CELTIC youngster Aidan Nesbitt believes he will return to Parkhead as a better player following his loan spell with Greenock Morton. 

The 20-year-old scored one goal in 39 appearances for the Cappielow club as they pushed for promotion to the top-flight before falling to defeat in last week's play-off quarter-final against Dundee United. 

Nesbitt, who will travel with the Scotland Under-20 squad to the Toulon Tournament later this month, was happy with a season of progression under Jim Duffy.

“Personally I think I had a decent season," he told gmfc.net.

"I played over 30 games overall and it’s been brilliant for me. If you compare some of my performances at the start of the season to the end, I reckon I’ve come on quite a lot.

"I definitely think I’m going back into Celtic for pre-season at a better stage than when I left.

“That’s what loans are for, and I’m happy I can say that. Obviously the gaffer has helped me a lot, Jim Duffy always wanted me to be positive, and I can only thank him for helping me this season.

“It’s a good place to go and learn. From my experience at Morton I’ve really enjoyed it and based on that it’s certainly the first place I’d recommend anybody to go if they were looking for the kind of loan I had.”

Despite looking back on the season as a whole in a positive light, Nesbitt was disappointed by the manner of their defeat to United in last week's play-off, when they were beaten 5-1 on aggregate.

"I felt we were the better team for the first half and at the start of the second, but they scored against the run of play," he said.

“Then that puts them two ahead in the tie and they kind of relax, start passing it out a bit and the game opens up because we need to push, and they kind of picked us off at the end.

“It was hard for us then. A lot of boys had played a lot of games and the heavy legs kicked in. Obviously, we were majorly disappointed to go out of the play-offs but it was a great season for the club and I felt the boys did great this year.”