Queen's Park 0 Celtic 1 – Rodgers' men kick off pre-season with easy win as Johnny Kenny nets in windy Mount Florida
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CALLUM McGREGOR has stopped crying his heart out.
Some 41 days after he wiped treble tears from his eyes, the Celtic skipper didn't look back in anger in the shadows of Hampden.
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Johnny Kenny fires Celtic ahead
Credit: Kenny Ramsay
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Brendan Rodgers gave minutes to plenty of young stars in Mount Florida
Credit: Kenny Ramsay
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Celtic players during a minute applause in memory of John Clark
Credit: PA
Forget the long awaited Oasis reunion down in Cardiff.
McGregor was back with his team-mates to lead Brendan Rodgers' latest premiership title masterplan.
The match won't Live Forever in the minds of anyone who was here.
But some might say McGregor cast no shadow against the Championship side in this first friendly win of preseason.
Okay, okay, that's quite enough of the Oasis puns.
This was serious stuff for Rodgers and Co as they kicked off their preparations for the new season with an easy victory.
Striker Johnny Kenny's first-half strike was the only goal off the game with Sean Crighton's men grafting hard all night. But it was as comfortable as it could have got for the Premiership's defending champions.
The Celts boss was still without his international players for this friendly.
The likes of Kasper Schmeichel, Alistair Johnston, Liam Scales, Kieran Tierney, Reo Hatate, Daizen Maeda and Adam Idah have all yet to report back from their summer break.
Cameron Carter-Vickers, James Forrest and Jota are still out injured.
The diggers move in as Celtic Park pitch is dug up
There was also no Nicolas Kuhn at Lesser, with the German winger on the verge of completing a £17million move to Serie A outfit Como.
Ironically, that deal could see him play AGAINST Celtic in just a few weeks when Rodgers takes his squad to Italy for more a pre-season action.
There will be a bounce game in Cork early next week and then a training camp in Portugal before that.
And it's fair to assume the players are probably looking forward to some warm-weather sessions.
Because July in Scotland right now could be mistaken for November given the wind and rain that was swirling around Glasgow..
Both teams almost stood shivering as they paid tribute to Lisbon Lion, John Clark, with a minute of applause before kick-off for the club legend whose funeral service had been held earlier in the day.
In all fairness, by the time the game got going, the 898 fans who managed to get tickets were given a decent amount of attacking football to watch.
It largely went in the one direction.
Queen's keeper Calum Ferie - who would have been a hero to the Celts supporters with his man of the match display against Rangers in last season's Scottish Cup shock - didn't exactly have countless saves to make in the first-half by any stretch of the imagination.
And he maybe felt a little gutted that he conceded after 20 minutes given how hard his defenders in front of him were working.
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But Celtic were still well worth their half-time lead given how much possession they had.
Johnny Kenny got the goal and it was a terrific finish from the young Irishman who continues to look the part in a hoops shirt.
His sweeping finish high into the roof of the net gave Ferie no chance.
At the other end, Ross Doohan was making his Celtic debut and he only had one real stop to make - from a shot from Jamie Bradley - which he did comfortably.
The ex-Aberdeen goalkeeper was the only away player who stayed on for the second-half.
Rodgers took all of his outfield men off at half-time and gave ten kids the opportunity to catch his eye.
Stephen Welsh took the skipper's armband from McGregor.
With so many teenagers out on the park it was a chance for Queen's to compete more.
But the eager rookies continued to dominate the ball with Kyle Ure, Conor Daly, Sean McArdle and Ben Summers the ones to watch.
They all oozed class and confidence on and off the ball as they were clearly determined to impress their gaffer.
Striker Samuel Isiguzo should have made it 2-0 in the closing stages but his shot lacked power to beat Ferie.
After the miss, he could have been forgiven for turning to cigarettes and alcohol. Sorry.
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Glasgow Times
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