Six Of The Best

James Forrest was just one of half-a-dozen Celtic Academy graduates to finish last week’s 5-0 defeat of Motherwell

- Martin Dalziel

FIVE was the number on every Celtic fan’s lips last week when the Hoops thrashed Motherwell by that margin in the League Cup last 16 but there was another figure of importance at the end of the match which deserved to be highlighted.

Sure, the goals were impressive and the performance dominant in the 5-0 destruction of the Steel men but six was the real magic number for the Hoops as it totalled the tally of Academy graduates who finished the game in green and white.

Eoghan O’Connell, Callum McGregor and James Forrest all started the match while Jamie McCart, Liam Henderson and Anthony Ralston entered the fray in the second-half, allowing the Celts to see out the game with a line-up comprised of more than 50 per cent Academy-grown players.

It was a significant moment for the Hoops, with the club acutely aware of the constraints the money-motivated world of football can place on prospective transfer dealings, but also for Celtic winger Forrest, who has paved the way in the modern era for young players to come through at the Celts.

Forrest was just nine-years-old when he joined the Bhoys and he has gone on to become a mainstay of the team after breaking through under Neil Lennon in the 2009/10 season.

And the winger has now committed his future to the club by signing a new three-year deal to keep him at Paradise until 2019.

The winger celebrated that new contract by running Motherwell ragged last week, and finishing the game with the captain’s armband after Scott Brown was substituted, and he told the Celtic View in an exclusive interview that he was delighted to finally secure his future at the Scottish champions.

How does it feel to have signed your new deal?