Game off - Hednesford
Match Report -
Celtic crash out of the Setanta Shield at the same point as last year
By Iain Benson
Celtic were comprehensively beaten by Southport, clinically turning defensive errors into goals. It started inside the first five minutes, with a counter attack through McGinn and Tony Gray, the latter threading the ball into the path of Daly who made no mistake one-on-one with Phillips.

Celtic attempted to get back into the game, and O?Connor's low drive was palmed away by McMillan, before the midfield tussle allowed Meynell to burst into the box and force McMillan into a second stop.

Booth was not picked up as he ran down the wing and cut inside towards goal. Phillips closed down the space quickly, but was helpless as Booth calmly chipped the ball over him to double Southport's lead. Booth could have put Southport out of sight when a similar run saw him fire low across the face of goal.

Celtic got back into the game in the last five minutes of the first half, with Smart latching onto Wood's square field ball and with the Southport defence at sixes and sevens, he fired low through the crowd, the ball curling away from McMillan and into the net with a wonderful strike. Seconds later, and Southport were again disorganised at the back, and Barwick could have netted the equaliser, when Barwick stole the ball from a sleeping defender, turned and shot only to see the ball rebound off the upright and fall kindly into McMillan's arms. Just before the interval, Barwick again found some space but fired across the face and narrowly wide.

The second half saw Celtic huffing and puffing but not making any in-roads towards goal, but on the plus side, denying any clear cut chances for the visitors. Only a goal behind, Burr made a raft of subs to try and get back on terms, bringing on Ellington, Torpey and Williams, all of whom had been left on the bench at the start.

Trickery from Torpey allowed him to find Smart, but his shot was palmed around the post, before Torpey took a chance himself, but McMillan got down well and smothered the shot.

Southport gave the game a gloss with two goals in two minutes, both down to Celtic pushed far up field. Robinson took the ball too easily from Sykes, to go clear of the defence. As Phillips rushed out, Robinson curled the ball around him. Moments later, a back pass from Sykes lacked the power to reach Phillips, and though the Celtic keeper rushed to narrow the gap, Tony Gray was always going to be first to the ball, and he slipped the ball under Phillips, rounded him and tapped into an empty net.

There were more goals than the last time Celtic played in this competition, but Celtic were punished going for an equaliser, and the end result was the same, with Celtic out of the Setanta Shield at the first time of asking.

1McMillan, Tony  
2Lever, Chris  
3Gray, Shaun  
4Flynn, Adam  
5Connolly, James  
6Doolan, John  
7Booth, Robbie  > 76
8Price, Chris  > 70
9Daly, Steve  > 74
10Gray, Tony  
11McGinn, Matty  
12Davis, Earl  
14Duffy, Mark  < 76
15Robinson, Neil  < 74
16Kilheeney, Ciaran  
17Powell, Michael  < 70
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