Stalybridge Celtic beat their hosts New Mills in the FA Youth Cup on September 11th with a scoreline of 3-4!
�MARCHING ON TOGETHER'. Stalybridge Celtic Academy could well start using it as their new Anthem. As tonight at a rain swept Church Lane the Academy had an entourage of all the Coaches and Managers in Colin Chambers, Steve Cross, Paul Bennett, Duncan Welsby, Kieran Bentley and Danny Jean Yves at the game sharing responsibilities and making the lads as comfortable and focused as they could be to the job in hand. This followed by the squad of 16 players on the night and another 10 of the squad that travelled to support their team-mates. Add to this all the parents and friends of the players that came to the game we were literally MARCHING ON TOGETHER with a great support that made the night very special for the players. The night began with New Mills starting the brighter with some no-nonsense tackling and strong approach. New Mills bossed the opening 15 minutes as the Stalybridge lads struggled to get their passing game together on a slippery surface. But after the initial good start from the home team Celtic took the lead through JACK TURNER. A neat move down the right involving Craig McKay and Connor Grant saw McKay get into the box and pull the ball back for Turner to run in from the edge of the box and shoot right-footed leaving the New Mills Goal-keeper no chance from 15 yards. Te minutes later with half-time approaching Celtic scored their second to go 2-0 up. The goal was made up of several passes of one and two-touch football as TURNER found himself on the edge of the area and played a wall-pass with Adam Massey and then firing a left-footed shot into the bottom corner of the net. What a goal and in fair-play to the New Mills supporters, everybody in the Stadium applauded. Straight from the re-start and in New Mills' first meaningful attack their nippy left-winger slipped past McKay with good pace and squared the ball across the face of goal for a tap-in at the back-post.
Half-time 2-1 to Celtic
The start of the second-half was quite even until 15 minutes and then New Mills equalised with some sloppy defending and ball-watching from the Stalybridge Lads. However, it was a good finish and Anthony Windle in the Celtic goal was left with no chance as his defenders stood rooted with the New Mills Striker smacked the ball home. The home supporters came to life as their team upped the tempo only for Celtic to score from a corner with JORDAN LEACH on hand to put Celtic 3-2 up on 65 minutes. NEW MILLS under-lined their committed team -spirit again to equalise ten-minutes from time. With five-minutes left, JORDAN LEACH replaced the injured Jak Turner. Celtic had fresh legs as LEACH started to cause problems with his pace. The winner came when a powerful shot was only parried by the New Mills Goal-keeper only for JOSH LOGAN to follow up and score from close range. The Stalybridge crowd erupted and the goal decided a very competitive game. The Academy are through to a tantalising tie at Southport in the next round.
We would just like to thank NEW MILLS FC for the way they greeted us and afforded us excellent hospitality both on and off the field, which was a great credit to their football club.
