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Celtic join elite with record win

3/ 4/2008

LANGLEY Celtic created history last Thursday night when they beat Blackley Alliance 8-1 in the final of the Manchester County Sunday Trophy.

It was the biggest ever final win in any of the Manchester County competitions which stretch back to 1894.

Celtic can now be looked on as one of the best teams in Sunday football history, ranking alongside Astro, Townley, Stockport Norris and Langley Rangers.

This was Celtic’s third consecutive final and they had little trouble in retaining the trophy.

Fellow Middleton League side Blackley created some excellent chances, and on another day they might have scored five or six.

But Celtic’s free-flowing football was always going to win the game.

John Worsley opened the scoring on 20 minutes after Ken Tudor and Lee Neville had missed easier chances.

Blackley had two great chances to equalise but failed to capitalise, and they were punished just before half time when Lee Neville made it 2-0.

Celtic started the second half in dominant form, and Landregan scored with a thunderous volley from 20-yard.

Celtic were then guilty of some sloppy play which could well have allowed Blackley to get back into the game, but Blackley were guilty of some bad finishing, and when they were on target Matt Lever made some excellent saves.

Three quickly became six as Celtic hit their opponents with a three-minute goal burst.

Substitute Wes Bancroft bagged a hat-trick before Blackley were finished off by further goals from David Neville and Steve Morris.

Gibbons bagged a late consolation goal for Blackley.

Delighted Celtic manager Steve Horan said: "We were ruthless in front of goal, but surprisingly sloppy in defence at times.

"Our target now is to retain the Middleton League title for a fourth consecutive year, but we have a massive fixture pile-up which could be a problem.

"Thankfully we strengthened our squad in recent weeks as we knew we would be facing a backlog."