Although not the strongest Macclesfield side, they were still a good side, but Celtic once again looked better, despite dozens of changes from Saturday.

For the first twenty minutes it was one way traffic, with some fluid football. Lewis Rawsthorn had two chances which he put the wrong side of each post, while Declan McLoughlin volleyed over Harvey Brookes’s cross. Jack Irlam powered through the crowded defence, somehow finding a shot Paul Cooper smothered. Debutant Saul Gardener unleashed a twenty-yard curling effort Cooper did well to hold as Rawsthorn pounced for the rebound. A goal was coming, and the movement made it. Gardner found McLoughlin who smashed the shot into the top corner. Irlam was again denied, and Gardner’s next shot needed a stuck out leg to put it for a corner. After Brookes limped off, replaced by another debutant, this time Joel Sutton, Celtic rejigged at the back, giving Macclesfield a way in and they took it, Barney Wiggin getting the final touch from Fin Foote’s shot which hit both posts before Wiggin’s touch put it just over the line. That ascendancy didn’t last as Celtic regained dominance. Cam Fogerty cleared the bar, Sutton’s first effort needed Cooper on top form, and then Wiggin brought down Irlam in the box and he converted the penalty himself.

The second half saw Macclesfield easily contained by the defensive pairing of Tongue and Greg Wilkinson (making his 299 appearance), while Celtic probed the visitors defence. Sutton cleared the bar, Tunde Bayode nodded a loose defensive ball wide, and Cooper flew across the face of goal to get a palm on Sutton’s next effort. As the half headed to full time, Macclesfield had one chance to break Celtic down, ending with Foote firing wide. To see the game out, Butler tried to find a gap in the Macclesfield back-line, only for Miles Smethurst to block on the line, and from the resulting corner, the save of the match as Liam Tongue struck from distance, top corner all the way. But Celtic were determined to make stoppage time comfortable and Bayode burst down the flank, cut inside, drew the keeper and played a clever low cross to Butler arriving from deep to hit an empty net and ensure Celtic go through to face Vauxhall Motors.