Celtic make the journey to Ellesmere Port for the second leg of this back-to-back fixture with Vauxhall Motors on Saturday (kick off 3pm). With the two teams only playing each other last Saturday, they will now know each other well. The 3-3 draw left Celtic down just three places above the relegation spots, and the Motormen one point outside of the play-off spots.

Vauxhall?s unbeaten run now stretches to three games, whilst Celtic have only won one in seven. Vauxhall lost their last home game, when Nuneaton visited, but Celtic have lost their last five away matches, and haven?t won on the road since visiting Lancaster in the opening away match. For this reason, the automated prediction algorithm has come up with a 3-2 scoreline in Vauxhall?s favour. This is actually an improvement for Celtic, as the previous game?s prediction was 4-2 for Vauxhall (right number of goals, wrong distribution).

Vauxhall score mainly in the second half, with twelve of their twenty-three goals scored in the last fifteen minutes (don?t we know this is their most dangerous period!). There are two vulnerable periods for the Ellesmere Port outfit, with seven goals conceded just before half time, and a further seven around the hour mark. On average, at home they score 1.7 goals per game (1.6 overall), and concede 1.3 goals per game (1.4 overall). Karl O?Donnell remains their top scorer, despite not scoring in the reverse fixture at Bower Fold, his six goals have all come in the second half, whilst Anthony Wright is his main rival, and his four goals have all come at home.

Celtic have won twice in the past ten years at Rivacre Road. The last win was in January 2005 in Peter Wragg?s last game in charge when we won 2-1. Our last visit though was a first half demolition job by Vauxhall, and then won the game 4-2 in the end. Lee Ellington got both of Celtic?s goals in that game, both in the second half after Vauxhall had destroyed us in the first half staring with an early goal. Though Ellington?s two goals pulled us back to within a goal with ten minutes left, ex-Celtic midfielder Tom Field strolled through the Celtic defence to restore a convincing scoreline.

Vauxhall, then, are not going to be a push over in this game, and Celtic will be going in as severe underdogs. With Vauxhall picking up no problems in the match, there line up will possibly be the same as the one in the last match, which was:
1. Sean Lake
2. Lee Woodyatt
3. Lee Dames
4. Alan Griffiths
5. Steve McNulty
6. Tom Field
7. Michael Garrity
8. John Lawless
9. Karl O?Donnell
10. Stuart Whittaker
11. Gary Martindale

There have been changes at Celtic since that match, with Anton Lally signing and available for Saturday, and Andy Parton going out on loan to Goole (where he scored a debut). In the previous match though, we lined up as:
1. Paul Pettinger
2. Grant Black
3. Paul Sykes
4. Barrie Keeling
5. Darren Hollingsworth
6. Steve Brodie
7. Steve Smith
8. Kevin Parr
9. Lee Ellington
10. Mark Hume
11. Neil Prince

Scott Maxfield had picked up a knock prior to the match, but will be reassessed ahead of the match, but that leaves manager John Reed with a selection headache. With Kevin Parr and Steve Brodie playing so well at the moment, there is competition for the midfield roles with Anton Lally and Paul Sykes both wanting them. However the players are accommodated, a win is vital.