On Saturday, Celtic are at home to face Stafford Rangers (kick off 7:45pm). Stafford are currently twenty-first on six points in the league, nine places and ten points behind Celtic, having played two game fewer.
Stafford have yet to win this season, losing three of their five away matches and one of their home matches, drawing their last two away matches and their last five overall. They started the season with a 2-1 defeat away at Lancaster, picking up one point with a 1-1 home draw to Grantham in their opening five matches. Their worst result was a 4-0 away defeat to Hyde. Most recently their last two away games were 1-1 draws to Morpeth and Scarborough.
Stafford have five different scorers this season, each scoring one goal – including former Celts, Jake Charles and Danny Burns. They had a five game goal drought, but have scored a goal in each of their last three games. They have scored their five goals (three away) at a rate of 0.5 goals per game (0.6 away), whilst conceding twelve goals in total and nine on the road at a rate of 1.2 goals per game (1.8 away). Stafford have conceded in every away game (they kept two clean sheets at home), and failed to score twice on the road and five times overall.
In the last thirty years, Stafford have visited Bower Fold ten times, most recently last season when we drew 2-2, thanks to late goals from Andy Scott and Neil Kengni. The return fixture was a 2-0 loss for Celtic, whilst the season before, we beat them 2-0 at Bower Fold (with a brace from Connor Hughes) and lost 2-0 away. In ten visits, Celtic have won five, drawn one and lost four. Celtic have won three out of the last five encounters (drawing the most recent) and lost once (2-3), back in 2005 in Stafford's title winning season.
In Stafford's last match, the 1-1 away draw with Scarborough that saw a goal from new loanee, Brad Grayson, they lined up as:
1. Lewis King
2. Josh Burns
3. Matthew Hill
4. Luke Jones
5. Paul Bignot
6. Alex Harvey
7. Andy Haworth
8. Sam Coulson
9. Brad Grayson
10. Evan Garnett
11. Jed Davies
Stafford have a few ex-Celts, including popular goalkeeper, Lewis King who was hero of the match against Scarborough. Danny Burns and Jake Charles both missed the last game through injury, Danny after a collision with Lewis King.
Celtic returned to winning ways at home to Bamber Bridge on Saturday, winning 3-2. In that match, we lined up as:
1. Alex Fojtíček
2. Declan Walker
3. Kallum Mantack
4. Ross Dent
5. Stephen O'Halloran
6. Chris Smalley
7. Scott Bakkor
8. Nathan Valentine
9. Craig Hobson
10. Darius Osei
11. Jonathan Ustabasi
With a good enough win, Celtic could go sixth, being three points behind Warrington, Whitby and Nantwich, two behind FC United and one behind Hyde and Grantham. Celtic are five behind in goal difference to Warrington, so it would require a very good win! Only Witton are capable of overtaking Celtic (they are at home to Ashton), should we lose. Warrington and FC United both face top five sides: Warrington are at Matlock and FC United are hosting Basford. Hyde are away at Scarborough, and Whitby, Nantwich and Grantham are all not playing.