Celtic B team come from behind twice to win seven goal thriller with climactic Brooks strike

By Dave Flanigan

October 2, 2022

Adam Brooks scored an 89th minute winner for the Celtic B team against Gala Fairydean Rovers as the young Hoops came from behind twice in a crazy game in Galashiels.

The youngster’s second of the match secured all three points in the Lowland League for Stephen McManus’ side, who spent the majority of the match behind.

Though the performance left something to be desired, McManus was keen to highlight the difficulty of the fixture generally but also with many of his players away on international duty on the lead-up to the game.

McManus told Celtic TV: “The performance is always the first thing that we look for, it’s a difficult place to come down and play at, a lot of the boys have been away on international duty, so we didn’t have the full group together for this period but we felt before the game that the performance was what we were looking for.

“We didn’t quite get to the levels that we have all season so that was disappointing but to come away with the victory is always nice.

“The boys are looking strong physically, they’re looking very fit you can see that towards the end of the game when they’re still trying to push forward, they’re still trying to play and that’s where we got the success.”

Celtic B fell behind in the 18th minute when Lewis Hall converted for Rovers from a cross, one of few chances in a tepid first half from both sides.

The first equaliser came on the hour, with Brooks making an instant impact off the bench having just come on for Joey Dawson, as he tapped home Rocco Vata’s cross.

The young Hoops were behind again just a minute later as the Rovers goalscorer doubled his tally for the day with a deft chip over Celtic keeper Josh Clarke.

It wasn’t until the 77th minute that the B team secured their second equaliser after Rovers had chances to put the game to bed, as Vata powered the Hoops back level, before Matthew Anderson, another second half sub, put the youngsters in front just three minutes later with a stunner from outside the box.

Once again, however, the home side quickly equalised, but with the game heading towards a 3-3 draw, Brooks had the final say, converting Thomson’s strike off the crossbar to seal the victory for the young Celts.

Next up for the B team is a mirror of the first team’s trip to Leipzig as they take on the Bundesliga’s academy side on Wednesday, before another away game against Tranent Juniors at Foresters Park on Saturday, as they look to climb from 5th in the Lowland League table.

In other news: Greg Taylor looking for raised Celtic levels after hard-fought Motherwell win