Haire nets vital winner to cut the gap

Niall Lavery returned to midfield in place of the Barry Seeley and although now fit after his Boxing Day injury Daniel Ryan sat the game out due to a one match suspension.

The visitors started brighter and Celtic were fortunate when their woodwork was rattled in the first couple of minutes. Encouraged by this the nippy PSNI attackers kept the pressure on the Hoops, in particular causing trouble down the left side.

Celtic then went on the offensive and Paul Donegen fed Aaron Haire who fired past the goal. Lavery hit a free kick narrowly over the visitors bar and from a corner Haire got in first to place a header towards goal but the

keeper saved his effort. Play was moving from end to end and although the surface was greasy causing players to lose their footing when they tried to turn there were some fine passages of play being enjoyed by the crowd, which, for this fixture was larger than usual due to the absence of local games.

Midway through the game the visitors were in the ascendancy and controlling midfield and putting pressure on the Hoops defence and former Cliftonville striker Peter Steele missed a free header in front of goal by putting the ball wide with Ciaran Fox in the Celtic goal left exposed. It was no suprise when PSNI took the lead on 36 minutes when they carved the Hoops defence open and Steele touched home from a few feet out. They kept their hold on proceedings until the break with both teams strikers and defenders having a mighty battle to gain the upper hand but the home side could consider themselves lucky to be only one down at the break.

Shortly after the resumption of the second half Celtic picked up several bookings for disputing decisions which it must be said were quite baffling to both sets of spectators and for a while it became farcical but the game soon settled down.

By this stage Celtic had switched Steven Boyd to right back and Declan McVeigh to the left in an effort to quell the threat from the visitors and it had the desired effect. By the hour mark the game had changed and Celtic started to express themselves more freely with Ronan O’Hara and Lavery threatening down the flanks aided by Donegan and Shannon Drainey keeping a stranglehold on the visitors attack offering them no space to manouvre. Lavery and Haire linked up well with the former hitting a left foot shot just wide and both players had further efforts cleared as they increased the pressure. McVeigh then played the ball to Lavery, he raced forward for the return and cut along the left byline to send a low ball across goal where the keeper could only parry the ball out and Raymound Fitzpatrick scored from close in to level the game.

The visitors quickly went on the attack and got through on goal but a fierce shot from around the penalty spot was brilliantly saved by Fox who had came out to close down the space. The Hoops went all out to win the game and O[‘Hara was felled as he moved towards goal and after the free kick was cleared Haire broke free only to hit the ball over the bar with the keeper helplessly looking on. With only six minutes left The Hoops sent their supporters wild with joy by scoring a second goal and it was worthy of winning any game.

O’Hara played a delightful pass to Haire who was on the edge of the box and he took the ball towards goal with a defender on each side of him but kept his cool to drive a left foot shot past the keeper into the net giving Celtic the lead. After this the home side kept a hold on the game to finish up winners, something that didn’t look a possibility at half time but when they started going at the PSNI defence they seemed to find their form and shaded the game as they moved into a higher gear in the last 25 minutes.

Given the conditions on the day both sides served up a great game of exciting football. This week Celtic entertain Chimney Corner in an Intermediate Cup game at Knockramer Park the kick off at the earlier time of 1.30pm.

Lurgan Celtic: Ciaran Fox, Declan McVeigh, Paul Donegan, Shannon Drainey, Steven Boyd, Niall Lavery, Dee McPartland, Conor McAnallen,Ronan O Hara, Raymond Fitzpatrick and Aaron Haire. Subs Shane McCabe, Paul McAnallen, Conor McKavanagh and Ciaran Conway (not used.)