Mark Burchill's delight as daughter makes first Celtic start

By Lewis Laird

August 8, 2022

Former Celtic player Mark Burchill has reacted to his daughter making her first start for the Hoops Women’s team on Sunday.

After a busy pre-season of friendly fixtures, Fran Alonso’s side got the competitive action underway last weekend, taking on Hibernian in the league opener.

The Ghirls ran out comprehensive winners over the Edinburgh side, making an impressive start to the new season in a 9-0 win at the Penny Cars Stadium.

There has been much change around the Celtic Women’s squad this summer, with key players such as Charlie Wellings and Jodie Bartle announcing their departure.

This meant that there were a few new faces in the Celtic starting 11 to kick off the new season, mixed in with some of last campaign’s regulars.

Although, one of those new faces included a familiar name as youngster Tiree Burchill made her first start for the Hoops first team.

The 17-year-old is, of course, the daughter of another ex-Celtic academy graduate Mark Burchill who featured for the first team between 1998-2001.

Tiree has already made her debut under Fran Alonso, coming on as a substitute on the final day of the 2020/21 campaign in an emphatic 8-0 win against Motherwell.

However, Sunday’s game marked the youngster’s first start in the green and white, taking her place in Fran Alonso’s starting 11.

Not only did she make her first start, though. Burchill also picked up an assist within a matter of minutes, delivering a wonderful cross into the path of Jacynta, who opened the scoring.

Burchill’s number on the back of her shirt may also be quite familiar to Celtic fans after choosing to sport the same number as her dad did for the Hoops when he came through the academy.

In the aftermath of the game, Burchill took to Twitter to react to his daughter’s first start for the club, stating that he was ‘so proud’ to see her earn a place in the starting 11.

Over the years, we have seen plenty of players come through the Celtic academy into the men’s side and go on to have an impact at Parkhead.

With the Women’s side going professional a few years ago, you would imagine one of the aims would be to create a successful academy set-up and produce players for the future.

It is great to see that beginning to pay off, with a talented young player like Tiree Burchill already making her mark on the first team at such a young age.

Hopefully, it is the first of many for years to come, and Burchill can help play a crucial part in the Hoops push for more trophy success this coming season.

In other news, Liel Abada explains the crucial Postecoglou factor helping extend Celtic’s long unbeaten run.