Match Report -
Accrington Stanley Friendly
By Debbie Taylor

The first half was fairly even, with both sides putting on a decent display.

Celtic opened the scoring early on, Danny Wisdom's great run and even better cross was turned in with a flicked header from Adam Farrell.

Accrington were contesting well, and Patrick Lacey could have equalised with a superb close range header, but Tony McMillan was up to it, with a fine reaction save. Stanley did equalise just before the half hour mark, when the impressive trialist, Tipping took the ball down the wing, beat a couple of Celtic players with sheer pace and deftness of touch, before cutting across, any thoughts of the squared ball to Terry Gornell arriving at the back post were absent as he curled his shot between McMillan and the post with an excellent finish.

The second half was still even, but Celtic seemed to have the better for the final product, starting with a Danny Pilkington free kick that Nick Ryan headed goalward only for Omar Beckles to head it back out as far as Darius Osei; Osei turned his man and fired in low giving the keeper no chance.

Steve Tames could have doubled the lead, when he latched onto Adam Farrell's ball, but his prodded shot hit the outside of the post. At the other end, Tipping could have equalised again for the visitors, but his cracking volley was inches over the bar. When Gornell beat Tony McMillan, John Shaw was on hand to slice clear off the line.

Celtic kept up the tempo into the last ten minutes, with Kristian Platt stinging the palms of the keeper with a twenty-five yard free kick that required a good save, but Danny Pilkington's free kick moments later from thirty yards curled up and over the keeper and into the far top corner for a wonder strike of a free kick.

Icing was applied to the cake when Omar Beckles brought Steve Tames down in the box, and after a bit of arguing who would take it, Aaron Chalmers did so, putting the ball into the bottom corner.

They say you can't make judgements on a pre-season match, but this was a positive all round performance.

Celtic from: Tony McMillan. Aaron Chalmers, Danny Wisdom, Matty Hughes, Nick Ryan, Kristian Platt, Liam Hynes, Callum Bagshaw, Adam Farrell, Darius Osei, Danny Pilkington
Subs: John Shaw, Kevin Lettany, Henoc Mukendi, Danny Burns, Steve Tames, Andy Owens

Stanley from: Elliott Parish, Callum Jones, Matty Pearson, Mark Hughes, Omar Beckles, Scott Brown, Richard Tipping (Trialist), Patrick Lacey, Terry Gornell, Shay McCarton, Frazer Shaw
Subs: Nathan West, Luke Wall, Steve Hewitt, Ross Sykes, Michael Brierley (Trialist).