With much interest focused on the game it looked like a shock might well have been on the cards when Celtic defender Gavin Melaugh flicked a header onto the woodwork in the first minute.

It came as no surprise, then, when a Sean Fox free-kick on 34 minutes was knocked across the face of goal before being directed past his own keeper by Glentoran defender Sean Ward.

However Celtic's joy lasted barely four minutes when Michael Halliday touched the ball home on the goal-line from a Kyle Neill free-kick.

Glentoran then assumed the lead on 49 minutes through former Northern Ireland international Gary Hamilton who turned a Ward cross past Alex Spackman.