Friendly
Lennoxtown Training Facility
Tuesday, November 26, 2019

CELTIC RESERVES… 1
(Oko-Flex 49)

BRENTFORD B… 2
(Morgensen 15, Brisset 55)

TOMMY McIntyre’s Celtic reserves lost 2-1 in a hard-fought friendly at Lennoxtown this afternoon. Armstrong Oko-Flex’s second-half strike cancelled out Gustav Mogensen’s 15th-minute opener, before Jason Brisset restored the visitors’ lead from the spot on 55.

The Hoops started the match well, pressing Brentford deep into their own half, and carving a handful of half-chances. Cameron Harper looked a constant threat in both central and wide areas, twice providing for Jonathan Afolabi in front of goal inside the opening quarter-of-an-hour to no avail.

Despite Celtic’s dominance in possession, it was the visitors who broke the deadlock on 15 minutes when Mogensen capitalised on a loose ball following Arthur Reid’s first attempt.

Five minutes later, the Hoops looked to have pulled themselves level when Jack Hendry put the ball in the back of the net, but the referee deemed the defender’s effort offside. On 23 minutes, Luca Connell sent a free-kick careering off the post, before Harper threatened the Brentford goal twice in quick succession – the latter of which seeing him fire a shot into the opposing goal’s side-netting.

Celtic continued to press Brentford at every opportunity, and then next half-chance fell to Oko-Flex when he collected a ball over the top from Brody Patterson. Moments after that, Harper linked well with captain, Lee O’Connor on the right but Brentford again held firm in the final third.

After the break, the Hoops returned with aggression up top, and were rewarded after 49 minutes. O’Connor again the provider, Oko-Flex burst into the box from the left, before firing a shot across goal into the corner of the net to restore parity on the scoreboard.

The home side’s lead was however cut short when the Bees received a penalty for handball, which Brisset coolly converted. From there, the visitors pushed Celtic deeper into their own half, but struggled to unlock a resolute Hoops backline.

On 65 minutes, Hendry was shown a straight red for an off the ball incident. To Celtic’s credit, they continued to play with attacking intent nonetheless, and battled for every loose ball in the middle of the pitch.

Through this, Harper again hit the woodwork, this time to the left of goal, whereas Brentford were consistently dangerous on the counter-attack. As the stormy conditions worsened, much of the final quarter-of-an-hour was played in the middle of the pitch, with neither side creating much in front of goal.

Five minutes into second-half added time, Fredrik Hammar was shown a second yellow, which meant both sides saw out the well-contested encounter with 10 men. Beaten 2-1 on the day, Tommy McIntyre’s reserves side prepare for their SPFL Reserve Cup clash with Motherwell on Monday, December 2.

CELTIC: Hughes, O’Connor, Paterson, Hendry, Hjelde, Connell (MacKay 64), Dembele (Savoury 83), Coffey, Afolabi, Harper, Oko-Flex (Burt 68)
Subs not used: Mullen, Mazis, McBride, Murray

BRENTFORD B: Andersson, Larsen, Yearwood, Racic, Read, Adams (Brissett 46), Carre, Tue Jensen (Hammar 46), Mogensen, Koutsimouka (Tsaroulla 46), Titov
Subs not used: Mitchell, Majka, O’Connor

Website Man of the Match: Cameron Harper

Reserves edged out by Brentford in well-contested friendly