Celtic faced Whitedale in arguably the pick of the quarter final ties of this years unusual Highland Fuels Cup. Both teams were strong, with Lorne McNiven and Piotr Drozdowski the notable absentees for Whitedale, while Celtic’s university students were the only ones missing.
After a day of heavy showers, the rain eased for kickoff and eventually turned into an ideal night for football on the difficult Brae surface. Celtic looked sharpest from the off with Shay Regan skewing the town sides first chance wide.
However it was Whitedale who opened the scoring after 10 minutes when a loose ball found Ewan Inkster down the right who fired an unstoppable shot past Taylor Lynch in Celtic’s goal.
And before Celtic got the chance to re-group, they found themselves a second goal behind when Greg Tulloch found the back of the net from a freekick.
The town side almost replied immediately but Joel Bradley’s strike from 30 yards was somehow poked wide by the foot of Adrian Morrison in Whitedale’s goal.
However some quick-thinking from the resulting corner got Celtic back within a goal. With no defender covering the front area, James Aitken fizzed in a low ball which was cleverly diverted home by Shay Regan on the 6-yard line.
A couple of shots from distance from Aitken and a good chance for Connor Regan followed but the sides went into the break with the score at 2-1 to Whitedale.
The majority of second half was played in Whitedale’s half with the town side pressing for that equaliser to take the game into extra time. Full backs Robert Smith and Tom Moncrieff were almost playing as wingers and were feeding some dangerous balls into the box.
Shay Regan was inches away from grabbing his second to tie up the match but his shot cannoned back of the post and was cleared to safety.
Aitken then found himself in on goal down the right following a one-two with Billy Buggy but his shot edged past the post into the side-netting.
Whitedale were always a threat on the break with the pace of Tulloch, Inkster and Scott but they were struggling to keep possession in attacking areas.
Celtic substitute Bruce McColloch had a decent opening after making space for himself on the edge of the box but another shot flew wide and it was starting to become apparent it wasn’t going to be Celtic’s night. A couple more chances came and went but Whitedale managed to hold on and set up a semi-final tie against Ness Utd.
CELTIC TEAM: T Lynch, R Smith, J Bradley, L Anderson (B McColloch), T Moncrieff, B Buggy (C Fullerton), J Clubb, R Thomason (S Sim), J Aitken, S Regan (B Johnson), C Regan