Wednesday 21 December 2016 12:54, UK
Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers praised the performance of Calvin Miller following the teenager's competitive debut in the 1-0 victory over Partick on Tuesday.
Miller was one of eight changes in the starting line-up from Saturday's 2-1 victory over Dundee, and he played for over an hour before making way for Emilio Izaguirre.
The 18-year-old is primarily a forward, but he came in at left-back for the Glasgow derby and Rodgers reckons his situation is similar to former Chelsea player Ryan Bertrand, who is now at Southampton.
Rodgers shifted the positions of Bertrand and Scott Sinclair when the trio were at Stamford Bridge, and he believes Miller has a similar temperament and drive to succeed.
"I was delighted for a young player who has just moved position," said Rodgers. "I thought he did very well and he wants to learn and develop.
"I did a similar thing with Ryan Bertrand when I was at Chelsea. We took him in from Gillingham to Chelsea and he came in as a left-winger and in the same team was Scott Sinclair, who was a striker.
"I moved Scotty wide and put Ryan to left-back and he went on to play with England and won the Champions League with Chelsea and is now at Southampton and he's an outstanding player.
"I see similar sort of traits in Calvin, where he can do that one position behind but he's only 18 so he needs time to learn that position and role but he's got some outstanding qualities and can offer the club something going forward."
Sinclair scored the decisive goal to give Celtic another three points and stretch their unbeaten run to 22 matches in domestic competition, going back to May.
With the Hoops now having completed six of their nine matches in December, Rodgers was happy to keep the unbeaten run intact.
"It's not easy but I think you have to credit the players in terms of how they go from game to game to game," Rodgers said.
"To not slip up domestically really shows a real persistence and resistance that's in the team and energy to keep going.
"We play in a way that has a systematic approach. If one player comes in he understands his function in the team.
"There's no way I can play all the players in every game. They have international games on top of that so you just can't do it.
"At times you're going to use a wee bit of fluency but you see other characteristics in the team. There's spells of great football, great possession, creating chances.
"We should have scored more goals to make it calmer but still having that mentality to win is very, very important."
Thistle remain at the foot of the table and assistant manager Scott Paterson was frustrated they didn't make the most of their chances, especially when defender Ziggy Gordon broke into the Hoops penalty area unopposed only to fire wide
Paterson said: "The boys were very good. We kept our discipline and shape. We frustrated them and created a few good chances, which we didn't take.
"We expected Ziggy to score but it never went in. We need to start taking these chances. It was costly as we could have left here with a point, so that's disappointing.
"We need to start taking chances. You have got to ride your luck, which we did at times, worked on it to keep our shape narrow and force the ball wide. I don't think a lot of teams will come here and create these type of chances."
