Brendan Rodgers’ pre-match teaser over the prospect of giving some Celtic youth academy players their first-team debuts last night turned out to be the biggest let-down after a huge build-up since Sky Sports mega-hyped ‘Red Monday’ fizzled out into one of the worst games in living memory.
Mercifully, this meeting with near-neighbours Partick Thistle wasn’t nearly as bad as the tripe served up by Liverpool and Manchester United that night in the ‘greatest league in the world’, and the Celtic manager at least had the decency to throw the spectators who weren’t at the late night Christmas shopping (and the hacks who had built up the prospect of seeing the next big things off the Lennoxtown production line) a bone with the inclusion of young Calvin Miller.
The 18-year-old stepped out of the shadow of the long list of illustrious Celtic left-backs and into the spotlight as Brendan Rodgers handed him his competitive debut against Alan Archibald’s valiant losers.
Read more: Rodgers praises Celtic's "persistence" against Partick and pledges to keep Simunovic at the club
Whether he goes on to become the next Tommy Gemmell, Tom Boyd or perhaps more pertinently, Kieran Tierney rather than the next Mo Camara remains to be seen, but following in the footsteps of the likes of those first three players would have brought a pressure of its own on the young man’s shoulders.
So whether his manager drawing comparisons between the youngster and Champions League-winning England international, former Chelsea and current Southampton star Ryan Bertrand prior to the match would be welcomed is open to debate.
The point being made by Rodgers centred around the pace of both players and the fact that both were essentially converted from being conventional wingers to full-backs, but if Miller was feeling the pressure of expectation he did well to mask it in his performance.
As it was, Miller did himself proud with his showing, even if he has a long way to go to live up to the comparison made by his boss which hopefully doesn’t become a millstone around his neck. As Stevie ‘Baggio’ Fulton knows only too well, such things have a habit of following you around in the small world of Scottish football.
Read more: Rodgers praises Celtic's "persistence" against Partick and pledges to keep Simunovic at the club
Up against the pacey David Amoo, Miller’s first contribution was to clatter into a well-timed tackle and snuff out an early threat from the visitors.
Perhaps the most impressive thing about his contribution thereafter in the opening period was the fact that Amoo spent the majority of his time chasing back into his own half, as Miller showed his attacking instincts to good effect.
He could have had a goal too, as a neat one-two with Scott Sinclair presented him with a decent opportunity that he placed a little too near Tomas Cerny to seriously trouble him.
Liam Henderson was another young player thrown into the fray for his third start of the season, and it was his cut-back that brought about the only goal of the game with a clever free-kick picking out Scott Sinclair to lash home.
That would have eased any nerves from debutant Miller, but he had his heart in his mouth at the start of the second half as a Ryan Edwards smashed a cross off his outstretched arm. Referee Euan Anderson turned away Thistle’s appeals and saved Miller from blotting his copybook on an encouraging debut.
Read more: Rodgers praises Celtic's "persistence" against Partick and pledges to keep Simunovic at the club
After 63 minutes, he took his leave as Emilio Izaguirre took over. He might not yet be at the same level as the man who will soon displace both he and Izaguirre, but it is certainly the most impressive debut performance by a number 59 that Celtic Park has ever seen.
Whether the inclusion of Moussa Dembele could be regarded as Rodgers giving youth a chance would be stretching the point to the limits of tenuousness given his contribution so far this season, but with the striker picking up the Trophee de L'Espoir Francais as the best under-21 French player punctuated the point that his tender years can often be overlooked.
There is no doubt he has gone a little off the boil of late, and this performance was not one for his YouTube highlight reel either, but he is one young man at Celtic that will certainly come good.
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