Celtic's post-Christmas slump continued, seeing them effortlessly exit the Cheshire Senior Cup, despite the opposition having no shots on target apart from the penalty.
All of the running was being done by the hosts, with Vauxhall content to batten down the hatches, aided by a shot-shy Celtic front line. At times Celtic looked to be trying to walk the ball into the net, but when they did shoot, it required some fine goalkeeping from Ryan Crump, who made two cracking saves in the opening twenty minutes to deny first Darius Osei who burst through and unleashed a curling shot Crump could only parry back out to Ross Dent, twenty-five yards out. Dent's return effort was a dipping beauty of a shot that Crump athletically palmed over the bar. Neil Kengni, Scott Bakkor and Anthony Whitehead all went close, but it was a case of no results for their half-hearted efforts.
The second half was plagued by stoppages, but despite all the chances falling to Celtic, the closest the home team got was Whitehead's excellent free kick that wrong-footed the visiting defence requiring another fine save from the Motors custodian. Kengni tried a low effort into a crowded box, but Tom Mitchell stuck out a leg to divert the ball wide.
In a rare foray up field, substitute Michael Burkey got the better of Jack O?Leary, who clumsily tripped the substitute, with no hesitation from the officials to point to the spot. Veteran, Karl Noon stepped up to take the kick, placing it in the bottom corner.
There were still twenty minutes on the clock, but despite being a goal down, Celtic seemed unlikely to muster another chance, and so it was that Celtic limped from the Cheshire Senior cup missing out on a potential payday against Hyde in the next round.
1 | FojtÃÄek, Alex | ||
2 | Mantack, Kallum | ||
3 | O'Leary, Jack | ||
4 | Dent, Ross | > 72 | |
5 | Taylor, Max | ||
6 | Smalley, Chris | ||
7 | Bakkor, Scott | ||
8 | Whitehead, Anthony | > 59 | |
9 | Osei, Darius | ||
10 | Pearson, Mark | ||
11 | Kengni, Neil | > 59 | |
12 | Ustabasi, Jonathan | ||
14 | O'Halloran, Stephen | ||
15 | Freedman, Harry | < 59 | |
16 | Walker, Declan | < 59 | |
17 | MacDevitt, Liam | < 72 |
1 | Crump, Ryan | ||
2 | Mason, Kynan | ||
3 | Heath, Joseph | ||
4 | Gardner, Anthony | ||
5 | Mitchell, Tom | ||
6 | Cooper, Haydn | ||
7 | Holmes, Ben | ||
8 | Rule, Glenn | ||
9 | Noon, Karl | > 90 | |
10 | Cox, Ryan | > 54 | |
11 | Cross, Daniel | > 54 | |
12 | Brandon, Joe | < 54 | |
14 | Burkey, Michael | < 54 | |
15 | Carlin, Matthew | ||
16 | Scarisbrick, Kyle | < 90 | |
17 | Drummond, Greg |