Match Preview :- Leamington FC - Saturday September 6th, 2014 (15:00:00)

Saturday is Non-League Day, and Celtic will be hoping to entice a few more through the gates with some special offers as we face Leamington FC in the Vanarama Conference North match. Leamington are currently only a point behind Celtic on seven points, but six places below us in eighteenth. There will be a match centre for this game.

Leamington have started the season with two wins and a draw, beating Brackley 2-1 at home and Hednesford 2-1 away, with their draw coming away from home as they held Lowestoft to a 1-1 draw. Their other three games were an opening day home loss to Guiseley, losing 1-0, and most recently, losing 3-0 at home to Colwyn Bay. On the road, they've lost 2-1 to Bradford Park Avenue.

Last season, Leamington finished thirteenth with fifty-two points, six places and thirteen points ahead of Celtic, having had a steady start to their first season in the Conference North. Although they won a couple of away games early on in the season against Worcester City and Workington, away wins were hard to come by, and they won only one other against AFC Telford in early December. They did finish the season with an unbeaten nine game run, but had six draws in that period, and in the second half of the season only lost three times on the road, to Altrincham, Guiseley and Bradford Park Avenue.

We've met Leamington twice, and it's been honours even between the two clubs. We played them twice home and away in a week; Leamington won their home match 1-0, and Celtic won their home match 2-1, with Obi Anorou and Kristian Platt getting on the score sheet for Celtic and Lee and Stefan Moore scoring the two goals for Leamington.

Lee and Stefan Moore are once more on the score sheets this season, with Stefan having three goals, and Lee one. Second halves are currently more exciting for Leamington, with twice as many goals scored (four in the second half, two in the first) and twice as many goals conceded (six in the second half, three in the first). They are scoring more away from home so far also, with four goals scored away from home, and two at home, whilst conceding less – four conceded away from home and five at home.

Leamington don't appear to have any major injury worries, In Leamington's last match, the 3-0 home defeat to Colwyn Bay, Leamington lined up as:
1. Neil Collett
2. James Mace
3. Stephan Morley
4. Jack Edwards
5. Stuart Pierpoint
6. Jamie Tank
7. Matt Dodd
8. Jordan Goddard
9. Stefan Moore
10. Lee Moore
11. Richard Batchelor

In Celtic's last match, the 1-1 away draw with Boston United, Celtic lined up as:
1. Lewis King
2. Kelvin Bleau
3. Jack Truelove
4. Matty Hughes
5. Matt Regan
6. Sam Staunton-Turner
7. Aidan Chippendale
8. Matty Mainwaring
9. Ben McKenna
10. Charlie Ennis
11. Liam Dickinson

A win could see Celtic move into the top six, whilst a loss could see us drop several places, as the table doesn't start sorting itself out until about ten games in. Hopefully it's the former, with Celtic building on a good start to the season. Other games this Saturday:
Barrow (13pts 1st) v Worcester City (7pts 15th)
Brackley Town (4pts 21st) v Guiseley (10pts 8th)
Bradford Park Avenue (10pts 7th) v Boston United (11pts 3rd)
Colwyn Bay (7pts 17th) v Gainsborough Trinity (10pts 6th)
Gloucester City (7pts 13th) v Hyde (1pt 22nd)
Hednesford Town (7pts 16th) v Stockport County (9pts 9th)
Lowestoft Town (9pts 11th) v Harrogate Town (5pts 19th)
North Ferriby United (13pts 2nd) v Solihull Moors (4pts 20th)
Oxford City (9pts 10th) v AFC Fylde (10pts 5th)
Tamworth (7pts 14th) v Chorley (11pts 4th)

Match Sponsor
Minstrell Recruitment
Ball Sponsor
Andy & Carrie Doyle
Man of the Match Sponsor
Peter Wragg
Programme Sponsor
Programme sponsor
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0161 338 2828