Stephen Welsh made a surprise first appearance for Celtic’s senior side on Sunday.
Stephen Welsh had an ‘excellent’ debut for Celtic on Sunday.
That’s the word Hoops boss Neil Lennon used to describe the 20-year-old’s performance after being given a shock start in the 4-1 win away to Hamilton.
Welsh started alongside Kristoffer Ajer and Christopher Jullien in a three-man defence as Celtic moved seven points clear at the top of the Scottish Premiership.
Jullien, by his own admission, was at fault for the hosts’ opener, while Ajer had one or two hairy moments too – including making a hash of one defensive header.
Despite it being his debut, Welsh, recalled from a loan with Morton last month, arguably acquitted himself better than either of his two Bhoys team-mates the other day.
Here’s what Jullien – who scored to make it 2-1 against the 10-man Accies – said to the Scottish Sun about the youngster’s performance.
He said: “Stephen Welsh was great for his first game. I told him I was really happy about his performance. I told him before the game the most important thing was we had to speak a lot and I tried to do that and he did it back. He wasn’t shy on the pitch and I was impressed.”
Indeed it was a solid first game for the youngster and the praise from his £7 million team-mate [Herald Scotland] and Lennon says it all.
With Jozo Simunovic out again, along with Nir Bitton, Lennon had to use Welsh due to a lack of other centre-back options, but the Celtic gem certainly gave a fine account of himself.
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