On Tuesday night, Celtic host Matlock Town at Bower Fold. Matlock are currently ninth on 46 points, seven places and 11 points ahead of Celtic with a game in hand. Kick-off is 7:45pm.

Matlock topped the table in November, after beating Marske and Hyde, but since then, winning four, drawing four and losing four has seen them drop out of the top five. They drew their last away game 1-1 at South Shields, and won the one before, beating Nantwich 1-0.

The previous game was their last loss away from home when Lancaster beat them 2-1.

With 27 points from 45 at home (seven wins, six draws and two losses), their home form is better than their away form, which comes in at 19 points from 45, with six wins, a draw and eight losses.

John Johnston and Alex Wiles are tying for the golden boot, on six goals each, but Matlock have more goal scorers than any other team, with 15 different goal scorers contributing to their 40 goals this season.

They score an average of 1.3 goals per game overall but only 0.9 away, as they have the third worst away attack in the league, with only Stafford and Atherton scoring fewer on the road, though they have only failed to score three times, Matlock have only scored more than one twice this season, 2-0 at Stafford and 2-1 at Rylands.

In total, Matlock have conceded thirty-six goals at a rate of 1.2, but they have conceded twenty-two of those away from home, at a rate of 1.5 goals per game. However, they have kept five of their 10 clean sheets on the road, two of which came in their last four away games at Nantwich and Stafford.

We’ve already played Matlock this season, back in August, when we drew 1-1 away from home.

Matlock’s last visit was in December last season when they beat us 2-0, following on from their 2-1 win over us in Derbyshire.

In the brief respite from Lockdown, Celtic last beat Matlock 1-0 (with a stunning second half goal from Tony Whitehead), with our last win over them coming at Bower Fold in 2018 when we won 3-1 with goals from Matty Wolfenden, Scott Bakkor and Neil Kengni capping off a comprehensive win.

Over the last 35 years, Matlock have made seven visits to Bower Fold. Celtic have won five and Matlock two.

In Matlock’s last league match, the 1-1 away draw with South Shields, Matlock lined up as:

1. Jim Pollard 

2. Jamie Sharman 

3. Ethan Cartwright 

4. Dan Bradley 

5. Adam Yates 

6. Ioan Evans 

7. Al Byrne 

8. Connor Dimaio 

9. Harry Wakefield 

10. Karl Demidh 

11. John Johnston

In Celtic’s last league match, the 1-1 away draw with FC United, Celtic lined up as: 

1. Greg Hall 

2. Tom Miller 

3. Ben Richardson 

4. Kyle Harrison 

5. Dahrius Waldron 

6. Domaine Rouse 

7. DJ Pedro 

8. Godwin Abadaki 

9. Raul Correia 

10. Chris Dagnall 

11. Harry Benns

Raheem Hanley, Theo Bailey-Jones, Nathan Caine and Ciaran Summers all missed the last match through injury.

A win for Celtic could put us 14th, with Ashton (away at Whitby), and Atherton (not playing) the only two within reach. With Lancaster (away to Guiseley), Morpeth (at home to Liversedge) and (with a seven-goal turnaround of goal difference) Nantwich (at home to Marske) could all overtake us should we lose dropping us to 19th. With Liversedge and Marske both struggling, this is a possibility, so Celtic need a win.