Match Preview :- Scarborough Athletic - Saturday March 16th, 2019 (15:00:00)

On Saturday, Celtic travel to East Yorkshire seaside to face Scarborough Athletic. Scarborough are currently sixth in the table on fifty-seven points, ten places and eighteen points above Celtic, though they have played a game more. There will be a match centre and Twitter feed for the game.

At one point, Scarborough looked set to surge straight through the league, after winning promotion last season, losing once in their opening matches to attain top spot in October, and hold it for six weeks until the end of November when just two wins in eight matches saw them start to drop off. Since the turn of the year, Scarborough have won four, lost four and drawn twice, seeing them drop out of the top five, though they are only a point off Gainsborough Trinity's fifth spot. Their last win was away, when they beat Marine 2-1, but their last home match saw Mickleover beat them 2-0 at the end of February. Their last home win was a 4-1 defeat of Stafford at the start of February, but since Boxing Day, when they lost 3-1 to South Shields, they have won three and lost three of their home matches.

Scarborough have the fifth best attack in the league, scoring sixty one goals this season, eighteen more than Celtic, with perennial goal scorer, James Walshaw, leading the pack of their goal scorers. Though, Michael Coulson is right behind on fifteen. Between them, they have scored over half of Scarborough's goals. They have failed to score in seven games this season, four of them at home and the most recent being the 2-0 defeat by Mickleover. They have the eighth best defence, conceding forty-six goals, keeping nine clean sheets (five at home). They score an average of 1.8 goals per game and concede 1.4, with a danger period around half time and at the death, whilst their most defensively suspect time period is the last twenty minutes when they have conceded twenty-seven goals.

Since their dissolution a few years ago, we've only played Scarborough once, back in October when they won 3-2, with a dubious penalty in stoppage time costing Celtic a point against the, then, league leaders. In their previous guise, it was Celtic with a last minute goal in our last visit to Scarborough in 2007, with a ninetieth minute goal from Matty Barlow that saw him dredge up enough energy after a hectic encounter to race the full length of the pitch and lob the keeper with virtually the last kick, ensuring Celtic's survival that season at the expense of Scarborough. That is our only victory over the Seagulls, though we have drawn 1-1 there back in 2001 thanks to a deserved Gerrard Courtney equaliser.

In their last match, the 2-1 away win over Marine, Scarborough lined up as:
1. Thomas Taylor
2. Jack Johnson
3. David Morris
4. Luke Dean
5. Ross Killock (played for Celtic last season)
6. James Williamson
7. Nathan Valentine
8. Jamie Forrester
9. James Walshaw
10. Michael Coulson
11. Luke Lofts

In the Celtic's last match, the 4-2 away to Nantwich, Celtic lined up as:
1. Paddy Wharton
2. Liam Tongue
3. Douglas Nyaupembe
4. Mark Lees
5. Chris Smalley
6. Olly Marx
7. Scott Bakkor
8. Glenn Rule
9. Neil Kengni
10. Ross Dent
11. Michael Howard

Celtic's form in 2019 has been poor, with two wins, one at home and one away, two draws (both away) and six losses. This has seen Celtic plummet down the form table to sixteenth and started to draw us in the battle for survival. Although we could move up to thirteenth with a win (if Marine, Lancaster and Hednesford all lose), We are perilously close to dropping into the bottom four, with Stafford, Grantham and Bamber Bridge all within three points of us. In other words, Celtic need to turn 2019 around before it's too late.

Directions
Distance: 106
Time: 2 hours and 30 minutes

Take the M60 to junction 18 and join the M62 towards Leeds.
Stay on the M62 for 25 miles to junction 29 (M1/M621) and join the M1.
Stay on the M1 for 10 miles and join the A1(M).
Stay on the A1(M) for 1 1/2 miles to junction 44 (A64, York).
Stay on the A64 for 52 miles to a set of lights and turn right onto Valley Road.
After half a mile and a roundabout, turn right onto Ashburn Road.
The club is at the end of the road.