Match Preview :- Rushall Olympic - Saturday August 19th, 2017 (15:00:00)

On Saturday, Celtic travel to Birmingham to face Rushall Olympic. Last season, Rushall started amazingly well, but after a disastrous end to the season, finished in twelfth, on sixty-four points. There will be a match centre and Twitter feed for this game.

Up until the end of December, Rushall lost only six games, winning fifteen and drawing three. In the second half of the season, out of their twenty-two games, they won just three and drew seven, losing thirteen matches, including a run of nine games without a win in their last ten games. They did win their final game of the season, though, with a 2-1 win over Halesowen, away from home. This season has started no better, with two defeats, losing 2-0 away at Warrington on the opening day, and then 2-0 at home to Grantham most recently.

Last season's top scorer was Alex Reid with fourteen goals, and it was he that was a major contributing factor their first half season success. After his departure to Fleetwood Town, Rushall started struggling for goals, scoring forty-two with him in the team and eighteen without. Rushall failed to score in ten games, four at home, and kept twelve clean sheets, seven at home. They scored a total of sixty goals, at a rate of 1.3 per game, and conceded sixty at a rate of 1.3 per game.

In Rushall's last game, the 2-0 home defeat to Grantham, they lined up as:
1. Dan Crane
2. Ciaran Best
3. R'Mar Murray
4. Sam Whittall
5. Wayne Thomas
6. Lewis Probert
7. Charlie Duke
8. Liam Lawrence
9. Zak Lilly
10. Kartel O'Neill-Martin
11. Stanley Mugisha

Celtic's last match was the 4-1 away defeat to Whitby Town. In that match, Celtic lined up as:
1. Joe Slinn
2. Danny Morton
3. Joe Garvin
4. Andy Langford
5. Luke Ashworth
6. Alex Honeyball
7. Theo Bailey-Jones
8. Oli Roberts
9. Aaron Burns
10. Jake Charles
11. Greg Wilkinson

The loss on Tuesday night was a big lesson for Celtic, hopefully that lesson has been learned. It leaves Celtic looking for their first away win of the campaign, whilst Rushall are still looking for their first points.

Directions
Distance: 88
Time: 2 hours

Take the M56 to junction 7 and join the A556, following signs for M6.
Stay on the A556 for 4 miles to the M6.
Join the M6 southbound.
Stay on the M6 for 57 miles to junction 10 (A454, Walsall, Wolverhampton).
At the roundabout at the end of the slip road, turn left onto A454 (Wolverhampton Road).
After a mile and a half, at the roundabout, turn left (1 of 4) onto Litchfield Street (A461).
After a mile, at the traffic lights, turn right onto B4154 (Draw End Lane).
Teh club is half a mile down the road on the right.