Match Report -
Celtic Through at the second attempt
By Iain Benson
Celtic progressed past Telford in their own backyard with a solid performance against talented opposition.

It looked bleak from the kick off, when a corner was whipped in and Shane Killock rose highest in the box to plant his header out of Dave Carnell's reach and give the home side a lead inside two minutes. Celtic are the ?away day specialists? according to the Telford radio commentary, and they proved that. Although Telford looked to build on their goal, with Danny Edwards's grass skimming shot collected comfortably by Carnell, a quarter of an hour in, and Celtic were getting into the game with quick passing.

A Joe O'Neill shot was deflected wide, with Ryan Young going to collect it, and succeeding in carrying it over the line for a corner. Telford did not deal with the corner very well, and it came to Keith Briggs who fired through the crowd, the ball deflecting off an unfortunate Gavin Hurren wrong-footing Young and bringing Celtic level. Telford tried to get back into the game, especially with powerful ink up play from Jon Adams and Lee Vaughan, but the Celtic defence held firm, and the two teams reached the interval level.

If Telford had started the first half like a train, Celtic started the second half like the express. Liam Blakeman upended Matty Barlow, and Telford did not deal with the resulting free kick particularly well, a looping ball from Dave Hankin finding Joe O'Neill who looped a header over the grasping hand of Ryan Young and into the net.

Moments later, and Young made amends, with a pair of fine saves first off Barlow, then off Hankin, both of whom had twisted the Telford defence into knots before firing low. Telford shook up their line up with three subs in ten minutes, and it did allow Telford to press Celtic back into their own half, but Steve Woods and John Hardiker stood firm. As the game went into the last ten minutes, Telford were really pushing forward, but were forced to shoot from distance with Lee Vaughan and Phil Trainer firing in from twenty plus yards.

So Celtic go forward to play Nantwich Town, who are currently eleventh in the Unibond Premier.

1Young, Ryan  
2Vaughan, Lee  
3Killock, Shane  
4Cowan, Gavin  
5Whitehead, StuartYellow Card 
6Hurren, Gavin  > 59
7Adams, JonYellow Card 
8Blakeman, Liam  
9Thompson, Steve  > 67
10Trainer, Phil  
11Edwards, Danny  > 59
12Carey-Bertram, Danny  < 59
14Rodgers, CarlYellow Card < 59
15Newton, Sean  < 67
16Embrey, Scott  
17Nurse, Chris