On Tuesday, Celtic are back in action after a weekend off, to face Newcastle Town. Newcastle are currently tenth on forty-three points, three places and four points behind Celtic with a game in hand. Kick-off 7:45pm.

Newcastle’s away form far exceeds their home form. They have lost three times on the road this season, with only Widnes bettering that, they have won six and drawn six, picking up twenty-four points, with only Hanley picking up more away draws. With fifteen goals conceded on the road, only Widnes can claim to have a better away defence. Despite their excellent away form, Newcastle have struggled for any consistency, their only run of being unbeaten was back in October, since then, three games without a loss as only happened in their last three games. They have yet to pick up six points off any team they’ve played this season, and they have beaten Celtic this season in the reverse fixture.

Tim Grice’s eight league goals has him topping their golden boot chart, with his next three nearest rivals all on four. They have two danger points in their matches, the half hour mark, and either side of half time, where they have five and nine respectively. Their weakest spot is the first five minutes, when they have conceded five goals. On average, they scored their nineteen away goals (thirty-seven overall) at a rate of 1.2 goals per game and have failed to score four times away from home from six in total, the most recent a goalless draw at Bootle at the end of January. Defensively, they have conceded their fifteen away goals (thirty-three overall) at a rate of a goal per game (1.1 overall) and have kept six clean sheets on the road – a current league record.

We played Newcastle earlier in the season when they beat us 2-1, with Joe Duckworth’s equaliser not enough for Celtic to kick on in the second half. Newcastle’s last visit to Bower Fold saw Celtic win 2-1, Aaron Dwyer’s brace in the first half enough to secure the points. Our only other meeting was a 3-4 thriller with a Scott Wara injury time winner.

In Newcastle’s last match, the 2-2 home draw with Hanley, Newcastle lined up as:
1. Joe Slinn
2. Jack Derbyshire
3. Isaac Godwin
4. Jarma Mohamed
5. Tom Thornley
6. Tommy Van Der Laan
7. Tyler Webster
8. Carlos Dos Santos
9. Tim Grice
10. Jake Avery
11. Tom Jones

In Celtic’s last match the 1-0 home defeat by Widnes, Celtic lined up as:
1. Charlie Monks
2. Jordan Butterworth
3. Kyle Brownhill
4. Charlie Doyle
5. Courtney Meppen-Walters
6. Max Leonard
7. Brandon Newell
8. Liam Tongue
9. Lewis Rawsthorn
10. Joe Duckworth
11. Jack Irlam

Jack Tinning will be missing through suspension, while Benni Smales-Braithwaite will likely be out after limping off Trafford’s treacherous pitch. A win for Celtic won’t see us return to the top five as we are now four points off, but we would stay in touch. Both Runcorn and Nantwich are both within three points of us. One plus from the weekends fixtures is many teams have caught up our games in hand and we are still in the mix.