On Saturday, Weather permitting, Celtic host top of the table, South Shields. South Shields are currently first on seventy-one points, sixteen places and thirty-three points ahead of Celtic with a game in hand. Kick-off is at 3pm and tickets are available on the gate or online. If there is a pitch inspection needed, this will be done early, with South Shields one of the furthest teams away.

Last week, Celtic faced bottom of the league, this week the top. South shields have a game in hand on second placed Hyde, with a game in hand on them. They have lost three times on the road, at FC United, Warrington and, most recently, Guiseley. The away trip at Guiseley is their only loss in 2023. They have lost one more game, at home to Hyde. Five of South Shields’s last six games have all been away, in those five, they won three and drew two. Their winning streak since losing to Guiseley of five games is the longest winning streak in the league this season, broken by a draw at Gainsborough. Another winning streak like that would give them the title. All they need to do is lose to us to go on a similar run.

With eleven goals conceded away from home, and twenty-six overall, South Shields have the tightest defence in the league in both categories. They concede on the road at 0.7 goals per game, and overall, at 0.8 goals per game. They have kept nine clean sheets on the road, the highest in the league, and sixteen overall. Scoring is also something they excel at, with the second-best overall attack in the league behind Gainsborough, though away from home, they have the seventh best attack with twenty-two scored. They score at rate of 1.4 goals per away game and 1.8 overall, failing to score twice on the road and twice at home. The last of those failures to score away was in their last match to Matlock that finished goalless. Their top scorer is former Celt, Darius Osei on eleven.

We have never beaten South Shields in nine attempts. They have visited Bower fold five times, the most recent in the FA Trophy in October, when they won 2-1 with Ozzie Abadaki’s late goal not enough to put the game to extra time. Their last league visit was back at the start of the 21/22 season, when they won 3-1 taking a first half lead, then killing Celtic off on the counter in the second as we threatened to get back into the game through Ioan Evans’ goal. Our best result was their previous visit in February 2020 when we drew 2-2, with Darius Osei grabbing both and producing such a fine display, South Shields put in a transfer request.

In South Shield’s last match, the 0-0 away draw with Matlock South Shields lined up as:
1. Miles Boney
2. Jordan Hunter
3. Blair Adams
4. Gary Liddle
5. Tom Broadbent
6. Martin Smith
7. Mackenzie Heaney
8. Robert Briggs
9. Darius Osei
10. Lewis Alessandra
11. Dylan Mottley-Henry

In Celtic’s last league match, the 2-1 home win over Belper, Celtic lined up as:
1. Connor Leach
2. Luke Barlow
3. Ciaran Summers
4. Kyle Harrison
5. Danny Burns
6. Tom Miller
7. Theo Bailey-Jones
8. Godwin Abadaki
9. Raul Correia
10. Chris Dagnall
11. DJ Pedro

DJ Pedro will have to sit this one out, after his red card against Belper. With Greg Hall out injured, Celtic have brought in Joe O’Shaughnessy on loan from Macclesfield Town. Nathan Caine will be out for the rest of the season now.

On paper, this should be a routine win for South Shields. There is an urban myth that if you want to win the league, you must lose to Celtic. They’ve not done that for the past few years, and they’ve faded toward the end of the season, with the non-league gods frowning on them. Should Celtic win on Saturday (if the game goes ahead), it could propel Celtic to fifteenth above Ashton (at home to Liversedge) and Atherton (at home to FC United). Only Morpeth (at home to Warrington) can overtake us if we lose, though if we lose and Bamber Bridge win, we’re not making the play-offs this year.