On Tuesday night Celtic face Runcorn Linnets in the league Play-off Semi-final. Runcorn finished the league in fourth, one place and two points behind Celtic on eighty points. Kick-off 7:45pm.

Form goes out of the window in a game like this. One match, one chance and one winner. Celtic have home advantage, useful when Runcorn lost three at home, and five on the road. In their lasty five away matches, Runcorn won four and lost one, losing 1-2 to Clitheroe, and in the last ten have lost two, and won eight. Overall, Runcorn have the fourth best away record this season, however, Celtic have the best home form this season (losing three, drawing three), getting the same number of points as Bury, but we scored in our draws. Runcorn’s most recent match saw them win 2-1, doing their part if Celtic lost, though for much of that game, away at Newcastle, they needed five additional minutes to finally grab that winner.

Runcorn have the joint best away defence and the eighth best away attack. Celtic have the third best home attack and the ninth best home defence. Scott Bakkor is their top league scorer this season, with fifteen, almost double of the next highest, Harry McGee. In the last ten minutes, they have scored fifteen of their seventy-six goals. Away from home, they have scored 33 (at a rate of 1.6 per game, 1.8 overall), and conceded nineteen (at a rate of 0.9) of their forty-five in total (at a rate of 1.1). Runcorn have failed to score in five away games (eight overall), but there have been goals in every game at Bower Fold this season.

We met only ten days ago, when we visited Runcorn and drew 2-2 thanks to Max Leonard and an own goal. Runcorn’s last visit to Bower Fold was back in November, when Celtic inflicted only their third defeat of the season until then when Celtic won 1-0 thanks to Andy Scarisbrick and a rock-solid defence. Last season, Runcorn and Celtic had another massive meeting when Runcorn beat us in the Cheshire Senior Cup final, 3-0 in Chester. That added to the two 3-2 results in the league home and away. In their last five visits to Bower Fold, Runcorn have won three, Celtic two, our other win was in 2013, in the Cheshire Senior Cup.

In Runcorn’s final match of the season, their 2-1 away win at Newcastle, Linnets lined up as: 1. Yusuf Mersin
2. Joseph Ferguson
3. Naim Arsan
4. Brendan O’Brien
5. Harvey Washington
6. Jaques Welsh
7. Declan McLoughlin
8. Isaac Graham
9. James Steele
10. Harry McGee
11. Noah Roberts

In Celtic’s last match, the 1-0 home win over Chasetown, Celtic lined up as:
1. Charlie Monks
2. Mike Koral
3. Kyle Brownhill
4. Aaron Chalmers
5. Jack Byrne
6. Jordan Butterworth
7. Andy Scarisbrick
8. Charlie Doyle
9. Max Leonard
10. Jack Irlam
11. Ellis Horan

A win for Celtic will send us through into the first play-off final since we beat Southport back in 2008 on penalties.