Match Report -
Celtic Lose At Home To Chorley In The FA Cup
By Debbie Taylor

Three soft goals saw Celtic exit the FA Cup at the hands of Chorley, with a penalty late on giving Celtic a life line their good play had deserved until poor defending gave the visitors a cushion to see out stoppage time with.

Celtic pressed the visitors throughout the opening exchanges, with Liam Dickinson turning and firing over the bar, Tom Brown finding a gap bbut firing wide, before pressure from Dickinson on Andy Teague from Aidan Chippendale's curling cross saw the Chorley defending narrowly miss giving Celtic the lead with a cracking header that had Matt Urwin at full stretch to tip it over.

Moments after Oli Robert's twenty yard drive was blocked on-route, Chorley were giving the first of their gifts. There were plenty of bodies in the box, but a drop off to Joe Slinn for him to launch up field saw the keeper instead roll it out as far as Marcus Carver who didn't need asking twice as he blasted it into the back of the net. Chorley pressed their momentary advantage as Celtic tried to recover from the shock goal, giving Carver the chance to have another crack, this time, his effort clipping the top of the woodwork.

Right at the death, quick thinking and brave keeping denied Celtic an equaliser when Theo Bailey-Jones bore down on to a loose ball, Matt Urwin quickly off his line, smothering as Bailey-Jones tried to dink it round the keeper.

The second half started with Celtic still looking the better of the two sides. Liam Dickinson's header was too close to Urwin letting the keeper make the save, and Bailey-Jones's follow-up was well saved by Andy Teague, again, almost at the expense of an own goal, the ball drifting just wide of the post.

Alex Honeyball, back peddling, collided with Josh Wilson thirty yards from goal. Honeyball was harshly penalised, and Celtic were punished. The free kick was floated into the space between keeper and defence. Slinn should have been snapping it up, but Josh Wilson snuck in to get the slightest of touches to turn the cross into the back of the net.

Honeyball almost got on the scoresheet himself after another good move saw Celtic win a corner, but the defender's header was wide of the mark, looking to have taken a touch from Teague, and it took a great save from Matt Urwin to deny John Coffie his first goal for the club at the near post, the ferocity of the drive almost knocking Urwin into his net with the ball. Danny Morton was getting forward a lot, and after several crosses, went on his own with a curling shot that took just the slightest of nicks for a corner.

Celtic deserved a goal, and they got it when Aidan Chippendale got ahead of Paul Jarvis, who clumsily brought him down in the box, yards from goal. Liam Dickinson stepped up and smashed the penalty into the top corner, giving Urwin no chance of reach the ball.

Celtic sensed that they could get something in the final couple of minutes and pressed hard, though Chippendale's shooting was wild at times and Luke Ashworth should have got his header on target from a corner.

In the end, it was comfortable for Chorley, when Garvin tried to play the ball back to Slinn instead of launching the ball down field, it lacked the pace to reach the keeper, and Jason Walker picked it up, forcing a good stop from Slinn, but the ball went back to Carver, who simply squared it for Walker to have a second chance, which he took, despite Morton sliding in to try and deny him on the line.

There was just chance for Paul Ennis to fire the ball over the bar from thirty-five yards, before Celtic saw their FA Cup run end after two games. Celtic now travel to Witton Albion on Tuesday knowing anything less than a win would be disastrous and possibly the worst start to a Celtic season ever.

1Urwin, Matt  
2Challenor, Matt  
3Blakeman, Adam  > 52
4Teague, Andy  
5Anson, Adam  
6Jordan, Stephen  
7Haughton, Nick  
8Whitham, Dale  > 77
9Carver, Marcus  
10Wilson, Josh  
11Cottrell, Jake  > 59
12Roscoe, Adam  
14OKeefe, Josh  < 59
15Jarvis, Paul  < 52
16Walker, Jason  < 77
17Charnock, Kieran  
18Hughes, Matt  
19Beesley, Will