Any chance of decent football fell victim to Storm Boele as it swept in with strong winds and driving rain. Even so, both teams gave it a good go, with the home side shading the first half, and Celtic dominating the second.

Corners proved the hardest part of the game, with neither side able to create much from a corner, but Padiham came closest with the first one, Reece Webb-Foster on target, but an easy catch for Charlie Monks. Monks again caught well from Lewis Rhodes’s free kick, while at the other end, Jack Irlam went close with a free kick, and couldn’t get the power through a crowd with his first shot of the match. The home side went ahead just before the half hour mark, when Webb-Foster lifted the ball over the Celtic backline, Jack Price bringing it down and firing across Monks, one-on-one. Irlam almost pulled one back before half time as Celtic ramped up the pressure as the interval drew near, but a stuck-out leg turned the ball past the far post. A cross from Irlam destined for either Scarisbrick or Lewis Rawsthorn found neither when Matthew Makinson took them both out before the cross arrived, missed by both officials.

Second half saw Celtic’s pressure continue to increase, Irlam’s header forcing a superb save from Harry Grimshaw. Ten minutes later, and a Liam Tongue special flew arrow straight towards the top corner, smacking the join of crossbar and post, falling to Andy Scarisbrick to drill into the bottom corner. Two minutes later, and it was a shoelace from Rhodes to deflect Irlam’s shot, and another distance shot from Tongue was watched all the way, and Ruben Jerome went close, before, in stoppage time, a glancing near post header from Jerome saw Grimshaw’s best save of the match, changing direction and flying across the face to claw the header around the post and earn his team a point.