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Used sparingly, Watt added another couple of league goals to his tally against Saint Mirren (5-0) and Dundee United (2-2) before experiencing the apex of his young life.
“This is the stuff of legend. At the age of just 18, Tony Watt takes his place in Celtic folklore. This is mind-blowing. This is Celtic two Barcelona nil. He has no fear…”
Those words will live forever in the minds of Celtic fans around the world and it is without doubt the finest result in my Celtic-supporting life. Another fairytale chapter was written in the glorious history of this unique football club on 7th November 2012, when the unfancied champions of Scotland defeated the greatest club side in the world to celebrate the Glasgow underdog’s 125th birthday.
As the fan choreo turned Celtic Park into a green-and-white fortress to the backdrop of ‘Zadok The Priest‘, no one gave the home side a modicum of hope against a plethora of world-renowned modern-day icons, assembled for hundreds of millions, who hadn‘t lost an away match in the Champions League for six years.
Tony Watt made his entrance on 72 minutes for Mikael Lustig with Celtic a goal up virtue of a rampaging Victor Wanyama header. Just eleven minutes later and a penetrative Fraser Forster clearance was completely misjudged by Xavi ten yards inside his own half. Watt’s movement and pace was electric as he timed his run to perfection, took one touch and bulleted his shot beyond the oncoming Victor Valdes.
The Spanish press christened goalkeeper Forster ‘La Gran Muralla’ after this encounter and the match-winning Watt demanded more worldwide column inches than Ballon d’Or, World Player, European Golden Boot-winning forward, Lionel Messi, who pulled back a late consolation for Barcelona.
Although not a product of Celtic’s youth system per se, Watt offered legions of fans a glimpse of days gone by, when Barrowfield’s conveyor belt of talent produced a seemingly never-ending supply of goalscoring superstars in the sixties, seventies and into the eighties, but the aforementioned Nicholas was the last of his ilk to truly shine. The nineties proved far less fertile and offered us Gerry Creaney and Mark Burchill. Although much-derided, fellow Coatbridge graduate, Creaney was a prolific marksman in a woeful Celtic side. Burchill had been dubbed “Scotland’s Michael Owen” and had a lethal turn of pace, but both players were eventually sold to Portsmouth for under a million each and faced football obscurity for most of their careers. So would Tony Watt’s footballing journey continue to be meteoric or would it go the same way as so many other Scottish talents and be catastrophic?
Following up the Barcelona performance with another goal against Saint Johnstone four days later, Watt promptly signed an improved four-year deal with Celtic amidst interest from West Brom, but the rest of his season was mediocre at best as he failed to score another goal and was in and out of the side that went on to secure a League and Scottish Cup double.
Concerns began to surface that Watt did not possess the maturity or mentality to make a lasting contribution at Celtic Park and, during the pre-season of 2013-14, Neil Lennon brought in another striker in 22-year-old Amido Balde from the Portuguese league. Despite interest from Saint Mirren and Aberdeen, Watt was sent to Belgian Pro League side, Lierse, on a season-long loan deal on the same day that Celtic shelled out even more millions on yet another striker, as Teemu Pukki joined from Schalke.
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