One of the individuals who did himself no harm yesterday was young Conor Hazard.
The Northern Ireland international is no stranger to senior football these days. He’s spent two loan spells away from Parkhead at Falkirk and Partick Thistle respectively. But yesterday he was up against one of Ligue 1’s solid outfits in Stade Rennais.
Hazard replaced Craig Gordon in the second half, and made a fine stop to deny Lucas Da Cunha. As well as that, Hazard showed some good ball-handling as he dealt with some dangerous crosses with ease.
It wasn’t an outing in which the goalkeeper had an awful lot to do. But what he did have to deal with he did so with confidence and composure. And it also provides him with the perfect comeback performance after his previous outing against Pinkafeld.
Neil Lennon trusted the Northern Ireland youngster against the fourth-tier Austrian outfit in our first pre-season game of our summer camp. In real unfortunate fashion, however, he made an absolute howler to give Pinkafeld the lead. It’s not a moment the big goalkeeper will want to dwell on, and he showed no side effects against Rennes in his second-half spell.
Conor Hazard has secured third-choice status
It’s quite clear with the departure of Dorus de Vries that Hazard is now our new number three in the goalkeeping ranks. But the youngster must now make a decision on whether he wants it.
If he stays at Celtic this season, he’ll hardly play any first-team football. With Scott Bain and Craig Gordon commanding the sticks, you have to imagine Hazard would only manage a game or two if he’s fortunate.
Fellow youth shot-stopper Ross Doohan has decided to head out on loan to Ayr United once again. You wonder whether similar should be on the cards to keep Hazard developing.
His latest loan spell was a six-month stint with Partick Thistle in the Scottish Championship until the end of last season. Another move to an upper-table Championship club for the full season could help do him wonders.
But Lennon always enjoyed having third-choice goalkeepers signed up at Parkhead. Under his first tenure, the likes of Lubos Kamenar and Viktor Noring came in the door as number threes. So any loan move could be out of the question from a Celtic perspective in order to keep three shot-stoppers at the club.
Whatever our plans are for Hazard in any case, the goalkeeper can be satisfied with his confident outing yesterday.
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