On Saturday, Celtic take on Worcester City in the league, looking to get back into winning ways. After last season's well placed ninth, Worcester have struggled somewhat this season, and currently are second bottom, in twenty-first on twelve points, ten places and six points behind Celtic, two points and two places away from the bottom three, with a game in hand on Corby Town in eighteenth. There will be a match centre for this game.
With only one win in their opening ten games (at home to Lowestoft), picking up six points from a possible thirty, Worcester have a mountain to climb this season already. They have won twice in their last four games, beating FC United and Corby Town away from home, but lost their last two, at home to Nuneaton and away at Harrogate. Only Gloucester and Telford have scored less goals than Worcester, and they have failed to score in five games this season, four on the road, and conceded in eleven (five away). Al three of their clean sheets have come away from home, with their two wins and a goalless draw at Stockport.
Worcester's top scorer this season is Lee Hughes who has four, though Daniel Nti is right behind him on three. They score an average of 1.1 goals per game (0.9 away) and concede 1.6 goals per game (1.1 away). If they are losing at half time, they have gone on to lose all those games.
We've met at Bower Fold ten times since their first game here in the FA Trophy back in 2000, and Worcester have won five of them (including that Trophy game) and Celtic have won three. Worcester have won their last three visits here, with Celtic's last win at Bower Fold over them back in October 2011, with Connor Jennings finding the net twice to give Celtic a 2-0 victory. Their last visit here was a 1-0 win for Worcester, Mike Symons getting the goal.
Like ourselves, Worcester went out of the FA Cup last weekend when they lost 3-0 away to Sheffield United. Worcester will be without Sean Geddes for Saturday match, as he is suspended. In that FA Cup match, they lined up as:
1. Nathan Vaughan
2. Sam Minihan
3. Alex Gudger
4. Wayne Thomas
5. Tom Sharpe
6. Daniel Nti
7. Connor Gater
8. Ellis Deeney
9. Danny Jackman
10. Ashley Vincent
11. Deon Burton
Danny Wisdom missed the last match against Northwich Manchester Villa, after damaging ankle ligaments in the FA Cup match, Jack Higgins was also missing due to picking up a knock, and John Shaw's knee injury is still likely to rule him out for Saturday. In our last match, the disappointing 2-1 home defeat to Villa, Celtic lined up as:
1. Tony McMillan
2. Peter Wylie
3. Aidan Chippendale
4. Matty Hughes
5. Oliver Crowley
6. Dale Wright
7. Amour Lingouba
8. Alex Mudimu
9. Chris Simm
10. Steve Tames
11. Ben McKenna
Celtic have games in hand on the teams above us, but a win on Saturday is unlikely to move us up any (unless our margin is bigger than Curzon's loss – as they are three points ahead of us, with an eleven goal difference between the teams). However, five teams are in a position to overtake us, should we slip up.
Other games on Saturday:
AFC Fylde (32pts 2nd) v Brackley Town (13pts 19th)
AFC Telford (10pts 22nd) v Nuneaton Town (33pts 1st)
Boston United (27pts 7th) v Corby Town (14pts 18th)
Chorley (24pts 9th) v Bradford Park Avenue (15pts 15th)
Curzon Ashton (21pts 10th) v North Ferriby United (28pts 5th)
FC United of Manchester (14pts 17th) v Gainsborough Trinity (15pts 16th)
Gloucester City (16pts 14th) v Lowestoft Town (13pts 20th)
Harrogate Town (30pts 4th) v Alfreton Town (17pts 12th)
Hednesford Town (17pts 13th) v Solihull Moors (32pts 3rd)
Stockport County (26pts 8th) v Tamworth (27pts 6th)