On Saturday, Celtic travel to Newcastle Town for the league fixture. Satnav users – search for the Velodrome (ST5 3AL). Newcastle are currently seventeenth on thirty-four points, twenty-six points and eleven places behind Celtic, with a game in hand. Kick-off is 3pm.

Four points clear of the drop zone, and with a game in hand on the teams below, Newcastle have pulled themselves away from the bottom with an excellent start to 2026. Until recently, their last loss was on New Year’s Day, when Vauxhall Motors beat them. They beat Witton Albion away, ending a run of eight games without a win and beginning a run of seven games without loss. That run ended last weekend when Nantwich beat them (in Nantwich) 1-0, followed by a 2-0 home defeat to Avro. It’s been their away form this season, with all three away wins coming in a three-week period. At home they’ve got double that and their last home win was against Congleton at the start of March, though their previous home win was at the end of October when they beat Nantwich 3-0.

Firepower has been their issue this season, with twenty-seven goals scored all season, they have the worst attack in the league (though they have nineteen at home). There top scorer is Joel Jones with twelve, nearly half of their goals. On average they score 1.2 goals per home game (0.8 overall) and concede 1.1 goals at home (1.3 overall). Six of their eleven clean sheets came at home, and six of their sixteen failures to score occurred at home. Two third of their goals scored came in the first half, and they concede over half of their goals in the second half. In the six games they have been winning at half time, they have won five and drawn one, whilst they have won one of their four games they have been losing at half time, going on to lose the other three.

In the five meetings with Newcastle, Celtic have won four, three of them at Bower Fold. In our two previous visits to Newcastle, we won the first 4-3 (with goals from Matty Bryan, Aaron Dwyer, Brad Byrne and Scott Wara), but lost our last visit there, 2-1, with Joe Duckworth’s equaliser undone in the dying moments of the second half.

In Newcastle’s last match, the 2-0 home loss to Avro on Tuesday, Newcastle lined up as:
1. Joe Slinn
2. Roman Allen
3. Oliver Ritchie
4. Cameron Dourish
5. Lewis Brown
6. Karsten Cairns
7. Joseph Hunter
8. Ethan Vale
9. Tim Grice
10. Tom Jones
11. Harry Bower

In Celtic’s last match, the 2-1 home win over Avro, Celtic lined up as:
1. Charlie Monks
2. Charlie Doyle
3. Kyle Brownhill
4. Aaron Chalmers
5. Jack Byrne
6. Jack Tinning
7. Andy Scarisbrick
8. Liam Tongue
9. Ruben Jerome
10. Jack Irlam
11. Ellis Horan

Celtic are within one point of fifth placed Vauxhall (at home to Atherton on Friday), and within three points of Runcorn (away at Darlaston), and have a game in hand over both. We are four behind Lower Breck (at home to Nantwich), and four behind Avro (at home to Khalsa), though Avro have a game in hand. With the right results, we could erode Runcorn’s five goal goal-difference advantage and go fourth, with a game in hand. Bootle (at home to Chasetown) are now five points behind Celtic, and they are our game in hand, so a loss would leave us sixth.