As late as Wednesday, Kelly felt a quarter of the pitch was unfit to play on after a record-breaking downpour on June 24 was followed by a week of wet weather in Perth.

Allia Venue Management, the group responsible for the stadium, were using industrial blow dryers and helicopters in a desperate bid to dry the surface over the last 48 hours.

But it appears they had more success on Wednesday evening through the use of water extraction rods, which were drilled into the ground in a bid to dry up the underlying water that was seeping to the surface.

"It's improved since yesterday," declared Kelly. "There's pumping equipment which I believe has been pumping thousands of litres of water out of the ground.

"It's still a bit soft but the thing is we're going to have to play there. It will be a little bit soft underfoot but I have every faith today and tomorrow it will harden up."

Kelly said officials from Celtic had inspected the pitch on Thursday morning and given it the green light.

"Celtic have had a quick look at it," Kelly confirmed. "I spoke to Neil Lennon last night about it as well and they've played on pitches that I won't say are far worse, but are soft and wet.

"Amongst everything, they want to play at a rectangular stadium, play in a full house and get an atmosphere."

Without inspecting the pitch himself, Glory coach Ian Ferguson was rapt the high-profile pre-season game would go ahead.

"Celtic, I believe, have already seen it and I think they've given the thumbs up, I don't see any reason why I should get down there complaining," Ferguson said.

"I'll go and have a look at it, at this moment in time I haven't seen it. I think we've got another two or three days of sunshine, so hopefully it will be okay."

The good news has saved Glory, Allia Venue Management and Eventscorp, the WA government's major events body, the embarrassing situation of either cancelling the game or trying to arrange for the match to be shifted to either the WACA or Patersons Stadium with only three day's notice.