Both sides had chances in the first half, but after Celtic took the lead and lost a man, Rylands shifted up through the gears and rode out worthy winners.
Celtic could have taken the lead inside thirty seconds, when Nathan Caine found Raul Correia unmarked by the near post with a cross, but his header whizzed an inch over the bar. This vein of ‘almost’ continued for both sides throughout the half, Callum Dolan’s diagonal effort and Correia’s turned in low cross were both wide, whilst Caine drove into the box, but fired across the face and an inch or two wide. Moses Yoak came close off a corner, curling the ball in and off the crossbar. Not to be outdone, a rising screamer from Dolan smacked against the underside of the bar, crashing down the right side of the line as far as Celtic was concerned, hacking the Ryland’s attack away. A point blank reaction save from Greg Hall kept Celtic in the match, and AJ Leitch-Smith’s curling shot from a tight angle Hall had to push around the post.
The second half saw Celtic start to take the upper hand. Yoak’s shot got pushed over the bar with a reaction block, Correia’s strike off the following corner hitting the bar. A perfect setup by Correia set up Tom Miller for a low drive from the edge of the box, which flew agonisingly wide.
A goal felt inevitable, and a forty yard pass from Louis Danquah right into Correia’s stride allowed the Celtic striker to shrug off the attention, going one-on-one and opening the scoring for Celtic.
Though Rylands upped their game after the goal, chances were lacking. Rylands made a trio of subs, changing their dynamic further. It took fifteen minutes for them to make an impact but they did. The first sub, Harry Pratt, drove straight at the Celtic back line, only to be up-ended right on the edge of the box by Kyle Harrison. Harrison saw red and the second sub, Kyle Mantack, hit the post with his free kick. The third sub, Kelly N’Mai found the space he needed to turn at the edge of the box and fired just beyond Greg Hall’s fingertips to equalise.
N’Mai wasn’t finished. Six minutes later, he did it again, this tie hitting the post and Greg Hall’s back on the way in. Despite a lot of stoppage time, Rylands took all three points and pushed Celtic into the relegation spots.
1 | Torrance, Joel | ||
2 | Duxbury, Scott | ||
3 | Mustoe, Jordan | > 66 | |
4 | Hockenhull, Ben | ||
5 | Egerton, Sam | ||
6 | McCourt, Jak | ||
7 | Leitch-Smith, AJ | > 65 | |
8 | Furman, Dean | ||
9 | Dolan, Callum | ||
10 | Cooke, Sean | > 67 | |
11 | Niels, James | ||
12 | Pratt, Harry | < 65 | |
13 | Cookson, Jack | ||
14 | Hunt, John | ||
15 | Mantack, Kallum | < 66 | |
16 | NMai, Kelly | < 67 |