On Saturday, Celtic travel to a new ground when we visit Atherton Collieries. Atherton are currently nineteenth in the table on twenty-two points, fifteen points and fourteen places below fifth placed Celtic, though they have played five games fewer.

Although they won twice on their travels, it wasn't until the end of November that they finally got a second home win, when they beat Bamber Bridge 4-1 after beating Nantwich at the end of August 3-1. Since then, they have played twice more at home and won both, beating Hyde 2-1 and Lancaster City 2-1. The win over Lancaster was a double over the Lancashire outfit, something they will be aiming to do over us, after already beating us once this season. In their last six games, they have lost only once, away at Radcliffe, winning three and drawing two, most recently a 1-1 draw away at Warrington.

With thirty goals, they are mid-table in terms of attack and with thirty-four conceded they are mid-table defensively. The lack of games has somewhat put them in a false position. Only Morpeth and Whitby have played fewer. Tom Bentham is leading the pack for their scoring chart, his nine goals more than the next three combined. On average they score two goals per game at home and 1.4 overall. Although they have never kept a clean sheet at home, they have never failed to score either (they have failed to score five times on the road). Their defence concede two goals per game at home, and 1.8 overall.

We've never visited Atherton, but earlier this season they visited us, a pre-Darius Osei Celtic pulling one back in the second half after Bentham had put them into an early lead Celtic never recovered from.

Atherton's last match was a 2-0 away defeat to Barrow in the FA Trophy. In that match they lined up as:
1. Paddy Wharton
2. Clive Smith
3. Gareth Peet
4. Josh Thompson
5. Danny Laffety
6. Niall Battersby
7. Ben Conway
8. John Welsh
9. Tom Bentham
10. Vinny Bailey
11. Danny Lambert

Celtic's last game was our 1-1 away draw with Scarborough. 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. Anthony Whitehead
9. Neil Kengni
10. Darius Osei
11. Harry Freedman

Alex Fojticek has extended his loan with Celtic until the end of the season whilst Toby Savin has returned to Accrington. Max Taylor has joined from Manchester United on loan until the end of the season, joining parent club teammate Alex Fojticek. Jonathan Ustabasi is available after serving his suspension, whilst Craig Hobson sat out the match against Scarborough through injury. Atherton's keeper is Paddy Wharton who was on loan with Celtic during the 2018/19 season, is one of two former Celtic players among Atherton's ranks, the other is Tom Bentham, who made eight appearances for us in in 2015.

Only Basford are within three points of Celtic, so a win could make us fourth, if Basford lose at home to Bamber Bridge. Nantwich (away at Scarborough), Radcliffe and Warrington (who play each other) are all within three points of Celtic, so a loss could see us tumble to seventh.