Celtic's bogey team struck again, Telford scoring deep into stoppage time to ensure that Celtic dropped two points when all three looked certain.
The opening goal was a well taken shot by Josh Wilson, laid off by Jordan Wynter, Wilson curled a thirty yard effort up and over Tony McMillan into the top corner.
The lead lasted barely four minutes, when Danny Wisdom ran through the Telford defence, leaping tackles, weaving through challenges, he drew the keeper to the near post, and squared it to Chris Simm unmarked at the back post. Harry Burgoyne got back across well, but Simm's delicate chip up and over from the direction the keeper had come wrong footed the Telford keeper completely.
Ten minutes later and Celtic had a deserved lead, albeit with a stroke of fortune. Bohan Dixon would be the first to admit that the curling looping ball that sailed over the grasping hands of the keeper and just under the bar was a cross, but they all count!
There was nothing fortuitous about Celtic's third. Aidan Chippendale was tenacious in chasing down a loose ball, catching it before it could go for a goal kick, pulling it back for Simm, again available in the right place to tap home.
To counter the fortune of Dixon's goal, a free kick from an acute angle was blasted in by Lucas Dawson right before the interval, presumably with the aim of bouncing around the legs of the players in the box, instead it evaded everybody and ended up in the bottom opposite corner of the goal.
The second half was barely five minutes old when Telford panicked during a corner, hacking at the ball unable to get it clear, it was put back into the mix from close range by Aaron Chalmers for Jack Higgins to turn under Burgoyne to give Celtic a 4-2 lead.
Celtic were piling on the pressure, and looked to have a nailed on penalty when Graham Hutchinson crashed through the back of Adam Farrell in the box, but play was waved on. It looked like it wouldn't matter when Danny Wisdom showed great skill and composure, evading one challenge and, thirty yards out, curled a left footed shot into the top corner while on the run.
Bohan Dixon's low cross for Chris Simm would have ended any hope for the visitors, but Dwayne Samuels stuck out a long leg, even then his interception was only narrowly wide of his own post. Lucas Dawson hacked the corner clear, sending Connor McCarthy on a run. Peter Wylie put him under pressure, forcing him wide. Tony McMillan looked to have made a marvellous take at McCarthy's feet, but when the Telford striker crashed into McMillan, the ball was spilled loose. McCarthy took advantage of McMillan and Wylie expecting the foul to roll the ball into the net. The goal stood.
John Colfie, freshly on nearly pulled another back almost immediately, firing wide, as did Jack Higgins at the other end, with a cracking effort from twenty yards. Bohan Dixon put a corner the wrong side of the post, and Burgoyne made aa decent save from Chippendale's effort.
With five minutes to go, the Celtic faithful got a sense of how the game would end, when Celtic failed to clear a free kick properly, and Josh Wilson reacted quickest with a bouncing ball to lash it in to the back of the net.
Telford piled forward in numbers, leaving just two full backs and a keeper in their own half. Colfire blazed over when he looked certain to equalise and fellow substitute Izak Reif twice squandered chances deep into stoppage time. Four minutes in and Izak Reid got one on target, Tony McMillan flying through the air to parry it away, right into the path of Connor McCarthy who got the equaliser.
From a Telford perspective this was a tremendous comeback. From a Celtic perspective, this was definitely a game they should have won.
1 | Burgoyne, Harry | ||
2 | Samuels, Dwayne | ||
3 | Campion, Darren | ||
4 | Dawson, Lucas | ||
5 | Hutchinson, Graham | ||
6 | Tilt, Curtis | ||
7 | Wynter, Jordan | > 71 | |
8 | Wilson, Josh | ||
9 | Hibbert, David | > 45 | |
10 | McCarthy, Connor | ||
11 | Rea, Jack | ||
12 | Cofie, John | < 45 | |
14 | Grogan, Mike | ||
15 | Reid, Izak | < 71 | |
16 | Tonks, Tom | ||
17 | Clancy, Sean |