East Stirlingshire boss Derek Ure wants positive start against Celtic B

Ure believes the addition of the B teams into the Lowland League creates different, but positive, challenges for the rest of the sides in the division.

In July, Rangers B edged out Shire with a narrow 1-0 win, and Ure believes Celtic’s youngsters will pose a similar threat on Friday night when they meet at Airdrie’s Penny Cars Stadium.

He said: “There was a lot of scepticism about the arrival of the colts teams but I think, now they’ve been in for a while, they’ve proved to everybody that they're a good addition to the league.

"They play good football and have fitted in well.

"We have had good experiences with both clubs so far and that’s positive.

"Ultimately, though, we have to go there on Friday night and get the three points but we’re under no illusions about about how hard a task that’s going to be.

"If you look at the teams both Rangers and Celtic have fielded this year, there are a lot of young kids which is great for their development and a real change for our players.

"It’s a different challenge for them because they then have to think quicker because these young players are quicker upstairs with them being elite, full-time football players.

"There’s no secret that they’ll be fit but they also have quality on the ball and we can’t allow them to dictate.

"But, saying that, we have good quality players in our team so I’m confident we can get the points.

"If we look at the Rangers game, in the first half we stood off them and gave them too much respect.

"In the second half we turned it into a game and made it hard for them and were unfortunate not to get something out of it.

"That’ll be the emphasis from us, to make sure we do that from the first whistle and don’t leave it until half time before we start taking part.”

Shire go into the game sitting in seventh place in the Lowland League, just one place and one point behind Friday night’s hosts.

Celtic, though, have played four games less.

On Saturday the side was stung in the dying seconds of their home match with Broomhill, the visitors grabbing an injury time winner to ensure a 1-0 win.

Ure admitted there was plenty of room for improvement on the performance.

He said: “We switched off and didn't defend the set-piece well.

"But defensively we had looked ok for the vast majority of the game.

"The problem on Saturday was that we didn’t create enough and lacked that spark.

"We just didn't do enough to win the game and get us over the line.

"It was a disappointing performance all in but the boys have been excellent for us all season and we need to accept that we’ll have a poor performance once of twice.

"It’s disappointing though that we’ve now had two on the bounce.”

Kick off for Friday evening’s game in Airdrie is 7.45pm.