Despite a bad start and playing for nearly an hour with ten men, Celtic were the dominant force in the game.

The bad start came when Jordan Butterworth ran into Danny Glover in the box, conceding an early penalty Glover converted himself despite James McClenaghan getting a hand to the ball. Celtic have been behind before, and kept their heads, with Max Leonard forcing a parry by Curtis Pond into the path of Lewis Rawsthorn but Pond recovered and claimed the ball before Rawsthorn pounced. From a corner, Sean Tse headed back into the mix from the edge of the box, Jack Irlam getting the telling touch to divert the ball past Pond. Moments after picking up a booking stopping a breakaway from Chasetown, Joe Duckworth soared to get onto Butterworth’s inch perfect cross, leaving Pond no chance. Chasetown came close, with Dan O’Callaghan narrowly wide and Glover hitting the crossbar, but it looked like Celtic would score next, until Duckworth complained about what he saw as an inconsistency and seeing a second yellow, dismissed from the pitch. Even so, Aaron Chalmer’s half volley needed a stuck out leg and both Liam Tongue and Leonard went close to close out the half.

Another bad start saw Chasetown draw level with a decent goal, Mitchell Clarke holding the ball up at the by-line, before pulling it back for the incoming Samuel Wilding to curl a beauty into the top corner. The travelling faithful didn’t have time to start worrying, as Rawsthorn kept in a ball he shouldn’t, held off two and lofted a ball to Kyle Brownhill who’d come the full pitch length to smash the volley in at the near post. And it didn’t stop at accepting a draw for Celtic. Who had ten men? Chasetown chased shadows at times and they got their reward when Brandon Newell twisted and ducked in the box, bringing it out to Tongue who curled a low shot past the outstretched fingers of Pond with twenty minutes to go.

Obviously, Chasetown are no mugs and as Celtic tired in the last fifteen, they upped the pressure, but for the most part, Celtic kept the hosts at bay, but one half-cleared cross fell nicely for Jordan Buckley and he made no mistake, narrowing the gap to one, with six minutes of normal time remaining along with more than that of stoppages. Joseph Thompson tried his luck from distance and Alfie Taylor fluffed his big chance giving Celtic a deserved but unexpected victory and lifting us back into the top five mix.