It was honours even on a wet Easter Monday at Bower Fold, with Stalybridge Celtic drawing 2-2 with Hyde United, in a thrilling affair.

The match got off to a flying start, and both sides ought to have scored in the opening ten minutes, with both missing golden opportunities in front of goal. It was Celtic who created the first opportunity, with the ball falling to Raul Correia inside the Hyde United box, who was unable to keep his effort down, blazing his left-footed shot over the bar.

Next came an even more guilt-edged opportunity, this time for Hyde, when a long goal kick put winger Jack Redshaw through on goal, he cut the ball back to Callum Spooner, whose shot was parried by the goalkeeper and the ball fell back to the feet of Jack Redshaw, who had the whole of the goal to aim at, but could not find the target.

Moments later, Hyde were presented with another chance, with the ball falling to midfielder Liam Tongue on the edge of the penalty area, who found himself in acres of space but dragged his shot well wide of the post.

Next, it was Celtic’s turn to attack, through Theo Bailey-Jones down the right, who whipped a teasing cross into the box which goalkeeper Dan Atherton attempted to catch, but the ball slipped through his fingers and could well have resulted in a goal if it wasn’t for the quick thinking of the Hyde defence, who cleared the ball away.

Just minutes later, came a similar scenario, when Stalybridge captain Tom Miller crossed the ball in from the left, and like a moment ago, goalkeeper Atherton attempted to catch but got it all wrong, with the ball falling at the feet of Theo Bailey-Jones, who passed the ball into the vacant net to give the home side the lead.

The hosts almost doubled their lead soon after, with Domaine Rouse coming close with a header, which produced a smart save from Atherton down to his left, who was looking to make amends for his earlier mistake.

The visitors kept on probing, and just after the half-hour mark they got their equaliser, which came from an unlikely source, defender Harry Ditchfield, who cut inside on his left foot and unleashed a sidefooted effort, which, with the aid of a slight deflection, found the bottom corner.

Just before the break, Stalybridge had huge appeals for a penalty turned down when goal scorer Bailey-Jones went down in the box after a challenge from one of the Hyde defenders, but the referee was not in agreement with the Celtic players and staff, and waved play on.

The away side started the second half very strongly, and were in behind the Celtic defence from the first minute, with Harry Ditchfield finding space on the right-hand side, his shot was saved brilliantly by goalkeeper Joe O’Shaughnessy who turned the ball behind with his outstretched leg.

Hyde continued to create, and took the lead in the 51st minute, through a wonderful finish from Matt Fearnley, whose curled, outside-footed effort from just outside the area flew in, kissing the post on the way. A truly sublime goal.

Celtic had to respond, and created a number of chances in quick succession, with the first falling to substitute Ciaran Summers, who blazed his effort over after a flick-on from Raul Correia fell his way inside the area. The second chance fell to the other substitute, DJ Pedro, who unleashed a curling effort from the edge of the box, aimed for the far post, which was tipped behind by Atherton. Soon after, Raul Correia was a whisker away from finding an equaliser, when his thunderous long-range effort whistled agonisingly wide of the right-hand post.

Despite the missed chances, Celtic did not lose belief, and in the third minute of added time, they were awarded a penalty, after Hyde midfielder Liam Tongue brought down ex-tiger Curtis Morrison. Up stepped Raul Correia, who made no mistake, sending the goalkeeper the wrong way and rescuing a point for his side.

A point which could prove to be so important for Celtic, in their quest for survival, with only three games to go in the league. Manager Chris Willcock is proud his side managed to get something from the game, having played another match less than 48 hours before this one, “After playing on Saturday, we’ve only had 30 hours to recover, which is ridiculous really”, “This was my biggest concern before the game, whether the lads would have the energy levels to compete, but they dealt with it well”.

As for Hyde, they may see this as a missed opportunity, and manager Nick Spooner feels that failing to win the game has possibly ended their hopes of making the playoffs, “It feels like a defeat”, “We have to bounce back, I don’t think we’ll have enough points for the playoffs now but we’ll just have to try and finish as high as we can and give the fans something to sing about”.

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