Goals late in both halves allowed Celtic to battle through to face North Ferriby in the next round.
It was hard going in the first half, with Chasetown living up to their name, chasing down every ball, and attacking with blistering pace. Despite all their pace, they never really threatened, with the best chances falling for Celtic, Oliver Crowley blazing wide at the end of a decent early move, and Jack Higgins completely miscuing his header to clear the bar when unmarked at the back post.
Celtic grabbed the opener when Chasetown failed to clear a free kick and Aaron Chalmers drove a ball through a crowded box. With the shot heading wide, Jack Higgins had the presence of mind to stick out a foot behind him, and diver the driven ball into the bottom corner, John Bateman only able to watch.
Chasetown could have got straight back in the tie, when powerful central defender, Francino Francis got his head on a corner, but thumped it the wrong side of the post just before the interval. After the second half, Chasetown started to slow down, but on the hour, Richard Davies's snap shot from the edge of the box had to be pushed round the post at full stretch by Tony McMillan.
Darius Osei, on for Alex Johnson, managed to get half a chance, holding off Rhys Thompson, but Bateman got across well to deny the striker, and Jack Higgins got closer from a second corner with his header, just clearing the bar before Chasetown thought they?d got back into it ten minutes from the end. Danny Edwards thought he?d beaten the offside trap when he latched onto Michael Williams's long diagonal ball, and fed it into the path of Ryan Winter to slot home. Celebrations were cut short with the offside flag up for Edwards, leaving Winter on his knees in frustration.
If anything, this made Celtic realise they needed that extra goal, and Osei outpaced tired legs as stoppage time approached, forcing Bateman into a stunning reaction block, the ball coming to back to Osei. Osei showed great composure with the returned ball, and instead of taking the shot himself, squared it to Adam Farrell arriving at speed at the back post, and Farrell had the simplest of finishes to give Celtic the safety net going into stoppage time.
Chasetown threw everything at Celtic, but the back line held firm, giving the score line a more comfortable look than the game itself.
1 | McMillan, Tony | ||
2 | Crowley, Oliver | ||
3 | Shaw, John | > 77 | |
4 | Hughes, Matty | ||
5 | Higgins, Jack | ||
6 | Chalmers, Aaron | > 45 | |
7 | Dixon, Bohan | ||
8 | Wright, Dale | ||
9 | Johnson, Alex | > 70 | |
10 | Tames, Steve | ||
11 | Farrell, Adam | ||
12 | Wylie, Peter | < 77 | |
14 | McKenna, Ben | < 45 | |
15 | Osei, Darius | < 70 | |
16 | Lingouba, Cesaire | ||
17 | Simm, Chris |
1 | Bateman, John | ||
2 | Williams, Michael | ||
3 | Haynes, Jonathan | ||
4 | Thompson, Rhys | ||
5 | Francis, Francino | > 67 | |
6 | Gould, Jon | ||
7 | Robinson, Garfield | ||
8 | Davies, Richard | ||
9 | Mugisha, Stan | > 53 | |
10 | Dance, James | > 23 | |
11 | Edwards, Danny | ||
12 | Winter, Ryan | < 53 | |
14 | Waite, Nathan | < 67 | |
15 | Butler, Lee | < 23 | |
16 | Pond, Curtis |