O’Neill praises Aiden-inho’s debut goal

Hearts 1 Celtic 1

The 18-year-old made a dream start to his life in the spotlight with a stunning first-half strike which was later cancelled out by Mark de Vries’ second-half goal.

But O’Neill and the fans were left breathless after the Ireland youth player left Andy Webster for dead with a brilliant piece of skill which earned him lofty comparisons with Barcelona’s magical World Cup-winning superstar Ronaldinho.

The Celtic boss said: “I was absolutely delighted with him. I thought he played brilliantly and scored a goal which he took very well.

“He didn’t have too much time to think about it but he hit it brilliantly so he’s delighted and absolutely thrilled to bits.

“He tried a clever trick on the far side which said ‘Ronaldinho beware.’ It certainly had the fans gasping. He has great ability and it’s good to have good up-and-coming talent coming through.”

HEARTS: Gordon, Pressley, Webster, Severin, Neilson, Stamp (Hamill 26), Hartley, Kisnorbo (de Vries 56), Maybury, McKenna, Kirk (Weir 84).

CELTIC: Marshall, Agathe, Varga, Balde, Mjallby, Miller, Lennon, Petrov, Smith, McGeady (Beattie 68), Larsson.

Referee: K Clark (Scotland).

Celtic scooped another top double at the Scottish PFA awards last night when Chris Sutton and Stephen Pearson picked up the top prizes.

Versatile Englishman Sutton was voted player of the season, ahead of team-mates Henrik Larsson, Stilian Petrov and Rangers goalkeeper Stefan Klos, by his fellow professionals.

Pearson made it a double for the Parkhead club by beating former Motherwell team-mate David Clarkson, Hibernian’s Derek Riordan and Hearts’ Craig Gordon to the young player prize.