Playing at Celtic Park can be daunting, and not every player can thrive in those surroundings if the Bhoys are in the mood to cause destruction.
However, Falkirk gave as good as they got in the Premier Sports Cup quarter-final last Sunday and looked like causing the home side trouble before braces from Adam Idah and Nicolas Kuhn turned the tide late on in a 5-2 win.
When the score sat at 2-1, there was an expectancy from the Celtic support that their side would come back. However, Idah admitted post-match that his side underestimated the Bairns during a first-half showing where John McGlynn’s outfit played some entertaining football and got their reward.
Ross MacIver opened the scoring before Paulo Bernardo’s equaliser, leading to Finn Yeats heading home on the stroke of half-time to give Falkirk a shock lead going into the interval.
Discussing events last weekend, the 20-year-old defender opened up on how he feels after sampling life under the spotlight at Celtic Park.
Finn Yeats on Celtic Park experience
Speaking to The Falkirk Herald, Yeats admitted that his goal against Celtic is the ‘biggest moment’ of his career so far and believes his side can take belief from running the Scottish champions close.
He said: “I don’t score too many goals, to be honest. I think I’ve scored about once in two years. It was a good ball, and I headed it clean, back across the goal, and it trundled in. It was probably the biggest moment in my career and I’ll remember it for a good while.
I was looking to do a knee slide! It was a good time to score, right on halftime, but they brought on their big boys and they finished us off.
I’ve got legs – even though I came off with cramp after 65 minutes! The first half was about getting up to the box as much as possible. Overall, I was delighted with my performance.”
Later, Yeats added: “We are quite a confident group, and we showed that on Sunday by playing our stuff and not lying down to Celtic.
“But to go there and score two goals should give us massive belief we can go and take this league by storm.”
Celtic will have benefitted from their clash against Falkirk
Alongside the morale-boosting achievement of getting to a semi-final, Celtic also benefitted from being able to give some of their new signings and fringe players minutes against Falkirk.
Even if one or two found proceedings less than straightforward, sharpness in their legs will be key later in the campaign. With a congested fixture schedule on the horizon, minutes are vital to get them up to speed.
Simon Donnelly believes Celtic’s win over Falkirk emphasised how good a place their squad is in at the moment, and it is hard to disagree.
Hopefully, players afforded a chance for the first time in a while can keep themselves fit and ready in case they need to be called upon, while fresh arrivals can also follow suit.
