Celtic play the first of five away games before the end of the year on Saturday when they head to Burscough (3pm kick off). Burscough are currently four points clear of bottom, twenty-first and two points off safety, seventeen places and fifteen points behind Celtic. There will be a live match centre for this game.

Burscough have won three games this season, all of them away, beating Hinckley, Hucknall and Hyde. In their last five games, they have won just once, beating Hinckley at Hinckley. They have also had two draws at home, drawing with King?s Lynn and Farsley Celtic (both games in August). With ten losses, five of which have come at home, they sit in the bottom three of the form table, and are bottom of the home form and home table.

Our last meeting with Burscough was in January when they visited Bower Fold and came away with a 4-2 win to gain revenge for the earlier 2-0 win by Celtic over them at Victoria Park. It was 2002/03 season when we met prior to that, with a pair of draws, and in the last twenty years, though Burscough have drawn twice, they have never beaten us there, though they have beaten us twice at Bower Fold.

Their top scorer this season is Michael Grogan, who has four. Tony Evans has two to his name, and is in second place. The pair have scored over half of Burscough?s eleven goals. They have kept four clean sheets, though their 0-0 draw with Farsley is their only clean sheet at home. They have failed to score in five home games, with their last goal at home back in August when they lost 2-1 to Solihull Moors. On average then, they score 0.2 goals per game at home (0.7 overall), and concede 1.4 (1.9 overall). Their most dangerous period is the last fifteen minutes when they have scored six of their eleven goals, all of their first half goals have been scored by Grogan. They concede roughly equally between the two halves, though the opening half an hour has seen them concede thirteen of their twenty-nine conceded.

Burscough have recently signed former Southport keeper Steve Dickinson from Leigh Genesis, he joins fellow Leigh team-mate Josh Wilson, whilst Sean Clancy has returned from a trip abroad and will be available for selection. The only injury concern at Victoria Park is Matt Parry, who has a knee injury. In Burscough?s last match, the 4-1 defeat away at Gateshead, Burscough lined up as:
1. Rob Lainton
2. Michael Grogan
3. Dave Roberts
4. Brian Moogan
5. Ged Brannan
6. Josh Wilson
7. Sean Clancy
8. Tom Thornley
9. Tony Evans
10. Ryan Wade
11. Peter Heler

Celtic will definitely be without Barrie Keeling, who is serving a one match ban. Keith Briggs limped off the field against Altrincham in the Cheshire Senior cup, but was able to finish. In our last league match, the 2-2 home draw with Tamworth, Celtic lined up as:
1. Paul Phillips
2. Richard Battersby
3. Rhys Meynell
4. Tom Sharpe
5. Terry Barwick
6. Andy Smart
7. Steve Torpey
8. Keith Briggs
9. Lee Ellington
10. Nathan Joynes
11. Nicky Platt

The automated prediction algorithm is suggesting a 2-1 win for Celtic in this match, and it is important that we do pick up the three points, something we?ve only failed to do twice on the road, our last trip to Alfreton and our August trip to Vauxhall. The other teams in the top five have tricky ties this weekend, and it gives us a good chance of making up some of the six point gap between us and the league leaders, though a win wouldn?t move us up any places, failure to win would almost certainly see us drop out of the play-off spots.

Other games on Saturday:
AFC Telford v Gateshead
Alfreton Town v Solihull Moors
Droylsden v Redditch United
Farsley Celtic v Tamworth
Gainsborough Trinity v Blyth Spartans
Hinckley United v Harrogate Town
Hyde United v Workington
Southport v King?s Lynn
Stafford Rangers v Fleetwood Town
Vauxhall Motors v Hucknall Town