Ten-man Celtic Hold on for Victory

City Cabs League Cup Section ‘A’

Top of the Hill Celtic 2

Brandywell 1

TOP of the Hill Celtic secured their place in the latter stages of the City Cabs League Cup with a narrow, but deserved win over Brandywell Celtic yesterday.

What made this win all the more impressive for Celtic was that they achieved it despite playing the whole game with only ten men.

Brandywell bossed possession for large periods of the game, but Celtic defended well and held firm and caught their opponents twice with counter attacks, which ultimately settled the game in their favour.

The game at Lisnagelvin was played in atrocious conditions, with match official Noel Crossan forced to bring the game to a close early, on a weekend in which only two games survived the weather. The pitch needed an inspection beforehand but eventually got the go ahead, despite the fact that Celtic didn’t not manage the full complement of players.

Given their numerical disadvantage, Celtic needed their ten players to step up to the plate, and they did just that, with Mo Crossan, Pol Brown and Darren Harkin all playing out of their skins.

Brandywell bossed possession as expected, but Celtic were extremely dangerous when they went forward and they could have taken an early lead but Harkin missed a one-on-one with the Brandywell goalkeeper early on.

Harkin then almost turned provider when he crossed for Tiarnan McMullan, who had a brilliant effort saved by Conan Doherty. The chance was still there for Celtic as the rebound fell for Brown, but his effort was brilliantly stopped on the line by a Brandywell defender.

Following a decent start for Celtic, Brandywell finally began to come into the game more and Adam Clarke had a chance to score but his effort lacked power and John Joe McGilloway saved easily.