Baily Cargill: I've faced Coutinho and Zlatan - I won't fear Celtic

Bournemouth defender Baily Cargill trained with his new Partick Thistle team-mates for the first time yesterday morning and, all being well, he should have a baptism of fire when Ladbrokes Premiership leaders Celtic make the short journey across Glasgow to face the Jags this evening.

Baptism of fire: Baily Cargill. Picture: SNS Group

Thistle have managed a solitary draw in the last 28 meetings between the clubs and haven’t beaten the Premiership leaders since 1995, when John Lambie’s side recorded a 3-1 victory in a league match played at Hampden while Parkhead was being renovated.

However, while the prospect of taking on Moussa Dembele and Scott Sinclair (which he will do assuming one final piece of paperwork arrives from Fleetwood Town, his most recent loan destination) is undoubtedly daunting, Cargill revealed that he has come through bigger tests.

“Everyone wants to play in the biggest games they can so, if I can play against Celtic, that would count as one,” said the 22-year-old.

“I made my Premiership debut at Old Trafford when I was up against Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Paul Pogba and Marcus Rashford and we drew 1-1. I only had the last 25 minutes of that game but I had a few tussles with Zlatan and it was really enjoyable; it went so quickly.

“Also, when I was just coming through at Bournemouth, at 19 I managed to play in the League Cup quarter-final against Liverpool in 2014. They had Steven Gerrard, Raheem Sterling and Philippe Coutinho playing and Brendan Rodgers was the Liverpool manager at the time. We lost 3-1.”

Cargill also revealed that Scotland midfielder Ryan Fraser encouraged him to head north of the Border.

“I’ve never been to Scotland before but Ryan is one of my good friends,” he said.

“I spoke to him and he only says good things about Scottish football. He told me he had a good opportunity at Aberdeen when he was a youngster and it gave him the platform to get to where he is now.

“He advised me to get up here, enjoy it and play games.”

Thistle manager Alan Archibald said: “Baily trained with us on Monday and he will be a like-for-like replacement for Jordan Turnbull [who has returned to Coventry] at left centre-back.”