Adam Montgomery: The Celtic prospect hoping to catch Eddie Howe's eye after making his first-team breakthrough

The advantageous timing of Adam Montgomery’s first senior start for Celtic is not lost on the 18-year-old left back.
Adam Montgomery (left) evades St Johnstone's Shaun Rooney during the Celtic youngster's first-team debut on Wednesday.| (Photo by Paul Devlin / SNS Group)Adam Montgomery (left) evades St Johnstone's Shaun Rooney during the Celtic youngster's first-team debut on Wednesday.| (Photo by Paul Devlin / SNS Group)
Adam Montgomery (left) evades St Johnstone's Shaun Rooney during the Celtic youngster's first-team debut on Wednesday.| (Photo by Paul Devlin / SNS Group)

The expectation that Eddie Howe imminently will be appointed the club’s next manager means it can be assumed the Englishman will have been genning-up on footage of the Parkhead club’s recent games. That will have included the midweek 4-0 win at home to St Johnstone, when Montgomery gave a good account of himself in his first exposure at this level. An occasion that had long been his target, but was made more challenging by the paucity of games for development players in this covid-impacted season.

“I think that is a positive for me,” said the engaging and articulate youngster. “We don’t know exactly what is going on right now with a new manager and so on, but being able to play before the end of the season was always a goal of mine, no matter who was in charge for next year. I’m delighted with that.

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“It was an unforgettable experience for me and my family and I was honoured to play a part in the game - it was surreal to be part of Broony’s [Scott Brown] last home game. I was told the day before so I was just getting myself ready and prepared . My family just had to watch the game through the stream but with everything going that was fine by me. I feel like I have worked hard in training and deserved an opportunity. I was grateful to get that and hope I can kick on from here. I know I’m lucky. There are a lot of people at other clubs, not just at Celtic, that are struggling to play games right now. But with everything that’s going on in the world there are bigger things to focus on that football right now.”

Montgomery has gone back in a bid to build a future at Celtic, with the player having been a left winger until recently. He knows he is in good company on that front with Kieran Tierney and Andrew Robertson both transformed through converting from the wing to full-back.

“I have been a winger since I was seven and first went to Celtic,” the teenager said. “Darren [O’Dea] came in [as under-18 coach] and moved me to left-back about a year ago because we had a couple of injuries. I wasn’t sure to start off with but the way that Celtic play, the full-back is almost a winger because at Celtic you have so much of the ball. So it wasn’t too much of a step back for me because being a fullback you are attacking as well as defending. I don’t mind the defensive side of the game. I have really enjoyed it. [It was a similar story with Tierney and Robertson] and I feel like it is becoming more common now that you see attacking full-backs especially with clubs that have a lot of possession because it brings other assets to the attack.”

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