Celtic had to call on the reserves to their reserves on Boxing Day due to a mixture of injuries and a covid breakout.
The final game of 2021 saw Celtic win 3-1 in a game the bhoys dominated and played some really good football.
The Hoops had to call on players who haven’t had much game time and in some cases – players who have yet to make their professional debut.
It was a big day for Joey Dawson who was named on the bench for Celtic just days after scoring a brace for the B team. The English striker must’ve thought a cameo might be on the cards but he couldn’t have envisioned getting most of the game.
Ange Postecoglou took a punt on Kyogo and his hamstring injury, knowing there was a lengthy thine to recover during the winter break. Unlike the cup final, the gamble didn’t pay off and Kyogo had to go off less than 15 minutes into the game.
Enter young Joey Dawson for his professional debut. The young lad was steady, assured and was so unlucky not to get on the score sheet. Joey’s late dink over the St Johnstone goalkeeper was cleared off the line.
The Celtic striker’s uncle is former Spurs defender Michael Dawson — the former centre back was on Sky Sports on Boxing Day taking in the action and he looked very proud when he was told Joey had come on for Celtic.
As cited by RecordSport, Dawson said:
“Here he is, debut. Big centre-forward – I bet he’ll score more than me!
“Proud moment for him. His mum and dad will be watching.
“He would have been at Spurs today, going down to watch them. How the Christmas period has changed for them.
“Proud, proud moment for him.”
Joey signed for Celtic in the summer and has been making good progress in the B team. Hopefully Ange can help Joey round out his game and he can begin to make more appearances in the next 12 months.
Young Joey Dawson had an excellent game yesterday, he held the ball up well, brought others into the game and was so unlucky not to get his goal. It was actually a good save from the keeper he got a hand to it to slow it down enough so it could be cleared off the line in time. It was a game we dominated from start to finish and barring a mistake from big Carl when he gave the ball away for their goal we could’ve won more convincingly. It’s no exaggeration to say Abada could’ve had 5 or 6 goals on his own before half-time. St Johnstone are a side lacking in confidence and they lost a lot of their good players in the summer but we can only beat what’s in front of us and we were will worth the three points. Somebody is due to get a battering from us and I hope it’s on February 2nd.