Wednesday night sees Celtic make a trip to the seaside in the quarter final of the GLS cup. A home tie with Accrington Stanley awaits the winners, though both teams could be forgiven with having something else on their mind: Celtic relegation issues and Morecambe a play-off spot into the football league is occupying their attention.

Morecambe are currently tenth in the Conference National, with a game on hand on Accrington who are occupying the last play-off spot, and only three points behind. They?ve had something of an inconsistent season, dipping as low as nineteenth, before climbing as high as eight, though one more win could put them into the play-offs.

They are unbeaten in their last three encounters and have not been beaten at home since November when Crawley Town beat them 2-1. In their last five games, they have won three, drawn one and lost one, away at Accrington. In their last five home matches they have scored seven goals, and conceded four. They also won their last match, away at Leigh RMI, 2-0.

Michael Twiss is their top scorer this season, with nineteen goals (two in their last match) in the Conference (putting him third in the overall league scorers chart), though Danny Carlton and Wayne Curtis are doing their best with an impressive ten apiece. Their most prolific goal scoring period is around the quarter hour mark, with seven, though the last fifteen minutes have seen them bag sixteen goals. Their weakest period has to be around the hour mark, when they have conceded ten goals. On average, they score 1.6 goals per game, whilst conceding 1.3.

Their previous foray in this competition is just one game, at home to Scarborough which they won 2-1, and also where the fielded a weakened team. In their last game, away at Leigh they lined up as:
1. Ryan Robinson
2. Jamie Heard
3. Jim Bently
4. Darren Kempson
5. Michael Howard
6. Lee Elam
7. Chris Blackburn
8. Jimmy Kelly
9. David Perkins
10. Michael Twiss
11. Danny Carlton

This is Celtic?s fifth game in this competition, having seen off Bradford, Lancaster and Worksop to get here, and who can forget the 7-3 demolition of Halifax? Celtic too fielded a weakened team in these games, but the side that lined up our last game against Alfreton were:
1. Craig Dootson
2. Grant Black
3. Danny Caldecott
4. Barrie Keeling
5. Paul Sykes
6. Paul Shepherd
7. Steve Smith
8. Scott Bonsall
9. Andy Parton
10. Aron Wilford
11. Andy Haskins

It is likely that both teams will be fielding players that have not had many games this season, with so much else for them both to play for. A win would be nice, but a loss is anything but disastrous as fixing in another fixture into an already crammed fixture list would add a further strain on our survival ambitions. A win would also show that Celtic can bounce back from a defeat, and put the mentality back on track.