A rush of blood from Theo Bailey-Jones saw Celtic sucked back into the relegation battle after defeat at Morpeth.

The opening period saw Celtic press the home side, looking threatening, but the opening goal came from an awful mistake by Morpeth. Michael Turner’s back pass under pressure from Bailey-Jones, looked innocuous enough, until Dan Lowson mis-controlled the ball, allowing it to roll across the line. Both Bailey-Jones and Domaine Rouse went close for Celtic, whilst the closest Morpeth came was a set-piece routine culminating in Jeff Henderson heading without power to Joe O’Shaughnessy in the Celtic nets.

Two minutes before the interval, with Celtic looking in control, Josh Robson shoved Bailey-Jones into the fencing as they both chased for a ball into the corner. There looked to be a stamp, and Bailey-Jones reacted, giving Robson a shove back. Officials see the aftermath, and the ref booked Bailey-Jones. The rush of blood came when Bailey-Jones went through Robson a minute later, earning a second yellow for him, and a smattering of bookings for the players in the ensuing melee.

That left Celtic facing forty-five minutes a man short. A goal to the good, Celtic spread out in two banks of four, inviting the home team onto them and hitting on the break. This started brilliantly well. Raul Correia provided an outlet when Celtic cleared their lines, held it up and laid off Harry Benns. Benns twisted and ducked into the box and lifted the ball back for Domaine Rouse, arriving at the back post to half-volley in Celtic’s second. Padden nearly repeated the trick again two minutes later, but Lowson stretched his fingers an inch to stop the low drive across the face past.

Jubilation of the two goal cushion lasted another two minutes. Too much space handed to Jack Foalle to carve out an opening for Connor Thomson, but he stumbled over the ball. Everybody in the box stood still, watching the ball bounce between Thomson and John Fenton. Fenton reacted first, firing past O’Shaughnessy and half the deficit.

Celtic didn’t panic. They kept their shape and went back to the game plan. Benns almost restored the two goal cushion, but Lowson made a stunning stop to deny him, whilst Benns’s cross found Rouse, who thumped his header over the bar. The game plan fell apart when Ben Sayer’s free kick from an acute angle sailed over everybody, including O’Shaughnessy, and into the top corner. Chris Wilcock went for the win, rather than holding onto the draw, throwing on three attacking players. DJ Pedro, Frankie Sinfield and Ethan Kershaw replacing Godwin Abadaki, Correia and Benns.

It almost worked. Sinfield fired wide within minutes of coming on, but then disaster at the back, Ryan Donaldson latching onto Jack Foalle’s cross and with all the time in the world and five minutes left on the clock, he put the home side ahead. Foalle could have grabbed himself a goal as stoppage time loomed racing in one-on-one, but O’Shaughnessy pulled off a great save. Seven minutes of stoppage time saw Celtic look for that one chance. They got it, six minutes into the seven. Robson up-ending DJ Pedro in striking range.

Debutant Kershaw stepped up.

It was a good free kick curling around the wall, but not by enough, and Celtic hover a single point above the bottom four.