Despite the score-line, Celtic played well and possibly deserved a draw. However, FC United cruise through with a flattering score-line after two penalties.

Celtic could claim to be the more dominant team in the opening twenty minutes, with Tom Miller heading a corner into the side netting, to the relief of the home fans behind the goal, and Godwin Abadaki couldn’t keep his effort down before Theo Bailey-Jones latched onto debutant, Chris Dagnall’s through ball, but his lifted shot hit the bar.

As is always the way, FC United’s first attack became the opening goal, Michael Potts sliced the Celtic defence wide open with a through ball that left Greg Hall exposed to Regan Linney, one-on-one, with the league’s top scorer making no mistake.

Celtic got right back into the game immediately, Bailey-Jones with his back to goal in a mass of players pulled the ball out to Nathan Caine. Caine had no margin of error with his shot threaded back through the crowd into the bottom corner with Dan Lavercome unsighted until it was too late.

After the offside trap twice worked against Linney, Linney eventually broke it again to go one-on-one with Hall, but the Celtic custodian had learned from Linney’s previous attack, pulling off a really good stop. However, there was nothing he could do with Max McCarthy following in to tap home the rebound.

The second half continued as the first had finished. Ethan Padden really should have done better when he found himself some space, but his shot from the edge of the box lacked any kind of pace, whilst Bailey-Jones took a touch when a first time shot seemed the better option, Lavercombe pushing the ball over the bar. At the other end, Linney again left the Celtic defence chasing him but again, Hall won the mano-e-mano. A Caine cross found Padden inside the box, he turned the ball goalward only for Lavercombe to pull off a decent stop.

And then everything fell apart for Celtic. Against the run of play, Linney ran into the box dogged by Dahrius Waldron the whole way, inside the box, Waldron’s grappling saw Linney fall and a penalty resulted. Linney took it himself, Hall guessing the right direction, but unable to get quite far enough to save. Ten minutes later and they got to face off again, this time for a much harsher penalty as Linney lifted the ball close range onto Dagnall’s hand from a corner. Linney went the opposite direction this time, and with only a few minutes left, despite some good attacking play, Celtic ran out of time.