On Saturday, weather permitting, Celtic host Buxton Town. Kick off 3pm. Buxton had had one of each result so far this season, winning their opening match, losing their latest match and drawing the third.
They kicked off this season’s campaign at home to Radcliffe, beating them 4-2, which they followed up with a 2-2 draw at home to Whitby. Their most recent match has been their only away match so far this season, on Tuesday night, when they travelled to Nantwich, and like ourselves found Nantwich too strong, losing 2-1 after opening the scoring. In the FA Cup, on Saturday, they went out on penalties at home to Stafford Rangers after finishing goalless.
In last season’s aborted campaign, they finished 18th having played 32 matches, one less match than Celtic, but finishing 6 places and 7 points behind Celtic. However, at the start of the year, they were in the bottom three. They turned it around and finished unbeaten in their last seven. Prior to Tuesday’s loss, their most recent other loss was away at Bamber Bridge in January, when they lost 2-1. It had taken them until a 7-0 thrashing of Grantham in October last season to get going, which was one of only four wins in the whole of the season up to Boxing Day. Their strong finish looked like they would easily avoid the drop.
Last season’s top scorer was Diego De Girolamo, who’d found the net 21 times, putting him second in the league scorers’ chart. He has carried on that form this season, scoring in all three matches, though two of them were penalties. They have conceded at least two goals per game. On average last season, they scored 56 goals (21 away), at a rate of 1.8 goals per game (1.3 away). They only failed to score 4 times on the road from 6 in total. They conceded 52 goals (28 away) at a rate of 1.6 goals per game (1.8 away) giving them the only positive goal difference in the bottom half of the table. They kept 4 clean sheets on their travels from eight in total.
Last season, we beat them 2-0 at Bower Fold with Ross Dent and Darius Osei scoring at the start of each half. In our last 7 meetings, we’ve had 2 wins and 5 draws. Buxton’s last win over us was back in 2017, when they won 1-0 at Bower Fold after a defensive mistake let Liam Hardy in. Over the last 30 years, we have a met 21 times, Celtic have won 8, Buxton have won 5 and there have been 8 draws. If friendlies are excluded, the two teams have won 4 each, with 8 draws.
In Buxton’s last match, going out of the FA Cup to Stafford, they lined up as:
1. Tommy Taylor
2. James Hurst
3. Steve Brogan
4. Sam Wedgbury
5. Josh Granite
6. Shane Killock
7. Chris Dawson
8. Reece King
9. Diego De Girolamo
10. Tommy Elliott
11. Warren Clarke
Celtic’s last match was the 3-0 home defeat to Scarborough, in which Celtic lined up as:
1. Tom Stewart
2. Omar Sinclair
3. Kallum Mantack
4. Scott Sephton
5. Luke Barlow
6. Matty Makinson
7. Krisel Prifti
8. Damani Holness
9. Mike Burke
10. Callum Harris
11. Jonathon Ustabasi
Celtic need to kick start their season, two new players have been brought in on loan to shore up the gaps created by a series of injuries, with right-back Jordan Halliwell coming from Barnsley and striker Will Goodwin joining from Chester, but the half dozen players on the treatment table will hopefully of benefitted from the missed game in getting closer back to fitness.