On Boxing Day (Monday for those losing track of the days), Celtic’s festive fixture is away at Hyde. Hyde are currently second on goal difference on thirty-eight points, though they have played two more games than top placed South Shields. They are eighteen places and eighteen points ahead of Celtic. Kick off is 1pm and segregation is in force.

Hyde have lost three of their eleven home games this season, losing two of them in their last three home games. They lost more recently 2-1 to Lancaster and before that to Matlock Town. Hyde’s last home game was a 1-0 win over Gainsborough. Whilst their last game saw them draw 1-1 away at Whitby. They hold the longest winning streak in the league this season, with 4 wins on the trot, covering the whole of September and also hold the record for the highest league win this season when they beat Bamber Bridge 7-0. Outside the league, their most recent game saw them lose 3-1 away to Macclesfield in the Cheshire Senior Cup.

Hyde have the sixth best home attack in the league, having scored seventeen of their twenty-nine goals at home this season at a rate of 1.6 goals per game at home and 1.4 overall. They have failed to score in only two home matches when Ashton beat them 1-0 and Matlock did the same more recently. They have thirteen different scorers, with Jack Redshaw leading the league scorers pack on eight. Conceding just six of their sixteen conceded goals at home this season gives them the best home defence in the league, conceding at home at a rate of 0.6 goals per game from 0.8 overall and keeping six of their nine clean sheets at Ewen Fields this season, most recently in their 1-0 home win over Gainsborough.

Over the last thirty years, there have been twenty-nine visits to Ewen Fields. Our last visit there in April 2022 saw a 2-2 draw with Keenan Quansah and Justin Johnson giving Celtic the lead, but Harry Pratt’s goal ensured a stalemate. In our previous visit in December 2019, we beat them 2-1, with first half goals from Scott Bakkor and Jonathon Ustabasi enough to see of a second half resurgence. Hyde’s last win was in one of the final games of the 2018/19 season when they won 1-0. In total, over the last twenty-nine games Celtic have won fifteen, Hyde ten and there have been four draws.

In Hyde’s last match, the 3-1 away loss in Macclesfield, Hyde lined up as:
1. Dan Atherton
2. Harry Ditchfield
3. Edy Maieco
4. Callum Spooner
5. Aaron Flemming
6. Bradley Roscoe
7. Adam Dawson
8. Matthew Fearnley
9. Manasse Mampala
10. Jack Redshaw
11. Tom Pratt

In Celtic’s last match, the 1-1 away draw with Warrington Town, Celtic lined up as: 1. Greg Hall
2. Tom Miller
3. Josh Askew
4. Domaine Rouse
5. Dahrius Waldron
6. Cesare Lingouba
7. Osebi Abadaki
8. Moses Yoak
9. Raul Correia
10. Chris Dagnall
11. Nathan Caine

Hyde will be looking to overturn a two goal goal-difference and put them selves back on top of the table, whilst Celtic look to drag themselves out of the bottom four, something a win could do, depending on how Nantwich get on away at Stafford and Marske’s result at home to Morpeth.

Godwin Abadaki will be serving the third of his four-match ban, whilst Kyle Harrison will be available after serving his suspension. Matty Carson may be fit enough to play, and will be assessed.