Mikey Johnston made a devastating impact in the early stages of Celtic’s Europa League clash in Lithuania on Thursday.
Heading into this season, it appeared entirely possible that Celtic youngster Mikey Johnston could be spending the campaign away from Parkhead after a year which had seen the teenager struggle to force his way into Brendan Rodgers’ plans.
Johnston is undoubtedly one of the most exciting youngsters on the Bhoys’ books and it appeared inevitable that he would be looking to follow in the footsteps of Kieran Tierney after he made his senior debut in 2017. However, he went into this term having only played a handful of times for Celtic.
In fact, it seemed that he may be on his way out of the club for a year. The Daily Record reported in July that Celtic were considering offering the 19-year-old to Hibernian on loan in their attempts to sign John McGinn, while Aberdeen were also keen on a temporary move for the youngster.
However, just a few weeks into the new season, it would now not only be a huge surprise if Johnston went anywhere in the final days of the transfer window, but it also seems that he may perhaps be about to enjoy a breakout season with Celtic.
The winger made his first start of the season in the League Cup clash with Partick Thistle at the weekend and followed that up by making an immediate impact in the Europa League tie with Suduva on Thursday.
Johnston showed some lovely skill on the left wing to create an opening that allowed him to play a delightful cross for Olivier Ntcham to break the deadlock in the opening minutes in Lithuania.
Despite conceding an equaliser, Celtic dominated the rest of the first-half and Johnston was one of the players to impress, marrying his skill with sheer tenacity to regularly get past the full-backs and cause plenty of problems. It was a performance that is bound to have impressed Rodgers.
And it is surely the kind of display that hints that Johnston is very much ready to establish himself as a first-team player during the coming year.
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