. They won’t all get there but if they don’t make it at Celtic then we wanted to give them the foundations to maybe go on and do it elsewhere.

“Beyond that, whether they make a career out of football or not we still want to make sure that we are helping to create the whole person – that they are educated, that they have an understanding of what it is like to give your best every day and work hard.”

 

Chris McCart doing a great job and it's so good that BRs influence is felt at every level..

'You don't play for Celtic, you train with them!' Love that quote..

Sent from my HTC Desire 530 using Tapatalk

 

Anyone know if Daniel Church is still at the club,sure Man Utd were trying to get him a couple of years ago?