By Garry Clarke
FALLING behind on the hour Warrington Rylands hit back to claim maximum points on their travels for the first time since September.
After a goalless first half an enthralling game exploded into life when the Rylands rearguard miss judged the flight of a long ball punted downfield by Louis Danquah allowing the ball to fall to Raul Correia who drove the ball high into the Rylands net from just inside the penalty area.
The home side was reduced to ten men in the 74th minute when Kyle Harrison was red-carded after felling Harry Pratt on the edge of the area. Sean Cooke struck the crossbar with the free kick, it was not the first time Rylands had struck the Celtic bar, Callum Dolan headed against it in the first half while Celtic had twice rattled Rylands woodwork, Moses Yoak striking the near post in the first half with an in swinging corner and Correia striking the underside of the bar in the opening moments of the second half.
One of three substitutes introduced after conceding, Kelly N’Mai leveled the scores in the 78th minute with a fine individual goal. Cutting in from the left he drifted past several defenders to fire a low drive into the bottom corner from 25 yards.
N’Mai struck again in the 85th minute, dancing through a packed penalty area the Salford loanee drilled a low shot past Celtic goalkeeper Greg Hall.
Hall had proved difficult to beat earlier in the game pulling off several fine saves to deny Rylands. In the first half he got fingertips to divert an A-Jay Leitch-Smith shot for a corner, dove full length to keep out another Leitch-Smith shot, kept out a Cooke free kick and reacted quickly to block Dolan’s follow-up.
Rylands custodian, Joel Torrence, was also busy after Correia and Nathan Caine were just off target in the opening minutes he saved well to deny Caine in the closing minutes of the first half and tipped a rasping drive from Yoak over the bar in the opening minutes of the second.
Having tried to slow the game down for long periods of the second half going behind prompted Stalybridge to push more men forward in the closing minutes including deep into stoppage time Hall who went up for a corner.
With Hall stranded in the opposition penalty area the ball was cleared down field to N’Mai, with defenders closing up down a he entered the Celtic half he released a long range shot towards the open goal watching as the ball bounced inches wide of the target.
RYLANDS – Torrance, Duxbury, Mustoe (Mantack), Hockenhull, Egerton, McCourt, Leitch-Smith (Pratt), Furman, Dolan, Cooke( N’Mai) Neild. Subs – Hunt Cookson
GOALS – Stalybridge Correia 60 Rylands N’Mai 78, 85
Referee Michael Trevethan Attendance 395
Check out the Manager's post match interview from today's clash away at Stalybridge here! https://t.co/GEUcXUdKZK
— Warrington Rylands FC (@RylandsFC) November 26, 2022
