Farsley Celtic were on the end of a 5-1 defeat to South Shields on Saturday on a tough afternoon for the Celts

The Celts travelled north to play South Shields in cold and windy conditions despite a few other games in the league being cancelled due to the weather.

The Celts welcomed Joao Silva back to the bench as Dylan Youmbi was ruled out as Isaac Abankwah made his first appearance for the club.

The Celts started the first ten minutes with a strong, solid defensive shape not giving the home side much opportunity to score but despite a good start Crossley found the back of the net after a good header from a corner to lead 1-0.

The pressure was on from the home side and they doubled their lead on the 20 minute mark when Blackett crossed from the right to give Crossley his second goal of the game, which came after some determined defense to keep the scores at 1-0.

The next goal came three minutes later when Blackett’s effort from the edge of the box looped into the far corner.

The Celts looked good down the right side and through Abankwah and Campton-Sturridge were creating opportunities that weren’t taken.

The home side made it 4-0 in the 33rd minute as they broke quickly through Crossley who squared it for Blackett to score his second.

Ryan Watson and Hayden Pickard came on at half time and 7 minutes into the second half the Celts had a goal back as a reward for starting the second half with intensity. Stephenson found space in the right side of the box and fired a low cross in which found Aaron Pickles as he scored his first goal for the club to pull one back.

A minute later the home side put any comeback to bed as they sent the ball forward and it fell to Martin Smith who scored the home sides 5th goal.

The Celts looked threatening later on, on the break particularly through Joao Silva after being subbed on as he created problems for defenders with his quick footwork.

The Celts nearly pulled another goal back through Lewis Turner as Ryan Watson fired a corner to him at the edge of the box and it took a fantastic save to keep Turners effort out.