Celtic back to form with fine away performance

Celtic travelled to Hagan Park without David Magee who has returned to the USA and minus the injured Jonny McAreavey and Paddy Rooney. Chris Coleman was drafted into central defence with Nathan McConnell and Niall Lavery started in midfield.

The Hoops made all the early running and Raymond Fitzpatrick came close on two occasions before setting up Chris Lavery with a pass to open the scoring on 4 minutes. They continued to press and the home keeper kept out efforts from Dale Malone and Chris Lavery. With Celtic firmly in the driving seat a controversial incident turned the game when the home striker fell into Declan McVeigh and to the astonishment of both sets of supporters a hotly disputed penalty was awarded which James Ferguson despatched past Michael Goff.Undeterred Celtic continued to make all the running and Chris Lavery was unlucky when a shot from his weaker right foot went narrowly wide.

The Hoops resumed the second half where they left off making the early running but in the 46th minute Malone took down a Coagh player with a poorly timed tackle, but when the home player re-acted by trying to punch the Celtic player the referee gave Malone a straight red and never even spoke to the Coagh player.

Coagh sensed a chance to make their numerical advantage count and stepped up the pace being unlucky when Stephen Glasgow crashed a tremendous drive against the underside of the bar with the Hoops defence clearing.This spurred the Hoops on and Daniel Ryan made some incisive runs at the home defence down the flanks causing major panic in the Coagh rearguard. Celtic regained the lead on 66 minutes after a good run by McVeigh saw him brought down on the edge of the box and Niall Lavery stepped up to send a superb free kick into the top right hand corner with the home keeper rooted to the spot.

Celtic extended the lead when they gained a free kick and Niall Lavery this time sent a long raking kick into the heart of the defence and Fitzpatrick rose above everyone to send a powerful header into the net. By this stage the 10 men of Celtic were creating chances galore and Lavery wriggled past two defenders and put over a cross for Fitzpatrick to glide home another header putting three goals between the teams. With the clock running down Coagh scored a consolation.

The McLeans Bookmakers man of the match was Daniel Ryan. The Hoops have no match this week and are back in action on Sept 6th with a home game against Glebe Rangers at 3.00pm.