Celtic propelled themselves out of the bottom four with a comprehensive second half performance against fellow strugglers Liversedge.

The opening five minutes saw a crisp passing Celtic carving out chances with Nathan Caine latching onto a superb low cross from Theo Bailey-Jones. It took a reaction stop from Jordan Porter to deny him. Ciaran Summers got onto the end of a confident move, firing inches past the post. Just before Caine forced a second save from Porter, Jack Carr rounded Greg Hall but saw his tight angled shot cleared off the line by Matty Carson. Carr had another stab fifteen minutes in, producing a good stop from Hall, but there was nothing Hall could do when Carr’s cross evaded everybody to find Joseph Walton free and clear to turn the cross into the back of the net. Game management from visitors left little in the way of chances for either side to the interval.

Celtic needed a different game plan for the second half, and that came from Matty Carson. A free kick on the edge of the box gave Carson his chance and he took it, curling the perfect shot around the wall into the top corner. Three minutes later, and he got another chance. And he did it again!

When Jack Hardacre brought down Raul Correia in the box, Correia relinquished the spot kick to Carson to attempt his hat trick. Carson stepped up and almost took the back of the net off.

Celtic made the game safe when a terrible pass allowed Raul Correia to go one-on-one with Porter, rounding him and the defenders coming back to give Celtic a three gold cushion. And they needed that in the last twenty minutes, as a Liversedge threw everything they had at Celtic. Nicolas Walker fired wide, Alfie Raw’s screamer from forty yards required a flying save from Hall and finally Walton put the ball through a packed defence for Kurt Harris to tap in. Three goals proved insurmountable for the visitors, lifting Celtic to sixteenth.