2009-10-13: Cliftonville 3-0 Celtic, Friendly

Eddie Patterson's Reds outplayed the Glasgow giants, with Chris Scannell scoring twice from headers in the first-half and doing most of the damage as Ciaran Caldwell iced the cake with the third just after the hour mark.

Yes, all the Hoops' big names are dotted around the world with international fixtures taking place tonight, but this was still a Celtic line-up with first-team players in it and others who the Parkhead club expect to make the breakthrough and Cliftonville were better than them.

Not just a little bit better either and Patterson's men should now carry real confidence into the rest of their domestic campaign.

Both teams assembled for a huddle just before kick-off. The Cliftonville players stayed in theirs a little bit longer, with captain Chris Scannell probably spelling out the importance of the occasion just once more to his team-mates.

It can often be a case of having to play the occasion more than the match on big nights like this one, with part-time players invariably being a little overawed by their high profile opponents.
If Cliftonville manager Eddie Patterson had any such fears he needn't have as his players put it up to Celtic in exactly the same way that they do to teams in the Irish FA Premiership week-in, week-out.

They did have to weather an early storm with Chinese star Zheng Zhi shining in the early stages.

He sent through strike partner Paul McGowan with just five minutes gone, but he could only shoot straight at John Connolly.

When Cliftonville settled they began to play the neat and attractive football they have become renowned for. Ryan Catney's pass to Chris Scannell after stealing the ball from Barry Robson was pinpoint, but giant centre-half Josh Thompson put in a block.

Celtic went straight up the pitch and after a neat one-two Marc Crosas followed McGowan in shooting directly into Connolly's arms.

The breakthrough came when Cliftonville's good work forced a corner on 21 minutes. The ball came out to Ronan Scannell wide on the left, 25 yards from goal. He sent a quality delivery into the box and his brother Chris was on the end of it, six yards from goal, and he sent a powerful header past goalkeeper Lucas Zalusca.

The Reds survived a scare seconds later when Ryan Conroy crossed from the left. Ciaran Donaghy's attempted clearance hit McGowan and looped back towards goal. Thankfully for the defender, Connolly was alert enough to make the save.

What was already proving to be a great night for Cliftonville got even better just after the half hour when the Scannell brothers combined again to make the smiles on the faces of Reds fans even broader. The scenario was almost identical, only this time Ronan's cross was delivered from deeper than the first, towards the far side of the 18-yard box and, 12 yards out, Chris again headed the ball beyond Zalusca.

There was little doubt that the striker deserved a hat-trick and he was inches away from capping a great performance by taking home the match ball.

He did have the consolation of the ball being headed into the net by Caldwell after Zalusca had pushed Scannell's goal-bound header from close range onto the post.

The expected raft of substitutions in the second-half came and the superior fitness of the Celtic players showed, but still the Reds more than matched them and there was no way through.

The one shot that Celtic did have on target, through Koki Mizuno on 69 minutes, was tipped around the post by substitute goalkeeper Paul McKane.

CLIFTONVILLE: Connolly, R Scannell, B Holland, O'Hara, Donaghy, McMullan, C Scannell, Murphy, Caldwell, Catney, Clarke. Subs: Fleming, Smyth, McKane, Dunlop, Boyd, Trainor, O'Connor, Patterson, Bannon.

CELTIC: Zalusca, Towell, Conroy, Crosas, Thompson, Gallagher, Carey, Robson, McGowan, Zheng Zhi, Mizuno. Subs: Lafferty, Crevi, Spence, Lowdon, McGregor.

Referee: David Malcolm (Bangor).