Match Report -
No more than required
By Debbie Taylor

Apart from the victory, obviously, the best thing that can be said about this game was the weather had improved.

Celtic felt the loss of pacy forward, Sullivan due to accumulated suspensions, and the Emley one has yet to kick in. Even so, this did not look the same racy, passionate team that destroyed Emley last weekend.

Witton started with the belief that they could beat Celtic at Fortress Bower Fold. And to be fair, they played with possession, if not cutting incision. Their first chance came on five minutes when they got a free kick twenty five yards out. However, Ward intercepted it, brought it out of defence, lofted a lovely ball to McNeil. How McNeil managed to get to the ball ahead of a defender and the keeper, only Greygoose and Staley can answer. The top scoring striker slid to capture the ball, rose and fired a shot to Greygoose's left. Six minutes, goal one, the crowd of 552 expected a rout.

From the kick off, again Witton played possession, keeping Celtic at bay. Neither side could make inroads into the oppositions turf, as the ball was played around in midfield with plenty of hard tackles flying in. Again, Witton had a good chance with Faultner heading into Ingham's hand after a fine free kick. Indeed, Witton looked exceedingly dangerous from set-pieces all afternoon.

Celtic's other best chance of the half came on the half hour, when a Scott corner was knocked back by Filson into the path of Pickford, unmarked on the edge of the box. His volley cleared the keeper, the bar and the stand.

Celtic were obviously yelled at by Wilson in the dressing room, for they came out and made the crucial tackles, and won the 50-50 balls. This paid off five minutes in when Jones worked down the wing to put a cross in that Parr volleyed home (no doubt telling Syd that's how it should be done!).

After that, nobody from either side could keep the ball down. Pickford, Parr, McNeil and Green all cleared the bar, and Green had a half-volleyed deflected past the post. At the other end, Witton were having similar problems with Cox's shot sailing just over the cross bar.

The game died a death in the last quarter of an hour, and the twenty or so vocal Witton supporters quietened down.