Celtic winger Mikey Johnston has made a big impact in his first international appearance for the Republic of Ireland.
Johnston caused a few raised eyebrows earlier this month as he decided to switch his international allegiance.
Born in Glasgow and a former Scotland Under-21 international, Johnston decided to switch and play for Ireland.
Johnston’s grandfather hails from Derry and he has admitted being proud of his Irish roots to The Scottish Sun.
Johnston wasn’t really in contention for a senior call-up with Scotland and isn’t even at Celtic right now having been loaned out to Vitoria Guimaraes in Portugal.
The winger has bagged one goal and two assists in 16 league games over in Portugal.
The 23-year-old has now gone straight into the Ireland squad though and has made a big impact already.
Irish media hail Celtic’s Mikey Johnston
Johnston didn’t start in Wednesday’s friendly against Lativa but did come off the bench on 64 minutes.
The Celtic man immediately got on the ball and drove at the Latvia defence, rattling the post before Cheidozie Ogbene scored on the rebound.
Johnston then showed outstanding footwork late on, jinking past a number of Latvia defenders before his shot was deflected over the bar.
This was a very encouraging start for Johnston and the Irish press appear to have been impressed with the Celtic man.
The Irish Times gave Johnston a 7/10 rating for his cameo, praising his ‘outrageous skilful dribbling’ against the Latvia defence.
Balls.ie went even higher as they gave Johnston an 8/10 and hailed his ‘remarkable pace’ in an ‘incredibly impressive’ display.
Whether Johnston makes the grade at Celtic remains to be seen but it looks like Ireland fans are very encouraged by their new winger.
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