Hanley good for the draw
By Deborah Taylor
Celtic missed the chance to go top, when Hanley Town snatched a late equaliser and a share of the spoils, but the visitors deserved a point.
It could have been a dream start for Celtic when Ash Leather turned inside Louis Keenan, the Hanley defender completely misjudging his tackle and upending Leather. However, Adam Whitehouse not only guessed correctly for Liam Tongue, he pulled off a great stop. Half chances came both sides way before Ethan Beckford thought he’d scored, but Aaron Chalmers, making his one hundredth appearance in a Celtic shirt, cleared off the line. Former Celt, Brandon Newall also went close to giving Hanley the lead, but Charlie Monks’s flying save denied him. An unexpected burst of speed from Jack Tinning right before the interval caught the Hanley defence unusually flat footed , putting him in a shooting position himself, but Whitehouse made the save.
After the interval, Max Leonard started a move, pushing up the pitch, finding Leather with a lovely weighted ball. Leather found Liam Tongue who crossed first time and Leonard had continued his run to get onto the low cross and finish the move he’d started. Leather, Tongue and Matty Bryan nearly gave Celtic a two goal cushion going into the last twenty minutes, but couldn’t find a way past Whitehouse. And so the onslaught began in the last twenty minutes with Hanley looking to salvage the match. Dylan Scott’s tight angle still required a fine one handed stop from Monks, but physicality from a corner undid Celtic with five minutes to go. Newall hit the bar and Monks couldn’t reach the ball with a wall of away shirts surrounding him, and Joel Stair could latch onto the loose ball and equaliser. Despite five minutes of added time and the introduction of new loan signing Kamoy McNair from Salford, Celtic couldn’t regain the lead and shared the points.
