TOM ROGIC was a frustrated figure on the Celtic touchline on Saturday as Jozo Simunovic’s second major error of the game brought Partick Thistle back into the game.
Brendan Rodgers was about to re-introduce Rogic to first team action for the first time since injuring his knee in the 1-0 home defeat to Anderlecht in the final Group B Champions League match.
The Australian was told to sit back down and instead Rodger made a more defensive change with the game back in the balance at 3-2. Rogic sat back down and Eboue Kouassi was introduced as Celtic’s third change of the afternoon.
Now though the Celtic boss is likely to field the Australian internationalist in the Development League match at Cappielow against Motherwell.
Tom Rogic could be a crucial addition to the Celtic side that has struggled in the number 10 role in recent weeks.
“Tom looks great in training and it’s just getting him some game time. He’ll get some minutes with the Under-23 squad because he’s been out for about 10 weeks now,” Brendan said.
“Tom’s been working very hard, but, of course, we want to get him game-time and that will give him confidence to play.
“I had to apologise to him. At 3-1, we should have been comfortable well before that, but when the late goal goes in, it changes your thought process, so unfortunately for him, he’s had to have to wait.”
Rodgers is also not giving up hope on the chances of Stuart Armstrong and Paddy Roberts featuring, although the return leg seems a more realistic target for the winger.
“A young man from Australia who was about to become a Legend”#Invincibles ???????????? pic.twitter.com/hPJXGav7jO
— Until…☘️???? (@delbhoy007) February 9, 2018
“We will clearly need to play better than we did against Partick, but, hopefully, the occasion brings that performance up.
“We have a lot of players missing with injuries, but it’s two really exciting games for us and the first leg here on Thursday should be a fantastic game.
“We’ll get ready for that over the next few days and look forward to it.
“This was the aim right from the start of this season, the next step for this group.
“We’ve qualified for this phase and now we want to maximise where we can go in this competition.
“We recognise there are some crack teams in there that are probably disappointed that they are not competing at the latter end of the Champions League, but the experience will be great and we’ll see what we can do over the two legs.”
Read Jim Craig’s preview of the Zenit tie and his blog on a very famous Celtic Star who made his debut on this day in 1927 HERE.
‘You’ve never heard anything like Celtic, with their fantastic support,’ Kanchelskis warns Zenit…read HERE.
THIS IS HOW IT FEELS!
THE CELTIC STAR PODCAST FEATURING INSPIRAL CARPETS’ CLINT BOON, LISTEN NOW!
This week, Paul John Dykes and Kevin Graham are joined by Inspiral Carpets’ Clint Boon, who wrote a classic song that will forever be associated with the club’s invincible treble-winning campaign – ‘This is How it Feels’.
Crafted by Clint in the late eighties, ‘This is How it Feels’ became one of Inspiral Carpets’ biggest hits upon its release in 1990. This song became a Madchester classic, and renditions have previously rang out at the city’s Old Trafford and Main Road stadiums. Now, in homage to Brendan Rodgers’ quest to lead Celtic to ten consecutive league titles in-a-row, the tune has travelled to Glasgow for a reworking by those renowned tunesmiths, The Green Brigade.
But what does Clint Boon think of Celtic’s version of his melancholic slab of genius? The Oldham-born psychedelic organ-grinder joins A Celtic State of Mind to chat about ‘This is How it Feels’, Gary ‘Mani’ Mounfield, Noel Gallagher, Lee Mavers, Morrissey, Mark E Smith and more in Episode 34 of The Celtic Star podcast.
