Match Preview :- Matlock Town - Thursday April 19th, 2018 (19:45:00)

On Thursday, Celtic travel to Derbyshire to face Matlock Town (kick off 7:45pm). Matlock are currently sixteenth in the league on fifty-four points, four places and six points above Celtic, despite playing two more games. There will be a match centre and Twitter feed for the game.

Matlock are the in form team at the moment, with four straight wins and a draw in their last five lifting them six places, this is off the back off three wins in thirteen games since the start of December.

Matlock have had twenty different goal scorers this season, though by far and away their danger man is Shaun Harrad who has nineteen, about a third of all sixty-three goals that they have scored. His closest rival for their top scorer is Michael Williams, on seven. On average they score 1.8 goals per game at home and 1.5 goals per game overall. They have conceded seventy-one goals, just three less than Celtic. Matlock have kept six clean sheets at home, the most recent being their goalless draw with Stourbridge, and have kept nine clean sheets in total. They have failed to score in four home games, and eleven times overall.

We have already met Matlock this season when they visited Bower Fold in October and Celtic won 4-1, with goals from Liam Dickinson, Theo Bailey-Jones and Jake Charles comfortably seeing off Matlock. Our last visit to Matlock was in November 2012 in the FA Trophy, when Matlock beat us 2-1,with Corey Gregory's opener cancelled out by two second half goals. Our previous two visits in 1991 and 1990 in the Northern Premier League, were both wins for Celtic, winning 3-0 and 1-0 respectively. In our last five visits, we have won two lost three and never drawn.

Matlock's last match was the 2-1 home win over Rushall Olympic. In that match, Matlock lined up as:
1. Richard Walton
2. Jake Phillips
3. Jake Green
4. Joe Doyle-Charles
5. Adam Yates
6. Dwayne Wiley
7. Kieran Wallace
8. Michael Williams
9. Ricky German
10. Ted Cribley
11. Harry Limb

Celtic's last match was the 2-1 win away at Ashton United. In that match, we lined up as:
1. George Sykes-Kenworthy
2. Josh Ramsden
3. Alex Honeyball
4. Danny Morton
5. Luke Ashworth
6. Elisene Fernandes
7. Jake Charles
8. Oli Roberts
9. Liam Dickinson
10. Matty Wolfenden
11. Connor Hughes

Ross Killock and Tom Brown are both out, possibly for the season, whilst Greg Wilkinson could be fit. Harrison Holgate and Jack Taylor will also be back in contention for a start.

Shaun Harrad will be missing for Matlock, after having an ankle operation that will keep him out for the rest of the season. Also missing is Glenn Kirkwood and Craig Hopkins, the co-managers who departed by mutual agreement a few weeks ago. Reserves team manager, Dave Hoole has stepped in as interim manager.

Over the last ten games, both teams have won five, drawn one and lost four, and sit side-by-side in the form table. A win for Celtic would put us level on points with Marine, and three behind Matlock, still with two games in hand. A loss could see us drop a place (if Whitby beat Grantham). This is Celtic's fifth consecutive away game since last Thursday (even if we were at Bower Fold for the Shaw Lane game), and it will be a big ask of the players to put in the kind of performance they did against Ashton.

Other games on Thursday:
Buxton (59pts 10th) v Nantwich Town (57pts 12th)
Marine (51pts 19th) v Witton Albion (62pts 7th)
Shaw Lane (67pts 6th) v Altrincham (85pts 1st)
Whitby Town (46pts 21st) v Grantham Town (74pts 3rd)

Directions
Distance: 39
Time: 1 hour and 15 minutes

Head towards Glossop, going down Woolly Lane.
Go to the centre of Glossop.
At the traffic lights near the station, turn right onto the A624 (Charlestown Road).
Stay on the A624 for eight miles to Chapel-en-le-frith and join the A6 by turning left on the roundabout, and then right on the immediate second roundabout.
Stay on the A6 for 6 miles to Buxton.
At the roundabout in Buxton, turn left to stay on the A6.
Stay on the A6 for 18 miles to a roundabout with the A615.
At the roundabout turn left onto the A615.
After half a mile, cross two roundabouts, and the ground is on the left.