With Celtic needing the win to save their season, one might have expected a little more goal mouth action, however that failed to materialise.

Rylands had nothing to play for, and strolled through the game, easily containing Celtic. Twenty-five minutes passed before the first shot, though it barely qualified, being half-hearted and wide. At the half hour mark, the first shot on target came, Danny Burns forcing Luke Pilling into a stop. Though comfortable for Pilling, it galvanised Celtic a little; they settled and pressed. Domaine Rouse headed a free kick over the bar, Theo Bailey-Jones curled his free kick straight to Pilling and Anis Zaknoune also got his low effort on target, though it lacked pace.

Mostly, the Celtic back line mopped up any of Rylands’s attacks, but when Zaknoune slipped as Rylands cleared their lines, it left Mo Touray free to race down the field. Luke Barlow curled across to intercept but as they reached the box, a sideways ball into the path of Matthew Sargent, leaving Barlow and Joe O’Shaughnessy no chance. Rylands finished the half stronger, with former Celt Ozzie Abadaki getting two chances to score in stoppages, but O’Shaughnessy coped easily with both efforts, as he did with Scott Duxbury’s header from a corner right at the end of the half.

Celtic’s chances of survival shrank, but still they did not carve out the chances throughout the second half and Rylands came the closest to scoring. Abadaki saw a free kick tipped over the bar before Celtic’s only shot in the half came courtesy of Curtis Morrison, who did the hard work to get into the box after running fifty yards, but did not trouble Pilling with the shot. With fifteen minutes to go, even after a triple substitution to switch up the Celtic attack, Rylands could have added to their tally, with Joe Adams powerful drive hitting the post, Celtic scrambling the ball clear. Again, right at the death, Rylands got the last chance of the game, Dena Amaral producing a top drawer save from O’Shaughnessy.

Without breaking into a sweat, Rylands easily brushed Celtic aside, so Celtic spurned another chance of escaping the drop, though with the other results in the league, we can still escape.