Celtic loanee Jack Aitchison's long goal drought comes to an end

By John Reid

February 2, 2020

Celtic loanee Jack Aitchison has had an up and down season at League Two side Forest Green Rovers.

He scored a burst of four goals in four games in October and November, but since then went on a goal drought of 13 games.

However, now the drought is over, as Aitchison found the back of the net for the first time since the ninth of November in Saturday’s 2-2 draw with Grimsby Town.

The player now has seven goals for the season, one for Celtic in the reserve league cup, and six for Forest Green Rovers.

Celtic’s loan striker Jack Aitchison (Photo by Pete Norton/Getty Images)

That is a decent enough return for Aitchison, who will be looking to catch the eye of Neil Lennon.

Contract has a year to run

Aitchison’s Celtic future is intriguing. He signed a three-year deal with the club in 2018, which keeps him with the Bhoys until June 2021.

Celtic currently have four first-team strikers at the club, but that number could eventually go down in the summer.

Vakoun Bayo may look for a loan move, and there will be question marks over Odsonne Edouard’s future.

Celtic’s Jack Aitchison, on loan at Forest Green Rovers (Photo by Lukasz Sobala/PressFocus/MB Media/Getty Images)

Aitchison might not be good enough to replace any of the current strikers in the first-team squad. But if he can score a few more goals between now and the end of the season he could yet have a future at Celtic.

Discussions will no doubt take place with manager

The discussions he will no doubt have with Neil Lennon when he returns to Celtic at the end of the season will be interesting.

The fact that he only has one-year to run on his contract will mean that soon he will need to decide if he should commit to the club in the future.

A good thing though is that his goal drought has come to an end, and hopefully he can find the back of the net a few more times by the end of the season.