Match Preview :- Warrington Town - Saturday August 25th, 2018 (15:00:00)

On Saturday Celtic travel to Warrington Town (kick off 3pm). Warrington lost their opening home game, 2-0 to Farsley Celtic, but won their last match, 3-1 away at Lancaster City. There will be a match centre and Twitter feed for this game.

Warrington finished last season in third, their best ever finish to a season, but lost out in the play-offs to Grantham Town. Warrington started the season strongly, with just one loss in their opening ten games, when Ashton beat them 1-0 at home. From Christmas to Easter, they played thirteen matches, and again only lost one, winning nine; the loss was a 1-0 home defeat to Celtic, when Tony McMillan pushed the ball into his own net. The return fixture was a 2-0 win for Celtic at Bower Fold, but their good spells were enough to keep them in the play-off spots all season, despite having a torrid finish to the season, with two wins in their last eleven matches, finishing with a 2-1 away defeat at Stourbridge, though they did draw six of them. Warrington's last home win was over Shaw Lane, back in April, and they have to go back to March for their previous one.

Their top scorer last season was Sean Williams, who scored fifteen goals, just ahead of Tony Gray on eleven. Williams has joined Altrincham, but Gray is still at the club, as is former Celtic keeper, Tony McMillan. They had twenty-two different scorers last season and were the lowest scorers in the top seven, however with the second best defence in league they kept sixteen clean sheets (eight at home), only Altrincham conceded fewer goals. On average they scored their seventy two goals (thirty-eight at home) at a rate of 1.6 goals per game. Their forty-nine conceded goals were conceded at a rate of 1.1 goals per game. At home they conceded just twenty-three, at a rate of one per game.

Warrington were one of only two teams Celtic took six points off last season (the other being Nantwich). In the most recent encounter between the two teams, a penalty from Liam Dickinson and a well-worked goal from Greg Wilkinson secured Celtic the points. Prior to last season, we had only encountered Warrington in cup games, knocking them out of the FA Cup three times in Warrington and out of the Cheshire Senior Cup at Bower Fold, making Warrington one of a small number of teams we can claim to have a one hundred percent win record over.

In Warrington's last match, the 3-1 away win over Lancaster City, they lined up as:
1. Tony McMillam
2. Mitchell Duggan
3. Adam Hughes
4. Ben Garritty
5. Mark Roberts
6. Luke George
7. Jack Dunn
8. Robbie Evans
9. Tony Gray
10. Josh Amis
11. James Caton

In Celtic's last match, the 3-2 home win over Marine, Celtic lined up as:
1. Jake Turner
2. Liam Tongue
3. Scott Wilson
4. Tom Brown
5. Danny Brady
6. Michael Clarke
7. Matty Wolfenden
8. Ross Dent
9. Scott Bakkor
10. Niall Flint
11. Greg Wilkinson

Celtic are hopeful that Glen Rule's and Luke Wall's international clearances will arrive in time for kick off on Saturday, but otherwise have a full squad to choose from. This is Celtic's first away match of the campaign, and Simon will be wanting to keep Celtic's momentum going after an unbeaten start to the season against a team Celtic have beaten every time the two teams have met. For their part, Warrington are going to want to go one better than last season's third spot finish.

Directions
Distance: 30
Time: 40 minutes

Take the M60 round to Junction 4 (M56, Chester) and join the M56.
Stay on the M56 for 11 miles to junction 9 (A50, Lymm).
At the roundabout, turn left (exit 1 of 3) onto the A50 (Cliff Lane) towards Warrington.
After 2 1/2 miles, turn left onto Station Lane.
At the end of the road, turn left, then immediate left, and the ground is on the right.