BRENDAN Rodgers took time out from the first team's Champions League preparations yesterday to continue putting his imprint on the club's young players - as they rounded off their Uefa Youth League campaign with a 3-2 defeat to Manchester City. On the face of it, the loss - which came courtesy of an injury time winner from Lorenzo Gonzalez - brought a close to a disappointing campaign which has seen the Scottish development league champions draw just one match and lose the rest, but there was much to admire about the way this group of young players went about things. An early penalty from Michael Johnston and a stunning curling strike from Theo Archibald saw the Parkhead outfit race into a two-goal first-half lead and two excellent chances for striker Jack Aitchison could quite easily have been 4-0 by the time the interval came along.
"The manager spoke to our players on Sunday and was talking about the commitment from our players to get to the next level," said coach Tommy McIntyre. "He is very positive about young players and they responded today. It is clear the manager wants to play and there is a lot of flexibility in that as well. We are learning all the time and the players are learning. The big test for these boys is getting into the first team."
Celtic's performance - against a side which beat them 4-0 at Cappielow earlier in the campaign - was even more impressive considering the changes which the Parkhead side had been forced into. Rodney Kongolo got one back just after the break before the excellent Jaden Sancho got the equaliser.
"We ended up a bit makeshift," he added. "We had Calvin Miller at left back and Kristoffer Ajer at centre back, we lost Jamie McCart and Sam Wardrop on Saturday at the Youth Cup game, and brought in Mikey Johnston and five Under-17s. But our game plan first half was excellent, Ajer was excellent, [Tony] Ralston was excellent, [Ross] Doohan, the way they approached the game. They ran out of legs and you could tell and they brought on one or two excellent subs but we can take a lot from the first half and a lot from the second half as well. To come here to this environment and turn them over in the first half was excellent, we just need to learn from the wee mistakes."
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