Message rings loud and clear to club’s board

FAIR play, lads. You put in a shift. Laid your bodies on the line and proved a point. Did your club a fine service, of sorts. Even if it meant making a significant personal sacrifice.

If this was Ange Postecoglou’s way of publicly underlining that message about the need for January reinforcements, he certainly succeeded.

Unfortunately for the head coach, throwing Kyogo Furuhashi into the fray — as the only fit striker on the bench — after Albian Ajeti’s injury less than half an hour into the game always felt like an unnecessary exclamation mark.

And thousands of Celtic fans would have added their own horror-stricken emojis when they saw the Japanese striker limp off holding his right hamstring after a pointless 43-minute outing in a game of zero consequence.

Nobody’s saying that the fringe players handed rare — or even first — starts for Celtic won’t be gracing the first team at different times over the coming weeks.

There were some nice moments, indeed, in a belatedly madcap 3-2 win over Real Betis that meant absolutely nothing in terms of the club’s place in Monday’s Europa Conference League draw.

And it’s always difficult for even the best of players to shine when a manager decides to chuck an entirely new team together for — almost certainly — one night only.

But nobody was kidding anybody on. Stephen Welsh (pictured) and Nir Bitton looked like first-teamers because, to all intents and purposes, they are. Callum McGregor and David Turnbull, the latter converting a late winner from the spot, brought composure when they were introduced in the second half. While Celtic fans hardly needed a reminder of how important the midfield trio of McGregor, Turnbull and Tom Rogic are to the Postecoglou plan, they got one anyway. No disrespect to James McCarthy, a big signing in need of a huge night but undone by another injury concern, debutant Liam Shaw or Ismaila Soro. But, well, you know. What else did we learn from a five-goal ‘thriller’ that seemed to slip into a hiatus after Welsh’s early opener from Liel Abada’s fizzing corner-kick delivery? Well, that even UEFA can’t completely kill a game with their continued insistence on group stages in every single competition. On a night when the result genuinely didn’t matter to either side, the guys handed the jerseys still fought for every ball. And entertained the crowd. While making sure that the manager’s message got through to the board. Loud and clear.