Match Preview :- AFC Telford - Tuesday March 28th, 2017 (19:45:00)

On Tuesday night, Celtic face Telford United. Kick off 7:45pm. Telford are currently fifteen points and two places above Celtic having played four games more. There will be a match centre and Twitter feed for this game. The pitch should be playable, barring a deluge before the match.

Telford haven't won a match for four games, but have won two of their last 10, both at home, beating Altrincham and Tamworth 1-0. They have not won on the rod since beating Altrincham back at the end of October. Indeed, that is their only away win all season. Out of their seventeen away games, apart from that win, they have drawn six and lost the other ten. They have lost six of their last ten away games, with their last points coming at the start of February when they held AFC Fylde to a 1-1 draw. Most recently, they have lost 2-1 to both Brackley and Chorley away.

Their top scorer is Josh Wilson, who has eight goals, more than double anybody else. Overall, they have scored thirty-two goals (split evenly home and away), only four more than the worst attack in the league – Celtic's. They score at a rate of 0.9 goals per game. They have conceded forty-eight goals this season, twenty-seven away, at a rate of 1.6 goals per game away (1.4 overall). Only six teams have conceded fewer goals, four of those in the top five. Telford have kept two clean sheets on the road (Altrincham and FC United), and failed to score in three away games (FC United, Kidderminster and Gloucester).

We've already played Telford this season, losing 2-0 at their place. You have to go back to 1996 to find the last time we beat Telford at Bower Fold, and that was in the League Cup, the last time we beat them in the league was in November 1994 when we were in the Premier. They have won here six times since then, and drawn five, most recently last season when they came back from 3-1 down to draw 5-5. Our most recent win over them was at the Bucks Head when we won 1-0 in March 2010 thanks to an own goal.

Telford's most recent match was the 2-1 away defeat to Brackley Town. In that match they lined up as:
1. Callum Burton
2. Dwayne Samuels
3. Luca Havern
4. Paul McCone
5. Luke Higham
6. Jon Royle
7. Joe Fitzpatrick
8. Eddie Jones
9. John Marsden
10. Lee Hughes
11. Zak Lilly

Celtic's last match was the home game played at Altrincham's Moss Lane, against Worcester City which we lost 1-0. In that match, we lined up as:
1. Grant Shenton
2. Danny Morton
3. Danny Wisdom
4. Matty Hughes
5. Matt Regan
6. Aaron Chalmers
7. Kieran Dunbar
8. Darren McKnight
9. James Roberts
10. Danny Wilkins
11. Andy Bishop

The loss against Worcester means Celtic's survival is no longer in our own hands again. Should we win, we would be nine behind Gainsborough with three games in hand and a worse goal difference; eleven behind Worcester with three games in hand, twelve behind Telford with two games in hand and fifteen behind Bradford with two games in hand. After the hope on Saturday, Celtic's future in the league once more looks bleak.

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