Two catastrophic mistakes allowed Trafford a two goal lead and to dictate the play, but though Celtic finished strongly, it was too little too late.

In the opening minutes, Celtic were quick, crisp and attacking, with Jack Irlam on target but lacking the power to beat Sam Booth, but when Rio Clegg was given a sight of goal from the edge of the box, it required Charlie Monks to make a decent stop down to his right, the rebounded ball should have been cleared by a defender following in, but the only person following in was Isaac Noble to tap in the opener. Clegg got his goal quarter of an hour later, when Daniel Lafferty and Charlie Monks had a failure to communicate, juggling the ball between them, allowing Clegg to nip in and take the spluttering ball to put it in the back of the net.

For the rest of the half, one-way traffic saw Celtic try to convert any of half a dozen gilt-edged chances into a goal. Connot Hughes headed tamely back at Booth, Liam Tongue fired narrowly wide when in his favoured edge-of-the-box position, Irlam had a decent chance off the corner, forcing Booth into a cracking stop through a crowd and Tinning got two chances from set-pieces, but was unable to convert either.

The second half saw Celtic edge ever close to finding the target, Jack Higginbottom getting a telling leg on the line to deny Max Leonard, Tongue firing the rebounded shot over the bar and Tongue later seeing his effort blocked on the line by former Celt Brad Byrne. Hughes headed almost onto the post and Irlam headed a free kick scant millimetres over the bar. With twenty minutes remaining a queue of Celtic players tried to blast a ricocheting ball through a crowded box, with Tongue, Ash Leather and Joe Edwards all seeing too many legs in the way. Five minutes after being brought on, Prince Anuniru twisted around the back of Ryley Smith, who pulled him down, just inside the box. Liam Tongue converted the spot kick, with seven minutes left on the clock. Hughes twice went agonisingly close, and Edwards forced an important stop out of Booth deep into stoppages.

Celtic need to start taking their chances next week, away at Vauxhall, who have just put six past Bootle, in Bootle.