Celtic battled hard and got the three points, marred by two defences lapses.

Both teams went for it in the opening minutes, with Freddy Garbutt and Ellis Horan firing narrowly off-target at either end of the pitch, but Celtic drove Witton back to their own net, with desperate defending denying Liam Tongue with Ben Holmes throwing himself in front of his shot, and Lewis Rawsthorn’s blast from the corner hitting James Lawrie on the line. From this corner, Jacob Hamman almost headed the ball into the top corner of his own net, with Witton keeper, Terry Cameron stranded, but it missed by an inch. This time, Josh Granite showed a striker’s instinct when he received Horan’s corner, took a touch to make space and fired into the bottom corner through a crowd.

Pressure increased as Celtic looked for another. Jack Irlam headed an inch perfect cross from Horan the wrong side of the post, Horan fired over when he looked set to score, Lawrie’s stuck out leg denied Obua Mugalula, and Jack Tinning went really close from the corner. Mugalula put in another excellent cross for Tinning, and once more he went close but failed to score. This profligacy gave Witton a window back into the game, and with minutes left in the half, Charlie Monks made a great stop to deny Steele, but a series of set pieces, culminated with fullback Hamman racing in onto Joe Edward’s corner and netting in the equaliser.

Despite Horan going narrowly wide and Irlam again heading off-target, it was Witton who broke the deadlock with twenty minutes to go, again from a set-piece, Steele part of the near post crowd and the one to get his head on the free kick. Celtic were now looking for an equaliser. Benni Smales-Braithewaite’s curler was headed over his own bar by Lawrie and Jack Tinning volleyed the corner over. Again Lawrie denied Smales-Braithwaite but this time, Ruben Jerome rose to meet Smales-Braithwaite’s corner, and either he or Wade Rutherford got their head on it last, but Jerome’s header into the top corner that dragged the scores level.

Equaliser attained with fifteen minutes left, Celtic looked for the winner, Terry denied Smales-Braithwaite with a flying save, but from the corner, Horan fed it out Smales-Braithwaite and this time, he made no mistake and put Celtic into the lead. Cue the defensive performance this Celtic team are capable of, with Witton knocking, but despite seven added minutes, nobody answered the bolted door and Celtic get their first three points of the season.