Tommy McIntyre’s main aim for his season ahead in charge of Celtic’s B team is to have as few options and as small a squad as possible available for the testing season ahead.

And to that aim he could be kicking off tomorrow (Saturday) against Bonnyrigg Rose Athletic without as many as EIGHT automatic choices, such was the success of Celtic’s youngsters who travelled with the first team to Wales and England.

Hopefuls from that group including Owen Moffat, Adam Montgomery, Dane Murray, Barry Coffey, Ben Wylie, Leo Hjelde, Scott Robertson and Karamoko Dembele among others, could well be involved in Ange Postecoglou’s squad for the visit of Preston North End to Celtic Park on Saturday evening following some sterling showings on pre-season duty.

Ironically, the coach is hoping that will remain the case, as if he calls on the services of Under-18s and 17s throughout the course of the season, due to players a couple of years older being called up to first-team duty, then the B team will have been a success.

And as far as the development of younger players is concerned, McIntyre recalled looking through the French window on that front a few years back, and it’s plainly evident how successful that was.

He said: “I think it’s going to be a learning curve, I really do, and it will be a great experience for them. I know that for a number of years there has been talk of a B team going into the lower leagues. I remember as far back as 2008 when I was doing my pro-licence, I went over to France and witnessed how they did it there, and, obviously, there are examples in Spain, so for a number of years we’ve been looking for change.

“When I was a younger player we had the experience of playing against senior players in the reserves, and that is no longer the case now. We need to try to create that pathway for that gap between Under-18 and first-team football.

“So in effect, it means that we can control where the young players play, we can then control their development. And, there’s no doubt that, as the season progresses, playing against senior pros, playing at grounds they’ve probably never been in, playing on front of fans, the whole thing, I feel it can only be a positive experience for them.

'I've no doubt that this will bring the players on. It can only be a benefit to the younger players getting a challenge, as sometimes they have been a bit mollycoddled in here, but they are now going out there to the big world.'

“They will take a couple of knocks, no doubt about that, but we are trying to create that pathway. So hopefully we can create something that's beneficial to our players, and furthermore, beneficial to our first team, which is the most important thing.”

McIntyre’s side kick-off the campaign away to Bonnyrigg at the Midlothian club’s New Dundas Park home ground at 3pm tomorrow (Saturday).

Unfortunately, there are no away tickets available for this game, however, the first home game will be the following Saturday, July 24, when the young Hoops take on East Kilbride at Airdrie's Penny Cars Stadium at 1pm.

The manager added: “We’ve had Bonnyrigg Rose watched four times over the course of the pre-season. It’s a tough league and you can see how the likes of Kelty Hearts would progress.

“We’ve had players out on loan at Lowland clubs, so I’ve had first-hand experience of Lowland League teams, we know exactly what they are and they are no mugs. East Kilbride for example have invested a lot of money in their squad, so we are very aware of what we are going to come up against.”

More information on ticketing and attending Celtic FC B home games will appear on the official Celtic FC website next week.

Some of the Celtic B Team's fixtures will also be streamed live after the club recently announced five Celtic B team matches and five Celtic FC Women’s matches will be streamed to season ticket holders via the Pass to Paradise and on Celtic TV.

You can keep up to date with the B Team on the newly launched official @CelticFCB Twitter account which will have pre-match news and build-up, live updates throughout the games, post-match interviews and unique angle footage of all the goals.

Tommy McIntyre Taking The B Road As Player Pathway To Paradise