Birthday boy Aaron puts icing on cake at Bangor
Celtic were missing Chris Lavery and Ruari McCann and Declan McVeigh was moved from his usual right back role to a holding midfield role.
Bangor started off the brightest and almost took the lead several times before Celtic got going although the conditions were horrendous and made football very difficult.
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Hide AdOn 20 minutes Adam Rodgers sent in a lovely cross which found Aaron Haire whose bullet header gave Bangor’s keeper no chance, 1-0 to the Hoops.
At this stage Celtic were fully deserving of their lead with McVeigh, Barton, Malone and O’Hara bossing midfield and Hutchison and Cochrane commanding in the centre of defence.
On 37 minutes Celtic had a let off when the Bangor striker was put through but he sent his shot just wide.
Lurgan Celtic started the second half in confident mood closing down any Bangor possession and chasing after every ball refusing to let their opposition settle.
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Hide AdCeltic’s secondgoal arrived courtesy of Josh Barton, who was becoming more influential as the game progressed. Barton burst down the left wing and sent in a speculative cross which caught out the keeper and the ball sailed into the far corner.
Celtic now had their tails up and could have added when Raymond Fitzpatrick’s powerful header crashed off the crossbar and Aaron Haire had a shot just wide.
With time running out for Bangor Aaron Haire, on his birthday weekend, latched on to Fitzpatrick flick on to blast the ball into the net past the Bangor keeper to round off a well earned three points for Colin Malone’s side.
On a day when everyone played their part in 4-4-2 formation that worked well the McLeans Bookmakers man of the match award went to Josh Barton.
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Hide AdNext up for Celtic is the visit of Ardglass in the Irish Cup on Saturday with a 1.30 kick off.
The reserves had a hard earned victory over Rathfriland on Saturday with Nathan Lavery scoring the only goal of the game to maintain their unbeaten league record and remaining top of the table.