Glasgow goes greener than green for Scott Brown's testimonial

Celtic 2 Ireland 2

On a green day in Glasgow, the Republic of Ireland prepared for the forthcoming friendlies against France and the United States with a 2-2 draw against Celtic in Scott Brown’s testimonial.

Alan Browne and Callum O'Dowda scored the Irish goals. Browne's came after three minutes, a lovely side-foot curling finish from around 15 yards. O'Dowda's came near the hour, a hard 20-yard shot hitting the bar and then ricocheting in off the back of the young Celtic substitute keeper, Ross Doohan.

Celtic's goals came from Leigh Griffiths and Patrick Roberts.

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The first of those was scored past Colin Doyle, the second past Conor O'Malley. O'Malley was one of seven players – Derrick Williams, Shaun Williams, Enda Stevens, Graham Burke, Darragh Lenihan, Callum Robinson and O'Malley – who got their first taste of senior football in an Irish shirt. It may not represent a cap for those players but it will mean something.

Parkhead looked around 80 per cent full to its capacity for Celtic captain Brown and while a portion of the football was played at the appropriate pace – 24 hours after Celtic won the Scottish Cup at Hampden Park – the sense of occasion was enough to provoke some effort, particularly from the Irish team.

James McClean was clearly enthused to playing at a stadium where he was given a reception second only to Brown's until Henrik Larsson made an appearance 15 minutes into the second half. The 46 year-old Swede remains the King of Kings in these parts.

Like McClean, Seamus Coleman was another Irishman not taking things lightly and up front, Jon Walters put in a shift. Those were some of the experienced names in otherwise experimental line-ups from O'Neill – virtually two different teams from the first hour to the last half-hour following a raft of substitutions.

Celtic (4-3-3): De Vries; Hendry, Simunovic, Mulgrew, Miller; Kouassi, Brown, Johnston; Roberts, Sinclair, Griffiths.

Republic of Ireland (4-4-2): Doyle (O'Malley 59); Coleman, Egan (Doherty 60) Lenihan (Stevens 73), D Williams (Cunningham 59; O'Dowda, Browne, S Williams (Burke 60) McClean; Maguire, Walters (Robinson 59).