On Saturday, our visitors to Bower Fold are Whitby Town. Whitby are nineteenth in the league, four points and five places below Celtic, with two games in hand. Tickets are available on-line and on the gate. Kick-off is 3pm.

Whitby started the season rooted to the foot of the table, losing six of their opening seven games, and getting a goalless draw at Marske. They had to wait until November to get a home win, when they beat Bamber Bridge 3-0 following three away wins that lifted them from the drop zone. Whitby lost only twice more before Christmas, pulling in three wins and two draws. In the six games since, they had one win, three losses and two draws, but have the games in hand to pull themselves out. Their last away game was a their only win since Christmas, beating Gainsborough, they drew the previous one at FC United and lost the one before that at South Shields. Celtic need to be in front at half time, as Whitby have lost all five games they’ve been losing at half time.

Bradley Fewster’s seven goals put him at the top of their league scoring chart, with Jacob Day some way behind on four, and Whitby have fourteen different goal scorers. They’ve scored twenty-seven goals this season (sixteen away) with a third coming in the first fifteen minutes of matches. They score at a rate of 1.1 goals per away game and a goal per game overall, failing to score ten times this season, but only four of those on the road. Defensively, they have conceded thirty-seven goals (sixteen away) at a rate of 1.4 goals per game (1.1 away), and have kept six of their eight clean sheets on the road. Only three teams have conceded fewer away than Whitby, Marine, FC United and Gainsborough, giving them the joint fourth best away defence. Five teams have scored fewer on the road, so Whitby’s attack is the sixth worst.

In the last thirty-five years, Whitby have made twelve visits to Bower Fold, with Celtic winning six of them, Whitby winning four and there have been two draws. Their last visit at the end of last season saw Celtic win 2-1, with a stoppage time bullet header winner from Connor Falls after Jake Burton had given Celtic the lead. Celtic have won three out of the last four, with Whitby winning the other 1-0 in 2019 after Ross Dent’s first half dismissal. The last meeting between the two sides was in Whitby earlier this season, when Celtic won 1-0 thanks to a Raul Correia penalty, meaning Celtic have beaten Whitby four times in the last four matches.

In Whitby’s last league match, the 1-0 home loss to Morpeth, Whitby lined up as:
1. Shane Bland
2. Josef Wheatley
3. Coleby Shepherd
4. Aaron Cunningham
5. Danny Rowe
6. Harrison Beeden
7. Lewis Hawkins
8. Adam Gell
9. Bradley Fewster
10. Aaron Haswell
11. Harry Green

In Celtic’s last league match, the 1-0 away defeat at Marine, Celtic lined up as:
1. Greg Hall
2. Tom Miller
3. Raheem Hanley
4. Kyle Harrison
5. Dahrius Waldron
6. Domaine Rouse
7. DJ Pedro
8. Ethan Padden
9. Raul Correia
10. Chris Dagnall
11. Harry Benns

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

Celtic are in a strange place in the table, with Ashton (at home to Radcliffe) and Stafford (away at Guiseley) both in reach, allowing us to go twelfth with a win, but four teams within reach of us, meaning we could drop to seventeenth with a loss, depending on the results for the Atherton Morpeth match, Lancaster (at home to FC United), and Nantwich (away at Liversedge).