On Monday, Celtic finish their festive fixtures with the postponed short trip over to Curzon Ashton. Curzon are currently eighth on thirty-four points, seven places and five points ahead of Celtic. There will be a match centre for this game.
Though Celtic have scored more goals than Curzon (38 to 35), Curzon have a better defence (32 to 48). Sadly, only Corby Town have conceded more goals than Celtic this season.
Curzon started the season very slowly, and did not record their first win until they hosted Nuneaton Town, recording a very good 1-0 win against a flying Nuneaton. In the games since, they have had nine wins, mainly at home. Though they lost their last home game, 2-0 to Boston, they have won three of their last five games at home. They also completed the double over Nuneaton Town at the weekend, beating them 1-0 away from home to add to the 1-0 at home. In reality, it's the triple, as they also beat them in the Trophy.
Their top scorer this season is Matt Warburton, who has eight, though Niall Cummins is right behind him on seven. They are scoring an average of 1.5 goals per game and conceding 1.3 (1.2 at home). They have kept eight clean sheets (five at home), and failed to score in only four of their twelve home matches. They're not particularly strong at any point in a game, with their thirty-five goals spread fairly evenly though out the match, but are particularly vulnerable around the hour mark, conceding five of their thirty-two conceded goals, presumably when they make substitutions.
Apart from the 1-1 draw at Bower Fold, we have met Curzon in the league, back before the website records began, with clashes in the Northern Premier League and North West Counties. Curzon's last league visit in 1987 finished 1-0 to Curzon, after we'd beaten them 4-2 at their place both in the NPL. We also beat them the year before in the Northwest Counties League, winning 1-0.
Just prior to the original fixture, Curzon had just knocked Nuneaton out of the Trophy, and just ahead of this re-arranged date, Curzon have just beaten Nuneaton Town 1-0 away. In that match, Curzon lined up as:
1. Hakan Burton
2. Simon Woodford
3. Connor Hampson
4. Jonathan Hunt
5. Daniel Shaw
6. Liam Tomsett
7. Christopher Rowney
8. Alex Brown
9. Niall Cummins
10. Jordan Wright
Celtic are now without a win in five matches and have had three straight losses. Our last win was mid-December against Hednesford Town, and our last away win was in mid-November when we beat Brackley Town. In our last match, the 5-3 home defeat to Tamworth, we lined up as:
1. Tony McMillan
2. Oliver Crowley
3. John Shaw
4. Matty Hughes
5. Jack Higgins
6. Danny Wisdom
7. Bohan Dixon
8. Dale Wright
9. Chris Simm
10. Steve Tames
11. Aidan Chippendale
A win or a draw would see Celtic only move up one place, but a win would keep us in touch with the top half of the table, with games in hand. Only Bradford can over take us with the midweek games should we lose, when they face Chorley on Wednesday. In other games, either Hednesford or Telford could leave the bottom three on Tuesday, and put Brackley in it.
Other matches this week:
AFC Fylde (46pts 4th) v Corby Town (25pts 20th)
AFC Telford United (23pts 22nd) v Hednesford Town (23pts 21st)
Bradford Park Avenue (26pts 17th) v Chorley (32pts 13th)
Go down Mottram Road, through two lights onto Stamford Street.
Follow this for about a mile to the lights next to the School House, and turn right onto Beaufort Road.
Go past the college to the T-junction and do a dog-leg onto Penny Meadow.
Turn right at the lights and stay on this road to the Ikea roundabout.
Take the first exit onto the dual carriage way and at the lights turn right.
Take the first left (after the mini roundabout) and the ground is here.