Celtic were beaten 3-1 at home by league title favourites South Shields. Darius Osei and Blair Adams put the North East side ahead before Ioan Evans pulled a goal back in the second half but Ntumba Massanka put the game beyond Celtic’s reach in the final few moments.

The first 25 minutes of the match were fairly quiet with the only real effort at goal coming from Sam Wedgbury who saw an effort from 25 yards saved by Myles Boney.

It was former Celtic striker Osei who put the visiting side ahead in a chaotic couple of minutes. A cross from the right was cleverly glanced towards goal by Osei which creeped into the bottom right corner.

Celtic went straight up the other end and some skilful dribbling from Callum Harris saw the midfielder break into Shields’ penalty area, he went for goal but saw his shot blocked by the South Shields defence.

Immediately after, Shields broke down the right-hand side, Jordan Hunter fizzed a cross into the box and Adams arrived late at the far post to tap the ball into the back of the net and put Shields two goals up inside 31 minutes.

Adams nearly doubled his tally shortly after the restart, he managed to strike both posts with a powerful shot from distance.

Shenton also superbly denied Conor Tee’s powerful shot from just outside the penalty area before Celtic managed to get themselves back into the game.

A clever short free-kick saw the ball arrive at Harris, his accurate cross was flicked on by the head of Evans and the ball glided past a stranded Boney on 55 minutes.

Celtic then saw a period of attacks with the visitors looking to run the clock down to squash any Celtic momentum.

Unfortunately, Celtic weren’t able to capitalise on their pressure and it was Shields who went on to score a third and put the game beyond doubt, seven minutes from time.

A ball from the left was met by Massanka who from six yards, finished well with a first time strike into the roof of the net to seal the game for South Shields.

Alex Kempster missed a late chance with Scott Bakkor also seeing a shot on the turn drift just wide of the post.

Celtic gave a very strong Shields team a really good test and were in the game until the late stages.

Celtic have another home game this Saturday, with a different team from the North East in Morpeth the visitors to Bower Fold. (15:00)