Match Report -
Spot-kick save sinks Celtic
By Deborah Taylor

Celtic bowed out after a penalty shoot-out at Bower Fold, twice giving themselves a chance to go on and win, and twice failing to capitalise.

An initial scare with Eddie Church hitting the crossbar after beating the offside trap saw Celtic settle and contain the visitors. However, the closest Celtic came at the other end were two efforts from Max Leonard, spotting Aleks Petrovic off his line and trying an audacious fifty-yard lob that didn’t clear the bar by much. Liam Tongue also had a thirty-yard rocket whistle just over the bar. Ash Leather tried his luck from a corner, but his curling effort kissed the crossbar before being cleared. Joe Duckworth, making his debut, hit the first on-target shot, with Petrovic in fine form, blocking down low. Tongue on the follow-up saw the Ossett keeper deny him also, and Duckworth tapped in the second rebound, but was offside.

The second half saw Celtic look on top, but with nothing in the final third. Javid Swaby-Neavin finished a move he’d started, but curled his grasscutter wide. On a breakaway, Celtic went behind. Aaron Chalmers denied Church entry into the box, conceding a foul in the process. Church floated the free kick into the back post, where Connor Williamson powered onto the ball, to nod home and give the visitors the advantage with quarter of an hour to go. Ossett fell back to defend the slender lead, and Celtic could finally capitalise getting level inside three minutes when Duckworth got unceremoniously shoved while shepherding a ball for a corner, Harry Gagen the culprit. Liam Tongue converted from the spot. With ten minutes left, Celtic didn’t capitalise on this first reprieve, with the visitors coming the closest to winning the match in normal time, Harry Lynn from an acute angle denied at the near post by Charlie Monks.

With no extra time or replays, the game went straight to penalties.

Tongue and Chalmers both converted easily, but matched by Church and Prince Heywood. Max Leonard got his penalty all wrong, with an easy catch for Petrovic, giving United the edge again. However, Monks kept Celtic in the competition with a decent stop, low down to his right to deny goal-scorer, Williamson. Ossett matched Celtic scoring from each spot kick until the main five had gone and it went to sudden death. Jordan Butterworth stepped, but Petrovic pulled off a good stop and Connor Brady scored to send Ossett through.

1Petrovic, Aleks  
2Gagen, Harry  
3Williamson, Connor  
4Heywood, Prince  
5Qualter, Ryan  
6Qualter, Conor  
7Church, Edward  
8Proctor, George  > 90
9Watson, Adam  > 52
10Tuton, ShaunYellow Card > 58
11Osborne, Leon  
12Richardson, Lewis  
14Lynn, Harry  < 58
15Zottos, Basile  < 52
16Brady, Connor  < 90
17Sharman, Jamie