HIP HOP HOORAY FOR ROB
Celtic stunned in battle with Witts
TEN-MAN Witton Albion held on to become just the second team to win in the league at Farsley this season, knocking the Celts off the top of the Evo-Stik Premier Division.
The visitors took advantage of sloppy defending as Rob Hopley put them ahead just after the break.
They then had Matty Devine controversially sent off as he gave away a penalty but Farsley’s Ben Atkinson couldn’t convert, and Albion held on to take the three points.
Witton boss Carl MacAuley was proud of his side’s battling performance.
He said: “Farsley are a fantastic side and deserve to be top of the league, so to go and do that away from home with ten men for 30 minutes speaks volumes about the performance from the lads.
“It was a penalty. I don’t think there’s any denying that but I don’t think Matty’s foul deserved a red card.”
Farsley manager Adam Lakeland was frustrated with his side’s performance as they squandered top spot following Warrington’s late equaliser in a 3-3 draw with Nantwich.
He said: “I thought we were average at best in the first half. In the second half, we conceded an awful goal – there’s no other word to describe it really.
“Their keeper made a good save from the penalty and to be fair, we kept knocking on the door but we found it hard to break down a really resilient team.”
The clash took a long time to get going and apart from a couple of blocked free-kicks from Witton’s James Foley and two efforts from Fars- ley’s Chris Atkinson and Dave Syers which were charged down, there was little for goalkeepers to do in the opening 45 minutes.
But Witton were quick out of the traps in the second half and after a moment’s hesitation between the Farsley defenders, Hopley picked up the ball and shrugged off
Adam Clayton before rounding Kyle Trenerry to fire home on 48 minutes.
Then two minutes later, Farsley were handed a penalty after Nathan Cartman was pushed by Devine, as he went to head the ball home.
Referee Oliver Noonan decided it was worthy of a red card and Witton were to see out the final 30 minutes with ten men.
Substitute Ben Atkinson was unable to convert the spot kick though, as goalkeeper Greg Hall made a good save to his right.
The Celts peppered the visitors’ goal for the remainder of the game but with no success.
Their best chance to get back into the game came via a Danny Ellis stoppage time header which was thwarted by another good save from Hall.
The result is a blow for Farsley, who stay second.