Repeat Performance

Jack Aitchison hit the headlines with his debut goal at the end of last season, but he knows a lot of hard work lies ahead if he wants to gain further first-team opportunities.

- Martin Dalziel

THIS time last year, Jack Aitchison spent his free time playing as Celtic on his computer in FIFA games. Now, after making his debut on May 15, he spends his working days training and playing alongside the Hoops first-team players for real.

The 16-year-old striker became the club’s youngest-ever debutant and goal scorer when he came off the bench to round off the sensational 7-0 demolition of Motherwell at the end of last season and things have moved fast for Aitchison since that momentous day.

The Fauldhouse Bhoy is now a regular participant of first-team training under Brendan Rodgers and he also won another top-team appearance for the Bhoys as a second-half substitute in the recent International Champions Cup match against Inter Milan in Limerick.

For someone who has been at the club from the age of eight, working away quietly and diligently in the background, the recent and swift graduation through ranks of the Youth Academy has been exhilarating for Aitchison but he knows the hard work is not done yet.

The Hoops forward has targeted a consistent run in Tommy McIntyre’s Development Squad this season, with the league campaign starting this week (Tuesday), and he has already set about achieving that goal in impressive fashion by scoring two goals in two games in the Irn Bru Cup.

The first of those came in the opening round as the young Hoops tore through Annan Athletic 5-1, and he followed it up with a crucial equaliser against Cowdenbeath at Central Park in the second round last week.

That goal indicated the measure of Aitchison’s skill after he controlled a long, searching pass on his chest, beat his marker Shaun Rutherford – a player three years his senior with experience of playing at Livingston, Queen of the South and Arbroath – for pace and smashed a low shot past keeper David McGurn from a tight angle.