Celtic were good for the win and despite not being their sparkling best, goals from Benni Smales-Braithwaite, Liam Tongue and Joe Duckworth sealed an important win. However, well-executed set-pieces from the hosts nearly got Hanley a point.
Moments after Lewis Rawsthorn fired too close to Adam Whitehouse in the Hanley nets and Max Leonard had rolled his shot agonisingly wide, Hanley got a corner. Twenty yards from goal, Corey Muirhead lurked unmarked. The corner came to him, and he fired through the crowd, Charlie Monks left unsighted, only able to watch the ball fly in. No panic, Celtic carved out another chance. This time, Benni Smales-Braithwaite thirty yards out, danced past one challenge to make the space and curled a low shot, looking to be going wide, until it hit the grass, at which point the spin curled the ball into the bottom corner. Though Jack Tinning came close after remaining up for a free kick, the two teams went in at half-time level, with Hanley more likely feeling the most pleased with that result.
Liam Tongue caused that feeling to end with a sensational strike from the edge of the box after Rawsthorn got to the byline, shrugged off a defender, and pulled the ball back for Tongue to smash into the top corner. Smales-Braithewaite almost repeated his first half wonder-goal, and Rawsthorn went one-one-one with the keeper, Whitehouse coming out victorious. A massive let off for Celtic came when Lewis Holdham found himself a yard from goal, Charlie Monks motionless after colliding with a post, the ball at his feet and he put his shot over the bar. The let off didn’t last, when another corner came in and Joel Stair got his head to it, and equalised.
After the goal celebrations died down, Joe Duckworth replaced the injured Sean Tse, and with his first touch connected with Rawsthorn’s pullback and gave Celtic the lead. Hanley had Whitehouse to thank for not going further behind, Duckworth forcing him into a save low to his right, but Whitehouse had more in his locker. Duckworth came in on the diagonal and Whitehouse denied him at full stretch, somehow pushing himself up enough to reach Rawsthorn on the rebound, dinking his shot over the prone keeper, Brandon Newell fired almost straight at Whitehouse, when he got one-on-one, but though the home side pushed in the stoppages, they never really threatened enough to cause a problem.
1 | Whitehouse, Adam | ||
2 | Jones, Reece | > 77 | |
3 | Lawton, Sean | ||
4 | Muirhead, Corey | ![]() | |
5 | Stair, Joel | ||
6 | Briscoe, Henry | ||
7 | Holdham, Lewis | ||
8 | Bowden, Josh | ||
9 | Wakefield, Tom | > 84 | |
10 | Cooke, Sean | ||
11 | Wakefield, Jack | ||
14 | Stair, Theo | ||
15 | Marcisz, Mitchell | < 77 | |
16 | Jatta, Mumahed | < 84 |
1 | Monks, Charlie | ||
2 | Swaby-Neavin, Javid | ||
3 | Brownhill , Kyle | ||
4 | Newell, Brandon | ||
5 | Tse, Sean | > 65 | |
6 | Tinning, Jack | ||
7 | Smales-Braithwaite, Benni | > 90 | |
8 | Tongue, Liam | ||
9 | Rawsthorn, Lewis | ||
10 | Leonard, Max | > 59 | |
11 | Irlam, Jack | ||
12 | Duckworth, Joe | < 65 | |
14 | Nasseri, Navid | ||
15 | Rokka, Elliot | ||
16 | Burton, Jordan | < 59 | |
17 | Wilkinson, Greg | < 90 |