Report

Thursday night football arrived at the 'Field of Dreams' with a bang. Celtic needing to win to guarentee a top 2 finish and promotion to the Premier League, hosted in form Grange Park Yellow who had promotion ambitions of their own. The game, played out to the backdrop of stormy weather, turned out to be a classic with Celtic turning in their best performance since their formation 10 months ago. Literally with the first move of the game Celtic passed through GPY's defence with ease and Hazza hit the post. Shortly after Beck and Damian worked the short corner excellently only to see Damian's shot hit the bar! Celtic were in total command but GPY were clearly a good side meaning Celtic's top men, Adrian and Damian raised their game to an even higher level and the rest of the team followed. It was no surprise when these two combined to open the scoring. Damian stormed down the right wing yet again and pulled back the perfect pass for the 'Skipper' to smash home first time into the roof of the net.For the next 10 minutes Celtic played some superb football. With Jacob and Kai passing with confidence and quality from the back, Beck strutting his stuff down the left, Adrian and Damian passing and moving cleverly and Hazza holding the ball upfront Celtic at last ticked all the boxes. George saved a couple of long range efforts but was largely untroubled. Then 3 minutes before half time GPY scored with a great strike out of the blue. Suddenly from being in total control Celtic were rocking. George came to the fore producing two stunning saves in quick succession, the half time whistle coming to the rescue as Celtic hung onto the ropes! After the break Celtic showed great grit and skill to grab back the initiative  Damian again hitting the post, Hazza, Beck and Adrian all coming close as GPY now hung on. Beck hit a long range free kick that the keeper scrambled away then 'super sub' Ben Lewis almost made himself a hero just missing from close range. Then at last the breakthrough. Damian's ferocious cross was turned into his own net with style by the GPY defender. Almost as good as Jacob's last week! As Celtic made changes they kept control of the game and with 5 minutes left the final flourish was applied as 'Sniffer' Ben cooly finished Damian's approach work to make the game apparently safe at 3-1. But still GPY would not give up and 'The Kitten' George pulled off the save of the season to turn away a blockbuster free kick late on. Lucky charm Bennie Roberts came on to calm the spectators nerves in the final minute and to help run the clock down. A fantastic team performance to cap an excellent post Xmas season. Star man could have gone to George, Adrian or Damian who all got 10's for near perfect performances. However Hazza Brown produced the best all round centre forward performance of the season and had he not hit the post from half an inch out in the first minute may have got a 10 himself but definitley deserved to be 'Star Man' this week. If Moulton can beat Bugbrooke on May 5th we will be champions. First or second I believe we are without doubt the best team in the division and will win more than we lose in the Prem next year. Well done boys.