Ryan Heir

Ryan Mullen is biding his time in his aim to vie for the first-team No.1 spot in the future.

- Tony Connelly

RYAN Mullen has split his services between the Celtic first-team squad and Tommy McIntyre’s reserves this season, having travelled with the Hoops to Valencia last month, and keeping a clean sheet against Kilmarnock in the SPFL Reserve League last week.

It was in the latter game that the 17-year-old produced a wonderful right-handed, fingertip save with just two minutes of normal time to go at Rugby Park, which kept the scoreline at 1-0 and ensured his side secured maximum points on the road.

A fine first-half header from team-mate, Armstrong Oko-Flex put the Hoops in front, in a match in which Karamoko Dembele, Kerr McInroy and Mullen himself put in top-form performances. The Celtic View spoke to Mullen about his season so far.

You played well against Kilmarnock. What did you make of the overall team performance?

During the first half, we kept the ball for fun and we created some chances. In the second-half Kilmarnock came out a little more and tried to press us, which disrupted us a little bit. We scored our goal in the first half, it was a great ball from Kerr and a great finish from Armstrong. Kilmarnock were camped in their own half, so we needed a good bit of movement to finally break it down. I made a good save towards the end to keep it at 1-0, I’ve not played since the Sunderland game so it was good to come back and put in a decent performance.

Tell us about your season so far, and the restructure of the Reserve League.