Our first away fixture of 2023 is at Lancaster City on Saturday. Lancaster are currently 15th in the league one place and one point above Celtic, but have a game in hand on Celtic. Kick off is 3pm.

With only two home wins from 12 matches, Lancaster have been struggling for form at home, though they have drawn six of those matches. Their last six has seen both those wins, with only Marine and Stafford beating them at the Giant Axe since November.

They recorded four straight wins in the rest of November, beating Hyde, Whitby and Marske away from home and Ashton at home. This lifted them from 20th at the start of November to a height of 13th, before picking up two points from the last available nine, with their two most recent games both 1-1 draws, at home to Bamber Bridge and, in their last match, away at Atherton. Their 6-3 away loss to Morpeth is the league’s highest scoring match so far this season.

With five of their 22 goals this season coming in the last five minutes, they have rescued a fair few points this season, twice finding a winner in stoppage time. Only eight of those goals have come at home though, at a rate of 0.7 goals per game from an average of a goal per game overall. Five of the eight times they’ve failed to score have been at home with three goalless draws and two losses. Defensively, they are stronger at home, conceding twelve of their 26 goals at home at a rate of a goal per game from 1.2 goals per game overall, keeping four of their six clean sheets at home. With four of his five goals in the last eight matches, Dale Whitham has topped their league scorers chart, knocking Sam Bailey into second.

Celtic have visited Lancaster’s capital twelve times over the last thirty years and it’s fair to say Celtic have struggled to produce a good game there, with three wins, the last of which was 2006 when Mark Hume salvaged something from a dire match. Lancaster have won seven of those matches, including our last visit there earlier in the season when they beat us 1-0 in the FA Cup after a goalless draw at Bower Fold and our last league visit at the start of 2021, when we lost 2-0.

In Lancaster’s last match, the 1-1 away draw with Atherton Collieries, Lancaster lined up as:

1. Sam Waller
2. Christopher Sloan
3. Charlie Bailey
4. Patrick Allington
5. Andy Teague
6. Jamie Mellen
7. Bradley Carroll
8. Niall Cowperthwaite
9. Dominic Lawson
10. David Norris
11. Dale Whitham

In Celtic’s last match, the 1-0 away derby win over Hyde, Celtic lined up as: 

1. Greg Hall
2. Ciaran Summers
3. Matty Carson
4. Kyle Harrison
5. Dahrius Waldron
6. Tom Miller
7. Theo Bailey-Jones
8. Ethan Padden
9. Raul Correia
10. Chris Dagnall
11. Nathan Caine

A win for Celtic could lift us three places and would definitely lift us above Lancaster who are directly above us. Atherton (away at Hyde) and Guiseley (at home to Nantwich) are both two points ahead of Celtic, so within reach. Ashton have two goals on us in goal difference, but they’re away at Warrington Rylands, so there is an outside chance of reaching 12th if results go our way. Celtic are far from safe, with Marske (at home to Radcliffe), Nantwich (away at Guiseley), Morpeth (away at Matlock) and Whitby (away at FC United) all capable of overtaking us and putting us back in the bottom three if results go against us.