A much brighter, attacking Celtic succumbed to the same result after identical goals from the hosts.

Celtic almost caught Radcliffe napping when Moses Yoak put Raul Correia through on goal, he got the opportunity, his shot flashing wide of the post by a fraction, whilst at the other end, Luca Navarro brought the best out of Greg Hall, a fabulous one-handed save as Navarro cut in from the wing. The opening goal, when it came, saw Matthew Crothers overlap unmarked to latch onto Navarro’s ball diagonally across the box, smashing in his shot. Celtic continued searching for the confidence-boosting goal to turn their fortunes around, with Matthew Liptrott dashing into the box, but his shot lacked the pace to beat Tom Stewart. Stewart kept his side in the lead with a fine block, as Correia latched onto Ethan Padden’s cross, the ball rebounding to Ozzie Abadaki who volleyed it straight back, but over the bar.

The second half saw Navarro almost catch Celtic napping, and he should have converted Jake Thompson’s cross, but fired wide. Moments after Ethan Padden had his choice of places to shoot, but fired straight at Stewart, Celtic were undone a second time as Navarro’s ball through the box met the overlapping Crothers for his second of the evening, rifling in during an identical move to the opener with twenty minutes remaining. Celtic pressed and Tom Miller’s goal-bound effort required a latch ditch body from Courtney Meppen-Walter to deny pulling a goal back, Ozzie Abadaki getting onto the corner, but not troubling Stewart with the low shot. Abadaki would have finally beaten Stewart, but Meppen-Walter was again on hand with a stuck-out limb to diver the ball over the bar. With only a minute remaining, Miller was brought tumbling down at the edge of the box. Correia stepped up and put the ball beyond Stewart’s fingertips to pull one back. With stoppage time remaining, Celtic tried, but Radcliffe were content to pull everybody back and thwart further attacks to see out the game.

With the players getting into position much more in this match, the result came down to confidence.