Celtic give fringe men the chance to impress

Published on Wednesday 16 December 2009 22:14

CELTIC will rest their key men in tonight's Europa League dead rubber away to Rapid Vienna, giving peripheral members of Tony Mowbray's squad a chance to show the manager what they can do.

• Celtic striker Chris Killen could be given a rare start in tonight's Europa League dead rubber. Picture: SNS

Mowbray says he will "respect the tournament", but with neither side able to qualify from Group C the Celtic manager will want to avoid injuries and keep his best players fresh ahead of Sunday's vital SPL fixture away to Hearts.

That could mean starting places at the Ernst Happel Stadium tonight for Paul Caddis, Niall McGinn, Chris Killen, Willo Flood, Koki Mizuno and club captain Stephen McManus, who has fallen behind Gary Caldwell and Glenn Loovens in the pecking order at centre-back.

Paddy McCourt and Lee Naylor won't be considered due to injury and did not travel did not travel.

Speaking at Glasgow Airport ahead of the team's flight to Austria, assistant manager Mark Venus said: "It's a game where some of the players who haven't played much European football might get some experience and some more games under their belts. You might see a few changes here, which I think should be beneficial to the younger boys."

Predict the outcome of this weekend's SPL matches

He added: "You can't keep playing the same players all the time, as other clubs have proven. So we've got to use some games to give some boys some experience. If there's nothing on the games then it's more beneficial we play them because there's no pressure. We can't take any further part in this tournament so it means the game is effectively dead."

Victory would make a marginal difference to Scottish football's plummeting co-efficient, which determines their degree of involvement in European football.

"I'm not sure it'll do a lot for the co-efficient," said Venus. "But I think we'd like, eventually, for Scottish teams to do better in the co-efficient."

Celtic go into the match in good form, having won their last four games in all competitions, and Rapid manager Peter Pacult said: "Even if Celtic don't play their strongest XI, they still have a strong squad and we will have to put in a great performance to get a result."

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