Neutral Jamie hopes for a draw

JAMIE McCART knows the last place he should be as he strives to impress Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers is seated in the Caledonian Stadium stand.

But the 19-year-old Hoops youth academy product will take enforced leave from his Inverness loan deal on Wednesday evening as his parent club revisit the only ground where they have shed points this season.

Through no fault of his own, the promising centre-half will be forced to surrender his place in the team after quality performances that have kept even club captain GaryWarren benched for Friday night’s triumph over Rangers.

Now three games into his loan spell in the Highlands, McCart is yet to taste defeat after draws with Dundee and Hearts and the high of beating the Old Firm foes in an Inverness jersey.

But the young defender, a success in a new defensive pairing with ex-Motherwell man Louis Laing, is in no doubt as to the value of his stint in the north as he works to convince manager Rodgers he has the potential to break into the champions’ first team.

McCart, son of Celtic’s Head of Youth, Chris, said: “I can’t play against Celtic, so it will be strange having a foot in both camps. I’ll just be a neutral fan, hoping for a draw!

“But I know the lads here will be buzzing going into the Celtic match. They’ll enjoy the Rangers win over the weekend and then be fully focused going into the game on Wednesday.

“It’s been brilliant already for me at Inverness – a different world from youth level.

“It is something I’ve had to adjust to really quickly in terms of the intensity, pressure, speed of the game and a different style of play as well as coming from Celtic to Inverness.

“It is different, although we play some quality football at Inverness as we showed at times on Friday night.”