Champion youth side make it eight-in-a-row

A second half goal from Callum McGregor gave Celtic's youth side a 1-0 win over Aberdeen today as Stevie Frail's side made it eight wins in a row going into Wednesday's SFA Youth Cup Final with Rangers at Hampden.

McGregor was one of five changes to the team with Richie Towell, James Forrest, James Keatings, Callum Bagshaw and Darren McCauley  rested ahead of the Hampden clash.

Into the side came Stephen O'Donnell replacing Towell at right back, McGregor, Filip Twardzik and Grant Gallagher formed a new look midfield with Michael Ordish playing wide in place of Forrest.

With the league secured after Rangers defeat to Dundee United yesterday and so many changes there was an understandable edge missing to the teams play but no one could deny that Celtic are worthy champions.

"I'm really pleased for everyone, to win a championship is fantastic," Tommy McIntyre, head of the Celtic Academy admitted.

"About eight or nine of the players have moved up to the development squad with the gaffer and Danny McGrain, they have been fantastic with us.

"Our players have worked with first team players and we see the difference when they come back to join us, their attitude has been great.

"We've been the best team in the league, we've been resilient, strong and shown a lot of character which is needed at a big club like Celtic.

"We had two turning points, winning away at Motherwell and also at Rangers.

"At Motherwell we had a lot of young players who came out with a win which wasn't pretty to watch.

"After that they responded well against Rangers, any Celtic-Rangers game will be hard- getting a win at Murray Park changed things.

"We've benefitted from having a fairly settled side especially at the back and have only lost two goals in our last eight games, that's a great record at any level.

"Everyone looks at success that comes with scoring goals and winning games but keeping clean sheets is just as important if you are to win things.

The first half was a bit of a non-event as far as Celtic were concerned despite the constant 'promptings' of Matty Hughes and Declan Gallagher at the back.

After the break Celtic noticably stepped up the pace with Greig Spence dropping deeper to link up with the midfield and Sean Fitzharris and Ordish pushing in more central to give more attacking options.

Midway through the second half Celtic took the lead with an impressive finish from 16-year-old McGregor.

Fitzharris created the opening cutting in from the right flank before laying the ball off to McGregor whose well drilled low shot across the Dons keeper found the net from 18 yards out.

"Callum has been doing exceptionally well at u-17 level," McIntyre added. "He still has to develop, he's still a young kid and a bit slight.

"He's a clever player, an intelligent player and that will stand him in good stead. He was in today on merit, he's scored an unbelievable number of goals and is one for the future.

"He's played with the 19s before because we believe in him."

CELTIC: Giordano; O'Donnell, Hughes, D Gallagher (Jones 74), Lowden; McGregor, G Gallagher (Bagshaw 76), F Twardzik; Ordish, Spence (Forrest 76), Fitzharris

SUBS: Kennedy, Towell,McCauley, Keatings.

McLeish can forget about Aiden McGeady 'swoop'

After months of publically attempting to 'tap' Aiden McGeady Alex McLeish can forget about any summer move for the Celtic midfielder- not that it was ever likely in the first place.

Selling McGeady may well be an option for the next Celtic manager to generate funds to reinvest in the team but McGeady won't be joining McLeish and Barry Ferguson for next season's relegation battle.

When Carsen Yeung finally took over at Birmingham in October there was talk of £20-£40m player budgets to help Birmigham reach 'the next level' after season's of bouncing between the top two divisions.

McLeish talked up the Premiership, the challenge that McGeady may require, and was about as subtle as a Doug Rougvie 50-50 in his attempts to entice the midfielder whilst undermining Celtic.

Only last month the Birmingham boss said: "He has got great potential, Aiden McGeady, to play in this league."

After all the talk of big money deals and a new era at St Andrews the reality is that McLeish will be given a summer budget that wouldn't buy him a better than average Premiership striker.

He admitted: "Will there be more than £10million to spend this summer? It won't be much more than that.

"We've got to be as prudent as ever and try and enhance the quality of the squad. We will try to get players (without spending too much) but you can't keep pulling rabbits out of the hat."

As ever with former Rangers managers the conversation quickly returned to matters at Ibrox.

McLeish added: "I heard Walter Smith talking about having a fantastic season at Rangers and then, because he's done well on a limited budget, they think they can take a bit more away and he can do it again.

"I worked like that at Rangers as well and you can't keep doing that. You can't keep pulling rabbits out of the hat. There has to be investment and I am sure the board will back me."

The truth about Birmingham's transfer budget has been followed up by the resignation of Chief Executive Michael Dunford.

The revelations about Portsmouth's financial problems has probably sent a shiver through the middle of the road Premiership clubs who think that spending on the never-never can short cut them to success.

Sky Sports £30m plus payments go straight through the clubs and into the bank accounts of players and agents as clubs try frantically to make ends meet and satisfy the demands of increasingly expectant supporters.

Clubs like Birmingham, Portsmouth, Bolton, Fulham, Blackburn and Wolves will never be in a position to go spending their way into the elite group of clubs challenging for a Champions League place.

Wishful stories about spending sprees buying up players like McGeady are never going to become reality at a club that averages 25,000 or less at the gate.

With cash tight again McLeish is likely to turn to Ibrox in the summer and add Kris Boyd, Nacho Novo and maybe Kirk Broadfoot to his old boys network of Barry Ferguson and Gregory Vignal.

McGrain shocked by refereeing decisions

Even after 40 years at Celtic Danny McGrain could hardly believe the performance of the referee in Wednesday's reserve win over Rangers at Murray Park.

Celtic's 1-0 win can be watched again on channel 67 as Morten Rasmussen scores the only goal of the match.

Without doubt the current term will be remembered as the season of the honest mistake with numerous decisions not going Celtic's way, especially in the games against Rangers.

The mistakes of Craig Thomson, Steve Conroy and Dougie McDonald have all attracted criticism with even Hugh Dallas forced into admitting his disappointment with some of this season's decisions although the only apology that has been issued was on behalf of Thomson after the opening derby of the season.

There are a few compilation videos around on the internet but by any standards the performance of the unknown referee in the reserve match from Wednesday will take some beating.

Speaking after the match reserve coach McGrain said: "I've heard of bad refereeing but we had three certain penalty kicks.

"The guy (Kirk Broadfoot) just took Paddy McCourt's feet away from him, the referee tried to say that he put his foot in.

"Then there was the handball, the ball was going into the back of the net and he said it wasn't intentional but if he stops the ball going into the net it's surely a penalty kick. You've got to get some advantage from it.

"But hey we won 1-0, we played the only football on the park. It was a great game for everybody concerned and especially for Glenn Loovens and Thomas Rogne, they came through without any problems."

Danny forgot to mention the third penalty incident where after some jostling for a bouncing ball Neil Alexander decided to drag Rasmussen onto the deck.

In all three incidents the Rangers players looked surprised to get away without punishment.

It's only fair to add that when Rasmussen did score his goal he could well have been in an offside position but the three penalty incidents were far from marginal.

Chanel 67 certainly goes someway to filling the gap left by the demise of Setanta and Celtic TV, Neil Lennon's interviews are honest and refreshing giving away a few snippets of information.

It's official: Celtic SPL u-19 champions 2009/2010

Celtic's u-19 side have clinched the SPL title today after Rangers lost 2-0 to Dundee United.

The result leaves Stevie Frail's side nine points ahead of Rangers with two games left to play with Dundee United moving into second place a point ahead of Rangers but with just one match remaining.

Celtic face Aberdeen at Lennoxtown tomorrow but despite clinching the championship Frail will be expecting nothing less than a win from his players.

He said: "It's great to be champions and we'll be looking to play like champions against Aberdeen.

"The players have worked hard to win the title and will be determined to keep up their recent form.

"There's maybe a little less pressure tomorrow but we still expect high standards from the players and they all have cup final places to play for.

"Knowing that we've won the league might change my thinking on who plays tomorrow. We're looking forward to the match knowing that there are still two big games to go this season."

Celtic face Rangers at Hampden on Wednesday in the final of the SFA Youth Cup then complete their league campaign next Saturday away to Hearts.

SPL u-19 league table