Celtic are in FA Trophy action on Saturday when we travel across the Pennines to Gainsborough. The game offers Celtic a chance to prove that Gainsborough?s easy victory at Bower Fold some weeks back was not the real Celtic.

With confidence high in the Celtic camp after a great away win at league leaders Hinckley United, and confidence low in the Gainsborough camp after four straight losses ? they have taken a point from a game since they beat us at the start of October this is as good a chance as any of Celtic progressing in the cup.

Trinity?s last game was a 2-0 defeat away at Blyth Spartans, the fourth time this season that they have failed to score in a game. This means that in the last four games, they have conceded ten goals, whilst scoring four. This is quite a turn around from the start of the season when they went four games without conceding a single goal. Their last home game was facing Kettering Town, and though they managed to score two goals, they were beaten 2-3, their last goal a consolation in the dying minutes. Prior to that, they were beaten by Vauxhall Motors. Out of their seven home games this season, they have won three of them, with good early season wins over Workington (the current league leaders) and Hinckley United.

Despite their resounding 2-0 scoreline at Bower Fold, Gainsborough have hardly been scoring for fun, with a total of just sixteen goals all season. By contrast Celtic have scored thirty-one, the third most in the league. Gainsborough?s most dangerous period is clearly the last twenty minutes where they have knocked in the same number as the whole of their first halves (six). They are vulnerable in the opening fifteen minutes, conceding eight goals so far this season, and a further six have gone in during the last five minutes. On average, at home, they have scored 1.1 goals per game (one overall), whilst conceding 1.3 goals per game (1.5 overall).

Ryan Mallon has been the source of one quarter of Trinity?s goals this season, and also half of their goals scored in the first half, with three there and a further one in the second half. However, he hasn?t found the net since Barrow in September. Eight players in total have found the net, and if Mallon and Wes Parker (who has three) are taken out of the equation, Lee Ellington has scored more than the rest combined.

Having said all that, Celtic?s away form is not superb this season, with just two wins, and the automated prediction algorithm is predicting a replay required with a 2-2 score line. This is partly due to seven of our previous twelve visits all being draws. The last time we visited in 2005, we lost 1-0 after drawing the previous five! Our last win was last century back in 1999, when we emerged 3-1 winners . . . in the FA Trophy. That game had come after Gainsborough held us to a draw at Bower Fold.

In their last match, the 2-0 defeat away at Blyth, Gainsborough lined up as:
1. Adam Solitt
2. Ben Purkiss
3. Matty Caudwell
4. Wes Parker
5. Richard Pell
6. Matt Thorpe
7. Eric Graves
8. Danny Anson
9. Jamie Smith
10. Ross Hannah
11. Liam Needham

With Celtic missing the services of Neil Prince and Mark Haran, we lined up in our magnificent 3-2 victory away at Hinckley as:
1. Paul Pettinger
2. Grant Black
3. Scott Maxfield
4. Barrie Keeling
5. Paul Sykes
6. Ashley Winn
7. James Turley
8. Kevin Parr
9. Lee Ellington
10. Steve Brodie
11. Steve Smith

Hopefully, Celtic will use the result at Hinckley as a springboard to better future performances. The players have shown that they can perform to outstanding levels, and that will be required again if this season is to have any meaning. Thoughts of Marine, Woodley, and all other defeats must be excluded from their thoughts, and the warm glow of the last game should fire their bellies.