Martin O'Neill has defended his decision to give Sam Johnstone an Old Firm debut.
The Celtic manager faced criticism after selecting the Wolverhampton Wanderers loanee over Viljami Sinisalo for Sunday's 3-0 defeat to Rangers at Ibrox.
Johnstone had a tough afternoon but O'Neill believes the experience will ultimately benefit the former England international and insists that both goalkeepers are still in contention for the number one spot.
O'Neill said: "I wanted him to experience that match at Ibrox. This lad has played a lot of football, he was fourth choice for England not so long ago.
"But sometimes you haven't experienced this and you have to go through that."
The Celtic boss also praised Sinisalo, who impressed at the start of the season before making way for Johnstone. O'Neill added: "Sinisalo has done exceptionally well for us.
Read more
-
After befriending my Celtic 'role model', I'm aiming to follow in his footsteps
-
Despite a good start, we'll 'devise' a way to get more out of our best player
-
If Martin O'Neill wins another title, he'll 'definitely' get a Celtic statue
"But I think I need competition for places; I need to know what somebody does. Now I've got goalkeepers wanting to fight for the position.
"At some stage or another, one will probably take over."
He acknowledged the difficulties managers face in keeping multiple goalkeepers happy, but stressed that Celtic have not yet encountered any issues. O'Neill said: "That's the problem with goalkeeping, as loads of managers have found out.
"When you have two, and one doesn't play, then it becomes problematic in many aspects. But we haven't reached that stage. In training, Vil wants to be it. He wants to be the man.
"His training has been really good."
As Celtic prepare for their Europa League clash against Ferencvaros, the battle for the gloves remains very much open.
