Ange Postecoglou handed new signing Alistair Johnston his Celtic debut in the Premiership game against Rangers at Ibrox on Monday afternoon. Here's how he got on...

First half

Johnston assumed the right-back role in place of Reo Hatate but ahead of Josip Juranovic and Anthony Ralston, who were on the bench and injured respectively.

His first involvement was patiently controlling the ball in the opening 40 seconds before bursting into life with a pass and overlapping run down the right. His cross on that occasion took a deflection and petered out into nothing but the powerful figure now inhabiting Celtic's number two jersey was still clear to see.

His next couple of touches were similar in the sense that he refused to look flustered despite the baying Ibrox crowd; although once or twice perhaps that calmness extended a fraction of a second too long for the occasion as the game wore on.

He joined with James Forrest to crowd out Glen Kamara on more than one occasion and showed impressive upper-body strength to hold off the Rangers defensive midfielder too.

Johnston did, it must be said, get sucked a tad too far in-field by Ryan Kent's movement which allowed a Borna Barisic overlap to go unchecked in the 17th minute.

Also notable was his passion - both in the challenge and in the sense that he was willing to challenge or protest any decision.

He displayed some fleet-footedness to escape Rangers pressure and some of that ice-hockey aggression our man Stewart Ross identified in TCW's in-depth scouting report was on show when crunching through John Lundstram inside the first half-hour - cleanly, despite the former Sheffield United man's protests to the contrary.

Indeed, by the time the whistle blew for the half the Canadian had won all three of his attempted tackles (the most of any player, per Opta) and his only aerial duel into the bargain.

In the 37th minute it was Johnston's composure on the ball that allowed him to play a smart, low pass from the right flank into the feet of Forrest in the box. It did not lead directly to a shooting chance but the threat was there nonetheless.

Celtic Way:

Second half

The 24-year-old began the second period by, unsurprisingly, winning a tackle. This time it was Kent on the receiving end within the opening few seconds before that was followed up by a foul on Kamara.

In the 47th minute Kent cut inside Johnston before curling an accurate effort past Joe Hart to level the scoreline; while the Canadian will be disappointed not to have got the block the build-up to the goal will likely show it was his opposite full-back Josip Juranovic's poor positioning that led to the goal.

That attempt to exploit Juranovic was a pattern the hosts' played to for much of the second half meaning Johnston's flank saw notably less action than the opening 45.

He did, however, have a new winger to get acquainted with after the hour mark in Liel Abada and the two tried to link up were possible, including Johnston playing some simple but effective straight passes through to the Israeli in an attempt to allow him to face up Barisic.

By the end of the match Johnston had accumulated almost 90 touches, remained the man who made the most successful tackles (four) and married that with a clearance and three recoveries for the concession of two fouls. He passed the ball at an 85 per cent accuracy rate.

"Alistair's ready to go - he wants to be a Celtic footballer and there's no better way to start his career," Postecoglou said about his selection pre-match. Indeed, on this evidence, his manager wasn't wrong.