On Saturday Celtic travel to Staffordshire to face relegation candidates Stafford Rangers (kick off 3pm). Stafford are currently bottom of the table on eighteen points, twenty points and fourteen places below Celtic, though they have played three games fewer.

Stafford have occupied bottom spot for half of the season, and been in the bottom three apart from mid-October after beating Celtic 3-0 at Bower Fold, when they leapt to eighteenth. That win had followed five draws and was their first win of the season. Their first home win of the season came seven weeks later when they beat Radcliffe 2-0. Their only other win of the season was at home to Scarborough, whom they beat 1-0. They are currently unbeaten in four, having drawn three and won one, their most recent match a goalless draw to Buxton. Their last home loss was on New Year's Day. As with the last time we played them, they are once again unbeaten over the previous few games having lost ten of their previous eleven. Only Bamber Bridge have lost more, whilst only Warrington have drawn more.

Former Celt, Jake Charles is currently Stafford's top scorer with five, though Brad Grayson is right behind on four, though Grayson has not scored at home this season, whilst Charles has only scored at home, getting over half of their home goals. In total, they have scored twenty-one (nine at home) at a rate of 0.8 goals per game (0.7 at home). They have the worst attack in the league, with nobody scoring fewer. They have conceded thirty-eight goals in total, fourteen of them at home, which is mid-table, in terms of defence. They have kept five clean sheets at home (from six in total) and failed to score in six home games (from ten in total). They hold the league record for most consecutive defeats (five) and most consecutive games without a win (ten), plus the longest goal drought (five).

Over the last thirty years, we have visited Stafford ten times. Stafford have won five and Celtic three. We've not won in Stafford since a 3-1 win in 2010 with goals from Connor Jennings, Phil Marsh and Tim Ryan, which ended a run of three visits and three wins. Our last two visits to Stafford have both been 2-0 losses, and we haven't beaten them since 2011, when we won 2-0 at home.

Ranger's last match was a 0-0 home draw with Buxton, in which they lined up as:
1. Jonathan Brown
2. Paul Bignot
3. Josh Green
4. Jonathon Moran
5. Danny Burns
6. Alex-Ray Harvey
7. Joe Cuff
8. Sam Coulson
9. Jake Charles
10. Brandon Diau
11. Jack Sherratt

In Celtic's last match, the 2-1 home defeat to Gainsborough Trinity, Celtic lined up as:
1. Alex Fojtíček
2. Declan Walker
3. Scott Metcalfe
4. Anthony Whitehead
5. Stephen O'Halloran
6. Chris Smalley
7. Scott Bakkor
8. Patrick Lacey
9. Craig Hobson
10. Adam O'Reilly
11. Ethan Walker

Craig Hobson played over an hour against Gainsborough as he made his return from injury however Jonathan Ustabasi looks to still be out.

Celtic are level on points with Witton (away at Ashton) and Scarborough (away at Hyde), whilst the play-offs are now six points away, with Celtic's poor run of form since the turn of the year seeing us drop away. Mickleover (home to Whitby), Hyde (home to Scarborough), Radcliffe (home to Lancaster) and Morpeth (away at Atherton) are now in a position to overtake us, being within three points, should we lose. Losing isn't an option, with Celtic needing to turn around a slump that has seen us win once in eleven matches and lose five of our last six.