Greg Taylor was full of praise for Stephen Welsh after the young defender put in another impressive performance in the Hoops to help Celtic defeat Motherwell on Saturday (February 6).

Welsh scored his first goal for Celtic at the weekend in the 2-1 win over Motherwell at Celtic Park and was awarded Man of the Match for his contribution to securing the three points.

The 21-year-old Celtic Academy Bhoy started his second consecutive league game for the first time when he took to the field on Saturday, having played all 90 minutes of Celtic’s 4-0 win away to Kilmarnock three days prior.

Welsh’s header put his side 1-0 up early in the game and his display in the heart of defence helped prevent Motherwell from taking any points in the game.

Taylor, who was a Man of the Match contender with his performance, spoke highly of his young team-mate and highlighted the attributes which have made him successful.

“His all-round performance was superb, just the same as last Wednesday at Kilmarnock,” said Taylor. “He’s done superbly, really good. It was a terrific goal that he scored with a great delivery from David Turnbull and Welshy did really well.

'Welshy is not a quiet lad. Even at the start of the season. He leads and he talks. That is definitely beneficial for him and that is the reason he is doing so well at the moment.'

Taylor was involved in many of Celtic’s goal scoring opportunities and the Celtic full-back said the team was focused on building on their last two wins.

“The way that Motherwell set up meant there was space on the sides, so myself and Jonjoe had quite a lot of the ball and we created a few opportunities,” said Taylor.

“It was important to build on the victory at Kilmarnock, so it was an important win. Until Motherwell scored, I thought it was a really good performance with full control.

“But if you don’t finish off your chances, any game when it goes to 2-1 can become nervy. But the boys dug in and held on well.

“We’ve won a couple of games in a row but at a club of this size, you need to be winning every game and we’ve not done that enough this season.”

Taylor praises Stephen Welsh for what he brings to the team