In icy conditions, Celtic battled for a hard-fought win over Atherton, though for large portions of the game, the home team were on top.

The Colls started on the front foot, Chinedu Uche hitting the post in the opening two minutes and both Keilan Adams and Alex Doyle seeing their shots saved in a hard pressing first twenty minutes. Inch by inch, Celtic got a foothold and dominated for the remainder of the half, Colls keeper, Kier Barry lucky to be on the pitch after catching Rube Jerome just outside his box. Max Leonard’s free kick whizzed past the far post, and Liam Tongue’s low drive flicked over the bar by Alex Doyle’s stuck out foot. As the half slid to a conclusion, Celtic looked more likely to score, and it came from Liam Tongue’s ball into the path of Jerome. Barry rushed out again, but knew a second contact would see him dismissed, holding off and giving Jerome that half a yard he needed to curl a lofted shot into an empty net. Rod Ajayi denied Jerome a second, getting his head on the shot to lift the ball over the bar, and Tongue fired narrowly wide as the half ran out.

The second half started with Atherton again pressing hard, but Celtic got up to speed faster, Ellis Horan’s curling effort unlucky to fly past the post, and both Andy Scarisbrick and Charlie Doyle denied by decent saves. Horan’s inch perfect pass into the box for Scarisbrick saw Scarisbrick with a perfect diagonal shot beyond Barry into the bottom corner to double Celtic’s lead. With half an hour still to play, Celtic sat on the two-goal lead, allowing the home side to press high. This meant Adams and Uche both forced decent stops from Charlie Monks, with Monks pulling off a stupendous stop from Ajayi, pushing the shot onto the post and out. The last ten minutes required a lot of hard work across the park from Celtic, the defence holding firm, with Jerome holding the ball as long as possible up high, and it worked, Celtic walking away with an important three points.