Match Preview :- Hinckley United - Saturday October 22nd, 2005 (15:00:00)
Next up at Bower Fold are Hinckley United (kick off 3pm). Hinckley are three places and one point above Celtic having drawn their last game against Redditch whilst Celtic lost our last game at Gainsborough. Hinckley?s away form is similar to Celtic?s home form, so we should be in for a good game.

In our previous two meetings, Celtic have failed to beat Hinckley, drawing in their first ever game at Marston Road, and losing in John Reed?s first ever game in charge at Bower Fold.

Hinckley have drawn their last two matches (both at home), but away from home, they have got ten points from a possible fifteen, drawing at Worcester, and losing at Leigh RMI. These are also the only games that they have failed to score in ? i.e. they have won all of the away games that they have scored in. They have put five past Barrow in their most recent away game, and also have slotted four past Hednesford.

They are weak at the back, having kept only one clean sheet all season and conceding 1.4 goals per game away from home, similar to Celtic. It is their scoring that has been winning them games (scoring an average of 2.2 goals per game away from home). Indeed, they have one of the top five attacks in the league ? an accolade that Celtic have drifted away from, having failed to score in our last two games. Hinckley do not have one out-and-out goal scorer, spreading the goals across twelve different players, with four on three goals apiece (Sam Shilton, Leon Jackson, Andrew Brown and Laurent Cluzel).

Cluzel is a French player at University in England, and a recent signing; he has scored three in his first five outings for Hinckley, and will definitely be one to watch, though with goals coming from all over the park, Hinckley?s whole team will undoubtedly be a handful for the Celtic back line.

Most of their scoring has been done around the half time whistle, in the last ten minutes of the first half, and the first five minutes of the second, when they have scored half of their goals this season. They have been conceding quite constantly throughout the game, but obviously keep their heads as the game tails off, not conceding a single late goal.

In their last match, the 1-1 draw at home to Redditch, Hinckley lined up as:
1. Ryan Price
2. Neil Cartwright
3. Jamie Lenton
4. Richard Lavery
5. Leigh Platnauer
6. Barry Woolley
7. Stuart Storer
8. Sam Shilton
9. Laurent Cluzel
10. Owen Storey
11. Paul Bonar

Celtic lined up in their 0-1 defeat at Gainsborough as:
1. Paul Pettinger
2. Grant Black
3. Nathan Wharton
4. Mark Barnard
5. Mark Haran
6. Chris Price
7. James Turley
8. Paul Sykes
9. Lee Ellington
10. Jody Banim
11. Neil Prince

The automated prediction algorithm has gone for a 1-1 draw in this match, but it?s not a match either team want to draw, as they are both gunning for the play-off spots, though no result is a championship decider at this point in the campaign. Celtic need to recapture the form that saw them demolish Harrogate, and do the same to Hinckley. With Kettering in the FA cup, now is the perfect opportunity to sneak into the play-off spots. A two goal win would do it.
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