Celtic B 4 Brentford U18 0: young Bees defeated in friendly by strong Celtic side in Glasgow | OneFootball

Brentford Under-18s were defeated 4-0 by Celtic B in a friendly at Barrowfield Training Centre on Wednesday afternoon.

Lucas Clearie scored a first-half brace before late goals from Hayden Borland and Sean McArdle sealed the game after Brentford went down to 10-men.

Jovan Kasujja had a massive chance in the second minute, capitalising on a loose back pass but drawing a strong right hand from Marcus Gill as the Brentford striker was in one-on-one.

It was the Bhoys who opened the scoring though after a fast start to the game on 4 minutes. Emmanuel Obidiwe broke down the left wing and squared the ball across goal for Clearie to tap home with a simple finish.

The Bees reacted well as Jacob Hanson drove through midfield before sliding in Nedved Owusu. The winger cut the ball back toward Yerime Ouattara who couldn't quite get his strike off on the stretch.

Gary McDermott's side created good chances as they grew into the game; on 23 minutes Hanson flicked a superb ball into Coran Madden who had two attempts closed down by the onrushing Marcus Gill in the Celtic net.

Two minutes later and Owusu had two excellent efforts go agonisingly close. First, he sent a curling effort toward the top corner which was tipped behind by Gill. Then, from the resulting corner, he sold the keeper with his eyes from the edge of the box, reversing his strike onto the inside of the post but rebounding wide.

After a good spell of pressure for Brentford, it was Celtic who scored next with a deflating strike. Clearie spun Matas Klimas and finished expertly with a left footed strike past Layton Nicholls to put the home side 2-0 up going into the break.

It was a good reaction in the second half from the young Bees - half-time substitute Domeiro Bobb-Semple was only denied by an unbelievable save from Gill as he cut in from the left and sent a curling effort toward the top right corner.

Then on 67 minutes Jai Bansoodeb went on a mazy run before Hanson dragged his shot just wide of the far post.

Six minutes later and Aidan Golding drove out from the back and played an excellent ball into Bobb-Semple. The winger beat his man and flashed a cross along the six-yard box but no one was there to meet it.

Hanson then floated a corner into the box and Bansoodeb had an effort from close range blocked on the line amongst the chaos and it felt like it wasn't to be for the Bees.

With five minutes to play Felix Lyon made a good save from Sean McArdle, tipping the strong strike onto the post.

In the final minute of normal time, the game was taken away from the west Londoners as Hanson was shown a second yellow card for kicking the ball away. From the resulting free-kick, Celtic skipper Borland headed home to make it 3-0.

Celtic put salt in the wounds in the first minute of stoppage time as McArdle's deflected strike flew past Lyon and into the bottom corner.

A defeat against a strong Celtic side, but plenty of lessons to learn ahead of the Under-18s' final Professional Development League game away at Hull City on Saturday 2 May (11am kick-off BST)

Celtic: Gill, Dembele, Haney, Charlton, Borland, Kennedy, McArdle, K. Daly (Hartington 60), Clearie (Skorb 69), C. Daly, Obidiwe (Anderson 76)

Subs: Cameron, Meikle, Donnelly, Keenan

Booked: Charlton 65

Brentford: Nicholls (Lyon 46), Fanoiki, Ogungbemi, Trialist A (Oladapo-Gamu 60), Klimas (Golding 46), Cohalan (Zetter-Plummer 46), Owusu (Bansoodeb 46), Hanson, Kasujja (Madden 70), Ouattara, Madden (Bobb-Semple 46)

Booked: Zetter-Plummer 88

Sent off: Hanson 89

Gary McDermott on tough Celtic test

Gary McDermott says his side faced a tough challenge against a talented Celtic side this afternoon.

"It was a good test against a really good time, that was the reason why we wanted this fixture," he said.

"I actually thought we had some really good moments and were unlucky to in 2-0 down at half-time, we hit the post, we had a good one-on-one.

"We made some slight tweaks at half-time and I thought we were a lot better with the ball. We went down to ten men and it was always going to be a struggle but it was a good learning curve for a young player to be sent off for a second yellow for kicking the ball away.

"We work really hard on the training pitch so this was an important moment for us to make sure we're at it when we go to Hull."