Lichfield had two sent off in a tumultuous first half that saw two red cards, three goals and two substitutions.

Had Lichfield kept eleven on the field, they may have mustered a shot at some point, but with nine on, they concentrated on damage limitation. In the opening ten minutes, Liam Tongue had gone close twice, Obua Mugalula once, before Mugalula came down the wing, cut inside, dummied a defender and curled a shot into the bottom corner.

Moments later, and Andy Scarisbrick put Mugalula through again. With only the keeper to beat, Mugalula knocked it past Thomas Carter, and the keeper sliced through Mugalula. After checking with his assistant, the referee dismissed the keeper. From the free kick, Jack Irlam took no pity on Joe Colley, the midfielder now in goal, and smashed in Celtic’s second.

Between Cam Fogerty and Tongue missing by a fraction, Kyle Brownhill latched onto a terrible back-pass and gave the stand-in keeper no chance.

Lichfield went down to nine when John Mills went flying in on Brownhill. The aftermath of the foul resulted in a red for Mills and yellow for Brownhill and Ellis Horan.

Both Tongue and Scarisbrick hit the woodwork, and Fogerty shot straight at the stand-in keeper before a dramatic first-half came to an end.

Tongue went close before Horan’s corner perfectly found Brownhill unmarked to fire in Celtic’s fourth.

Horan went himself, bursting through the middle, his reverse shot blocked almost on the line by Morris, and Irlam saw his shot somehow fumbled around the post.

Irlam scuffed his shot over the bar and both Josh Granite and Fogerty went close, before Charlie Doyle turned provider finding Irlam to volley into the roof of the net.

Celtic made four substitutions, with Lewis Rawsthorn among those coming on. However, though Benni Smales-Braithwaite, Ruben Jerome and Rawsthorn all forced saves, Celtic added no more to the scoreline with Jerome harshly seeing a goal chalked off by the flag. At no point was Charlie Monks called into real action.