Northwich went into the game wanting the win more, and came out with the win they wanted.

For much of the second half, it looked like Celtic would score, but they started behind the line when Sean Cooke’s initial shot was parried by Connor Harte into the path of Kieran Hamm, who bent his body to nod in the opening goal inside the first minute. Andre Mendes kept that slim lead for the Vics, pulling off a quad of excellent saves to deny Max Leonard and twice Dylan Scott, before blocking Ruben Jerome’s close-range effort. Five minutes before the interval, Celtic were hit on the break by the home side. Harte did will at full stretch to push away Will Lloyd’s rocket. The ball crashed off the post and could have gone anywhere, it went to Hamm to fire in a second. Two minutes later and game over happened before the interval, Max Sutton’s through ball found Ben Crane, though Hamm and Cooke were offside, blocking off Celtic defenders from getting back. Onside, Hamm didn’t dispute the finer points of the law, curling his shot around Harte.

Celtic made several changes in the second half, and Benni Smales-Braithwaite forced Mendes to a save, the Vics’ keeper somehow got across to block at almost point-blank. Max Leonard’s dipping twenty yard effort rattled the crossbar and a curler from Smales-Braithewaite found the fingertips of Mendes. Ruben Jerome marked his return to fitness finally breaking the home defence, and squirreling his shot under the body of Mendes, converting Max Leonard’s pulled-back cross. Any hope of a comeback ended when Matt Harrison met a corner unchallenged at the back post and in stoppage time, the pick of Vics’s goals when Ryan Atkinson powered through and blasted in a fifth.

Celtic can point to a makeshift backline, players rested and players returning, but Vics wanted it more. Positives, Mike Koral came through and both Jack Tinning and Ruben Jerome played the full ninety. Kyle Brownhill will be back against Avro, and Celtic will need to play an order of magnitude better to beat Avro.