My kids made a Mark

Mark McGhee hailed his young guns for having the guts to have a go at Celtic yesterday.

The Motherwell boss was delighted with his side’s display as he unleashed kids Ross MacLean, Jake Hastie, Jack McMillan and David Ferguson.

Well went down 2-0 but McGhee insisted his youngsters will benefit in the long run.

He said: “We ended up with two 18-yearolds, a 17-year-old and a 20-year-old, players who have barely half a dozen games between them.

“It was a great experience for them to stand up to that and do so well. I was thrilled with the young players.

“Ferguson was not playing his position but he is a great athlete.

“He is quick but still has 10 or 12 pounds to put on before he is going to be the full specimen and Jack McMillan is the same. I also thought Ross was terrific.

“So we have a lot of work to do with these boys but it shows you the raw material which is coming through.

“We’re almost top of the Under-20 league and we are getting them in our team. We have to breed young players who are going to fill the boots of those stepping on.”

McGhee’s side went down 5-0 and 7-0 on their last two trips to Parkhead but were a lot more solid this time around.

He said: “I wouldn’t say it was damage limitation but maybe there is that aspect of not wanting to concede goals.

“I also wanted to be able to say to them they had a chance of coming here and winning.

“Tactically we tried to come up with something different and played, in essence, a 4-2-2-2.

“It worked to an extent. It certainly made us hard to beat. And we made a couple of chances, including one from Louis Moult I would usually expect him to put away.”