Cappielow is a home away from home for Aidan
New Morton loan signing Aidan Nesbitt sees Cappielow as a home away from home and hopes to continue his prolific form here after swapping green and white hoops for the blue variety.
Aidan is no stranger to the Greenock ground having performed on Mark Farrell’s pristine pitch for the Celtic development squad and Scotland youth teams on numerous occasions in recent years.
In fact, the 19-year-old winger reckons he might well have played at the Sinclair Street venue more often than most of his Ton team-mates such has been the frequency of his visits.
Speaking exclusively to gmfc.net, he said: “I already play at Cappielow every second week near enough with the Celtic Under-20s and when the loan happened a lot of people were saying to me: ‘Oh, you’re used to playing there.’
“I’ve played more at Cappielow than I have at Celtic Park. I’d be surprised if I hadn’t played more at Cappielow than the rest of the boys in the [Morton] dressing room!
“It’s a great stadium and a great pitch all year round, and that was important, because if it’s your home stadium and it’s a good surface and you know it’s a football playing team then you know you’ll not struggle to go and express yourself.
“Last week, I scored two against Annan. I’ve scored a lot of goals there – in the first six months of last year I might have scored about 12 goals at Cappielow. So I’ll be looking for the same in a Morton shirt in the next six months!”
Aidan sealed his loan switch, which runs until 4 January, on Tuesday afternoon and after a brief training session was selected in the starting line-up for the Betfred Cup tie against Hamilton Accies at the Superseal Stadium that same night.
He had a gut feeling that a temporary move to the Ton was right for him and the triumph over a Premiership club immediately reaffirmed that hunch.
He said: “I had heard that there was a major interest from Morton before the weekend and I was told to take my time and have a think about it.
“Obviously I saw they battered St Mirren in the first half on Saturday and I know some of the players. I obviously know Jamie [Lindsay] from Celtic.
“Ross Forbes is a great football player with a great left peg on him. [Michael] Tidser – great left peg, great football player. Gary Oliver, Jai [Quitongo] – good footballers. The way they play football means I will fit in. That helped me make my decision to come to Morton.
“There were a few options being spoken about but I knew the level Morton were playing at – and as you can see from the result against Hamilton, it’s a team going places.”
Aidan also revealed that Celtic first-team boss Brendan Rodgers advised him that joining the Ton until January would be beneficial to his development.
He explained: “I spoke to him on Monday and he said Jamie is here and that Jim Duffy is a great coach and that it’s a good team and that it will be good for me.”
The Scotland Under-19 cap was handed the No.11 shirt and started on the left flank against Accies before being replaced in the fourth minute of stoppage time.
He thoroughly enjoyed the experience as the Ton came from behind to reach the quarter-finals of the Betfred Cup and insisted it was no less than Duffy’s men deserved for their display.
He added: “It was brilliant. A massive game in the last 16 and, although we conceded an early goal, we absolutely battered Hamilton. But we went in 1-0 down at half-time and we could’ve scored four or five goals. Their keeper was excellent and we hit the bar.
“Our reaction was quality. We fought hard to turn the game around in the second half. We played really well and 100 per cent deserved the eventual outcome of the game.
“There were a couple of great goals, an amazing set-piece and an amazing finish from Jai, and as I said we could have scored even more than we did.
“Coming here, we’re hoping to win as many games as we can and if we play like we did against Hamilton on Tuesday night then I’m sure we’ll do really well.”
Photographs: David Bell
