STALYBRIDGE CELTIC 4 ACCRINGTON STANLEY 0
STANLEY crashed to a heavy defeat at UniBond Premier Division second placed side Stalybridge Celtic, who completed a league double over the Reds who conceded three goals from set pieces.
Celtic capitalised on a defensive error to take the lead on 11 minutes.
Skipper Jay Flannery misdirected a header from Tony Sullivan's cross which fell into the path of Kevin Parr who struck a fierce first time shot that gave Reds keeper Jamie Speare no chance.
In the 20th minute Stanley's Mark Patterson played a ball into Celtic's penalty area that found Gary Williams and he hit a 12 yard shot that home goalkeeper Gary Ingham did well to block.
Four minutes later and a cross by Paul Mullin was headed down by Jonathan Smith to Williams at the far post and he did well to get in a shot that Ingham saved with his legs.
It wasn't until the 53rd minute that Stalybridge increased their lead an inswinging corner by skipper Gary Bauress wasn't collected by Speare and Parr notched his second goal with a close range header.
Worse was to follow on 68 minutes when Flannery pulled back Sullivan and, from the resulting Bauress free kick, giant defender Martin Filson rose up to head in the third goal.
Stanley's best effort of the second half came on 79 minutes when Flannery struck a 25 yard shot that went narrowly over the crossbar.
Celtic completed their 12th consecutive home league win with a fourth goal on 82 minutes yet another Bauress corner was met by Filson who also headed in his second goal of the match.
It almost became five on 89 minutes as a Bauress free kick was met by Parr, who was denied his hat trick by a fine diving save from Speare.
Stanley will be looking to improve on this woeful display when they entertain Gateshead on Tuesday evening with a 7.45pm kick off.
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