A fluke goal gave Runcorn the win, but Celtic needed to do more to breakdown a strong Linnet’s defence, and didn’t.

The first chances of the match fell to the visitors, with both Makenzie O’Neil and Sam Barrett forcing Luke Hewitson into early saves. His block from O’Neill fell to Will Saxon, but though he got the ball in the net, he’d been offside, whilst the save from Barrett showed excellent reactions from the Celtic keeper. The only goal of the game came when Sean O’Mahoney floated a cross to the back post, only for it to be too high for everybody, including Hewitson, and sneaked in under the crossbar. Runcorn immediately put ten behind the ball to defend the slender lead, inviting Celtic to break them down. Obua Mugalula came closest when his shot had to be hacked off the line by O’Mahoney.

For the first few minutes of the second half, Runcorn came at Celtic, with Olly Malloy denied by a flying save from Hewitson, but again sat back. Aaron Dwyer’s curling free kick didn’t quite curl enough, and a stuck out foot denied Jordan Burton. In the last few minutes, Runcorn could have added another, hitting Celtic on the break. Substitute Ryan Brooke’s first touch was a screamer from outside the box that clipped the outside of the post, and O’Neil’s low drive was put past his own post by a stuck out leg from Connor O’Grady.

Celtic could not fashion the chances needed to break down Runcorn, so the fluke goal was enough.