Stalybridge Celtic v Histon

Histon's Jorg Stadelmann keeps another one out

... well I just about made it for the kick-off (unfortunately missing the apparently impeccable one minutes' silence), and was not disappointed as Celtic were soon on top with players "queuing up" to score the first goal - Ellams doing the hard work and Phil Marsh nicking it off his foot ! Things went from bad to worse for the visitors when captain Omar Riza saw red for a high challenge on Jack Rea. I have to admit - sometimes these sort of tackles look a lot worse than they actually are (Rea was soon up and running again) - but it WAS high (although Jack Rea is quite small !), and with the ensuing handbags/melee/fracas the ref had no real choice. The visitors shrank further back into their defensive shell after the break, leaving Celtic to play the patient stuff, eventually getting their reward near the end when Marsh got his second after good work from Connor Jennings. Again not the greatest of performances from Celtic (trouble here is that everyone is using the 5-1 defeat of Altrincham as their yardstick - no team is going to play like that week in week out !) but another three points to stay hot on the heels of Hyde FC who notched a (for me - unlikely !) 2-0 win at Boston United - Droylsden snatched a late equaliser at Vauxhall Motors - Ashton United went down 1-0 at Chasetown - Curzon Ashton went top of the Unibond 1 North after a 2-0 home win over Durham City (good to see the crowds are on the up there as well - 203 yesterday - and finally Mossley managed to turn certain victory (2-0 up with 5 to go) into a 2-2 draw (a get a red card in the process !). Pictures from the Stalybridge game at:

Stalybridge Celtic 2 Histon 0

Now - with Mrs Smiffy away until late this afternoon ... I feel an urge to going and watch Mossley Youth take on Curzon Ashton Youth in the 2nd Round of the Manchester FA Youth Cup (kick-off 1400 hrs today) - and good luck to FC Halifax Town in their lunchtime FA Cup game (might get to see some of that as well !) - better sort tea out first though ...
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