On Tuesday, Celtic’s last away trip is the rearranged match away at Marske United. Marske are two places and two points ahead of Celtic in eighteenth on forty-three points. Kick-off is 7:45pm.

Marske’s season saw them start strong and fade away. They with two losses in their opening ten matches, both away from home to Marine and Rylands, they climbed into the top spots. They had six wins and two draws in that period. Since then, they have had seven wins and two draws and hold the record for the most consecutive losses this season, at seven. They plummeted down the league, going from play-off places to relegation places. However, in their last ten matches, they are trying to rescue their season, and have had four of their six wins since the start of October, and both their draws, meaning they’ve lost just three in their last ten, pulling them out of the bottom four. Their last five home matches have seen Marske win two, lose three and draw one, with their most recent home game a 1-0 loss to Marine and their last match a 1-1 away draw at Morpeth. The did not play on Saturday, controversially postponing Nantwich until Thursday.

With the most consecutive matches without a clean sheet at eighteen conceding in every game between December and March, Marske have the third worst defence in the league, conceding at a rate of 1.9 goals per home game and two goals per game overall, keeping two of their four clean sheets this season at home. Twenty-four of their scored fifty goals this season have come at home, giving them the sixth worst home attack, failing to score seven of their thirteen blanks at home. On average they score 1.3 goals per game. Adam Boyes, still with the club, is their top scorer, with fifteen league goals, about a third of all the goals they’ve scored, putting him joint fifth top goal scorer in the league with the same number as Darius Osei. Their strongest goal scoring period is around half time, whilst they are weaker in the last half hour, conceding forty-one goals in that period.

Our one and only meeting with Marske was at Bower Fold, the last in their excellent start to the season. Celtic lost the match 2-3, with all three of Marske’s goals coming in a ten-minute spell at the start of the second half wiping out a predatory goal from Theo Bailey-Jones. And though Celtic laid siege to the Marske goal for the last thirty minutes, only Tom Miller’s brave header paid dividends.

In Marske’s last match, the 1-1 away draw with Morpeth, Marske lined up as:
1. Nathan Harker
2. Rio May
3. Dylan McAvoy
4. Jason Kennedy
5. Kevin Burgess
6. Adam Wheatley
7. Connor Smith
8. George Horbury
9. Adam Boyes
10. Sam Hodgson
11. Junior Mondal

In Celtic’s last league match, the 1-0 away loss at Rylands, Celtic lined up as:
1. Joseph O’Shaughnessy
2. Ciaran Summers
3. Anis Zaknoune
4. Luke Barlow
5. Danny Burns
6. Tom Miller
7. Theo Bailey-Jones
8. Domaine Rouse
9. Raul Correia
10. Chris Dagnall
11. Curtis Morrison

Kyle Harrison has one match left to serve on his four-match ban, whilst Danny Burns will also be suspended after his red card against Hyde.

It is impossible to overstate how important this game is for Celtic. Whilst a loss for Marske still leaves them a lifeline in their last two games, a loss for Celtic would relegate us and possibly see Liversedge overtake us if they beat Ashton away. It’s a long way to go to be relegated, so positive vibes, a win would see us leave the bottom four, overtake Marske and relegate Liversedge. Survival is amazingly still in our own hands. Even a draw isn’t the end of our survival, though it would require a draw from Marske and Nantwich on Thursday and a win in our final game against Cols, whilst both Marske and Nantwich lose to Liversedge and Radcliffe respectively. A big if. Better to be sure and take the three points back to Cheshire meaning a win on the final day would see us safe.