Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers claimed the sky’s the limit for Dane Murray after the centre-back celebrated his new contract with a maiden goal in first-team football.
The 22-year-old headed home Celtic’s third goal from an Arne Engels corner as the Hoops beat Falkirk 4-1 at Parkhead to reach the Premier Sports Cup quarter-finals.
The central defender made his first appearances for Celtic in the Champions League play-offs against Midtjylland in 2021 but subsequently suffered two separate cruciate ligament injuries and did not play another first-team game for three years.
He was recalled from a loan spell at Queen’s Park midway through last season but injury ended his campaign prematurely after he returned to the Celtic team.
However, he was one of six players drafted in by Rodgers for the cup tie and he took his chance with a deft header from close range.
Rodgers said: “It’s great for him because he’s a great boy. He’s got a lot of potential. And I think over the next 12 to 18 months, he’s going to really grow.
“His ceiling is so high. There’s areas of the game that he needs to clearly, obviously, work on.
“But he’s 6ft 4in, he’s quick, he can take the ball. He has a comfort with the ball which aligns with top players.
“Just, concentration is something that’s key for defenders. But I really, really like him and that’s hence the reason we’ve tied him down – and I think he’s got a great future.”
Daizen Maeda scored the only goal of an open first half with a diving header and Celtic took full control after the break with a flurry of goals from Alistair Johnston, Murray and Liam Henderson’s own goal, before Keelan Adams notched an impressive consolation.
“I thought the performance was very, very good from the first whistle,” Rodgers said. “You’ve seen the hunger in the team and the intensity in the team.
“The first half we were good with the ball, but not so good without it. It gave Falkirk a couple of wee opportunities to break through.
“We weren’t aggressive enough and tight enough. When we corrected that at half-time, we really dominated the second half.
“The goals were excellent and I thought we played really, really well.”
Falkirk manager John McGlynn was frustrated that two Celtic goals came from set-pieces and two others came from his side losing possession deep in their own half.
But he was pleased with the way his top-flight newcomers approached the challenge.
“Kind of cheap goals, but Celtic deserved to win by that margin,” he said. “Of course they did with the amount of pressure they had on us, the amount of corners and the amount of attempts. So I didn’t have any complaints about that.
“We were kind of causing our own downfall, but I thought Celtic were very, very good. And we’ll need to take learnings from that.
“But you’re spending millions of pounds building a team like that. And I know the Celtic fans are still wanting more signings, but there didn’t look much wrong with that team to me.”
