Match Report -
Celtic Lose Away At Hyde In The Integro Cup
By Deborah Taylor

In very heavy rain, Celtic exited the Integro league cup with a reverse of the score-line from the last time the two teams met competitively.

Hyde and Celtic both scored with their first attacks, the home side getting in first when Grant Roberts outpaced Scott Wilson to get to the by-line and pull the ball back for Tom Greaves, completely unmarked for the easiest tap in he?ll score. Ten minutes later, Liam Tongue's curling cross to the edge of the area was met by Ross Dent with a cracking effort that took a slight deflection off former Celtic defender, Matty Hughes, to lift it over James Hodges, the young Hyde keeper into the top corner.

A gift of a goal restored Hyde's lead, when a clearance was headed back to James Aspinall, but Tom Greaves read the ball, latching onto the loose ball and lobbing the on-rushing Aspinall. That restored lead lasted less than ten minutes, as Liam Tongue received the ball off Matthew Wolfenden and lashed in a low strike from thirty yards that skipped off the wet artificial turf and flew under Hodges.

Celtic went looking for an edge, Michael Clarke trying his luck from distance, the ball wide of the mark, whilst Wolfenden caught a glimpse of goal, firing over the bar. A half cleared corner came to Glenn Rule, his effort taking a slight deflection to put it onto the post, the new corner eventually coming back to Rule, who this time fired just the wrong side of the post. Scott Bakkor drove into the box from the wing, his final effort off target, whilst, right before the interval, Celtic thought they had taken the lead when Wolfenden's drive was blocked on the line by John McCombe, looking to be heading into the roof of the net, when it was scooped away by Hodges without, apparently, crossing the line.

Celtic were on the back foot right from the restart with another gifted goal. Tom Pratt racing down the wing, looking for a cross, and spotting Aspinall out of position. He fired a curling shot that Aspinall could only watch curl inside his near post.

Moments after Chris Sharp had a glorious chance to equalise again, firing low from a tight angle the wrong side of the post, Hyde finished the game off with a mirror of the opening goal, Greaves at the by-line this time, pulling the ball back for Pratt to tap in.

Celtic still had half an hour to find the goals needed to pull the result out of the bag. Sharp's free kick was close and his header off a corner was superbly saved by the young Hyde keeper. Neil Kengni used his pace to get into the box, but dragged his shot wide and Sharp shot, when a pass was probably a better option, again missing the target. Even in stoppage time, Celtic looked for something; Stephen Rigby's powerful low angled drive well caught at his near post from Hodges and, right at the death, Sharp's similar effort from closer range was equally well stopped.

Celtic looked to be creating the majority of the chances, but couldn't get their efforts on target, so our Neighbours progress at our expense.

1Hodges, James  
2Harrison, Kyle  
3Brownhill, Kyle  
4Hughes, Matty  
5McCombe, JohnYellow Card 
6Fagbola, Jordan  
7Roberts, Grant  
8Lipka, Janni  > 35
9Greaves, Tom  
10Mulholland, Astley  > 86
11Pratt, TomYellow Card > 87
12Brown, David  < 87
14Crook, Peter  
15Jones, Karl  < 86
16Boyle, Pete  < 35
17Rothery, Gavin