In a game that turned on its head several times, Celtic eventually prevailed despite intense pressure from an excellent Wythenshawe Town team.

From the off, Wythenshawe’s qualifications for a top five finish were on display. It took a last-ditch block from Sean Tse to deny Luke Merrill’s drive from the edge of the box, before Max Leonard made a mistake with a pass and while trying to recover, tripped Chinedu Uche juts outside the box. Wythenshawe went for a pre-planned move, knocked sideways and drilled past the wall, with Charlie Monks unsighted. Wythenshawe came into the game having not conceded away from home in the league and on the back of a good FA Cup run, so it would take something special to unlock their defence. Special came from the right boot of Ash Leather, floating in a perfect free kick into the danger area. Jack Irlam staked his place for a regular start with a well-timed jump to thump in the equaliser past former Celtic custodian, Greg Hall minutes before the interval.

If Leather’s cross had been special, that made Aaron Chalmers’s exceptional. A half-cleared corner was chased down by Chalmers. Under pressure and with the outside of his boot, he lifted the ball over a defender for Matty Bryan to glance his header past a despairing Hall and nosing Celtic in front.

Wythenshawe tried to get back in front, breaking quickly from a corner, but Luke Nock knocked it wide, but their pressure was relentless. Despite previously overlooking a failure to retreat for a quick free kick by Uche, when Bryan did the same, he was shown a yellow card, his second for the match and was dismissed, much to his perplexion. James Kinsey immediately re-organised into a hyper-defensive formation and frustrated Wythenshawe with tireless harassing in the defensive third. So strong was the Celtic back line that the visitors couldn’t get near goal, and Celtic came the closest to adding a cushion, but Hall denied Tongue and Jordan Butterworth fired over. Wythenshawe’s pressure only increased as Celtic tired, but they worked hard and kept the visitor’s chances to long range efforts. Monks easily collected Rodney Ajayi’s effort and pounced on Eddie Servuts’s narrow angle drive. Two minutes into an agonising nine and a half minutes of stoppages, Charlie Monks pulled off the save of the match, one handed, flying to the top corner to tip over Matty Liptrott’s curling shot.

Celtic’s immense defensive performance for thirty minutes deserved the applause and the points.