St Johnstone boss, Simo Valakari, hailed Fran Franczak as the Perth club’s “future” after their 4-0 defeat to Celtic.
The local youngster was given his first start under the Finn and at the end of the Parkhead contest, the head coach took him to the Saints supporters to receive their acclaim.
Valakari knows that Saints, three points adrift at the bottom of the Premiership, are in a big hole.
And the attributes Franczak displayed at Celtic Park will be needed to get them out of it.
“It was beautiful to see young Fran play at wing-back,” said Valakari.
“It’s not the easiest position in a game like this – a lot of one v ones against the best wingers in the league.
“He survived the game very, very well.
“He’s a boy who doesn’t make excuses, the club matters to him a lot – that’s exactly what we need because we have a fight on our hands.
“I could have taken him out earlier to save him but I wanted him to experience the full 90 minutes because he was totally fine in the game.
“I was very happy our fans acknowledged his contribution. That’s our future.”
Five changes
Valakari made five changes to the team which lost to Dundee United on Boxing Day, opting for a central defensive three.
In reality, it was a back five given the territorial stranglehold Celtic seized from the off.
Despite the fact the hosts were dominating the ball, though, Josh Rae didn’t have a save to make until the 20th minute when he kept out an Arne Engels shot from an Alex Valle cutback.
When the Hoops did take the lead on the half-hour it would have been a source of frustration to Valakari that it was after his team had been in possession.
Nicky Clark was tackled in midfield and within a blink of an eye Nicolas Kuhn had smashed the ball home.
Rae had no chance of stopping that one and he prevented a quick-fire Kuhn double by producing a superb fingertip save from a curling shot that was arrowing towards the top corner.
Valakari made three half-time changes in an attempt to pose more of a threat going forward.
Benji Kimpioka, Adama Sidibeh and Lewis Neilson replaced Clark, Makenzie Kirk and Aaron Essel.
Any chance of an unlikely comeback was ended just before the hour, though, when Kyogo finished from close range to put Celtic 2-0 in front.
Two quickly became three when the same man got in front of Kayle Cameron to dispatch a cross from the right.
The Saints defence was cut open all too easily for Celtic’s fourth of the afternoon, with Daizen Maeda side-footing a low shot past Rae.
Hibs next
The McDiarmid Park side are now three points behind second bottom Hearts, with the other Edinburgh club up next on Thursday.
“I think we all know that we needed to have almost the perfect day and our opponent needed to be below par,” said Valakari.
“Unfortunately, it didn’t happen today.
“Yes, we have our own problems that we need to fix but sometimes in football you need to respect the opponent.
“It was 89 minutes, 4-0 and still they wouldn’t let us breathe.
“If we can learn from the best that will be very good for our process.
“All the players gave something. We move to the next game.
“We have put ourselves in this position – Thursday is a very big game.”
Valakari didn’t have any news to report as far as January signings are concerned.
“We’ll see,” he said.
“Everybody at the club is working very hard. It will be OK.”
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