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Scott Sinclair’s Celtic debut against Hearts in August 2016 has to go down as one of the best in the club’s history due to the circumstance behind it.
He signed for the Hoops on the 7th of August, and later that same day he made his debut for the team at Tynecastle as a second-half substitute.
The player came on in the second-half of the game, in the 61st minute, with the scores level at 1-1. 20 minutes later, Sinclair would have a big impact on the game.
He got on the end of a fine Leigh Griffiths cross and put the ball into the net to put the Hoops 2-1 ahead. That was the winning goal, and it set the tone for the rest of the season, for both Sinclair and the Hoops.
YouTube: Celtic super-sub Sinclair sinks Jambos on debut
It was a great bit of play by Sinclair for the goal, as he started the move in the first place by passing to Griffiths from just outside the Hoops penalty box, as Celtic rapidly broke forward in a counter attack. That one moment of football showed just how good a performer that Sinclair was going to be for the Bhoys.
Sinclair was a key man for the Hoops as Brendan Rodgers’ side won a domestic treble without losing a single game. In a team of many talents, Sinclair was the stand out performer.
He was named as Scotland’s player of the year by his fellow professionals, and his second trip to Tynecastle was just as productive as the first, as Sinclair scored a hat-trick as Celtic clinched the league title with a 5-0 win.
There seems little doubt that Sinclair would have been a success at Celtic in his first season at the club due to just how good a player he was. But the fact the got off to such a good start in his first game at the club allowed him to hit the ground running.
The fact that Sinclair manged to make such an impact on the Celtic side only a few hours after meeting his new teammates for the first time, just underlines how important a player that Sinclair would be for the Hoops, but in his first season in particular.
Sinclair went on to have a very successful career with the Bhoys, winning a host of trophies, before he moved to Preston in January 2020,where he is still playing at the time of writing.
Sinclair’s contribution to Celtic’s massive success over the last few years should not be forgotten, and it all started against Hearts.
