Match Report -
Home Win Over Bradford
By Debbie Taylor

Celtic climbed off the bottom of the table with a win over Bradford Park Avenue in a see-sawing match.

Celtic had the best of starts thanks to a curling free kick from Danny Pilkington that curled over and down past the wall and beyond the fingertips of Jon Worsnop. Celtic did not try and hold onto the one goal lead, with Keiran Dunbar's powerful rising shot from the edge of box well caught by the Avenue custodian, whilst Pilkington's turn and shot rose over the bar and Matt Regan's header off a deep free kick straight at Bradford's keeper.

As is Celtic's wont, there was the customary defensive blunder, and Bradford took advantage after a corner wasn't cleared properly, the ball was put back into the mix, Shane Killock poking the ball through the crowd and Grant Shenton's hands to just about cross the line. Worse came when Bradford pressed their advantage, Jake Hibbs producing a good reaction stop from close range by Shenton, but the rebound ball fell to Wayne Brooksby who?d come streaking in from the corner of the box to knock the ball past Shenton and give Bradford the lead.

That lead didn't last long, three minutes to be precise, when Danny Morton made a power run, shrugging off the challenges to get to the by-line and pull the ball back for James Roberts to poke the ball under Worsnop and restore equality just before the interval.

The second half saw the game continue to see-saw, with neither team in a position to drop points and both going for it. Brooksby's powerful shot from twenty-five yards was palmed around the post by Shenton, diving to his left, and Aaron Chambers set Keano Deacon off on a run up the field. He twisted past one challenge, but his shot took a deflection out for a corner.

The corner came out to Aaron Chalmers, twenty yards out from goal, he twisted his body in the air and connected with a scissor kick that had enough power to reach the far bottom corner and put the scoreline at 3-2 for Celtic.

That lead lasted four minutes, before a cleared free kick came out to Nicky Wroe, twenty-five yards out who got a perfect connection on the ball to send it flying into the back of the net and put the scores level.

With twenty minutes left, Bradford ran out of steam, and Celtic stormed towards the finish line. Keano Deacon's shot came back off the post, before Porya Ahmadi came on for a limping Chalmers, raced up the field in time to meet an inch perfect penalty spot cross from Danny Wisdom, a graceful leap and he powered his header past Worsnop.

With a slender lead, Celtic continued looking for goals, Ahmadi seeing a scorcher tipped acrobatically over the bar, Mathias Bakare had a good effort well stopped by the Avenue keeper and James Robert's skimming shot was just the wrong side of the post after good build up play left Avenue chasing shadows. Deacon twice got in great positions, but couldn't dig the ball out for a goal, and set Ahmadi up after rounding Worsnop, leaving the goal at Ahmadi's mercy, but the striker blazed over the bar.

The result leaves Celtic twelve points behind Gainsborough and Worcester, and thirteen behind Bradford, with three games in hand on them all. A win on Saturday, with other results going our way, would leave Celtic nine points behind, with three games in hand, though our goal difference is currently a worry.

1Worsnop, Jon  
2Toulson, Ryan  
3Chippendale, Aidan  
4Wroe, Nicky  
5Killock, Shane  
6Knowles, JamesYellow Card 
7Brooksby, Wayne  
8Boshell, Danny  > 78
9Hibbs, Jake  > 68
10Johnson, Oli  
11Rothery, Gavin  > 45
12Nowakowski, Adam  
14Dean, Luke  < 68
15Hill, Matty  < 45
16Sharp, Chris  < 78
17Sinclair, Emile