Dorus de Vries appears to have won the battle for the number one spot ahead of Dundee loanee Scott Bain at Scottish Premiership champions Celtic.
With Craig Gordon out of action for the next few months, Dorus de Vries has been handed an unexpected chance to nail down a first-team spot at Celtic.
The veteran goalkeeper had only played three times for the Hoops all season before Gordon suffered that serious knee injury in the 1-0 win against Hibernian last month.
But, as it stands, it seems de Vries is ahead of January deadline day recruit Scott Bain in Brendan Rodgers’ pecking order. The Dutchman started Saturday’s shock 1-0 defeat to Kilmarnock, which was only the second domestic defeat Rodgers has suffered in charge of Celtic.
And it remains to be seen whether or not he will keep his place between the sticks ahead of Dundee loanee Bain. Because it seems that de Vries, who Rodgers worked with during that successful spell at Swansea City, is facing a make or break few months at Parkhead.
After all, Bain is out of contract at the end of the season so there is a good chance that, if he impresses Rodgers between now and then, he could earn himself a permanent contract at Celtic.
And if Bain does indeed stay for the long-term, De Vries would surely fall to third in the pecking order. Considering how little he has featured over the last few months, that would be nothing short of a disaster for a ‘keeper who only has a few years left in the professional game.
So De Vries may be feeling the pressure to keep his place. He simply cannot afford to make the sort of high-profile mistakes that dogged his debut season at the Scottish champions with Gordon likely to return as number one and Bain waiting in the wings.
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