On Saturday, Celtic’s first fixture of 2025 is at home to Atherton Collieries. Atherton are currently twelve places and twelve points behind Celtic in eighteenth on twenty-seven points with a game in hand. Kick-off is 3pm.

After a poor start to the season, without a win to October, Atherton were rooted to the bottom. Since October they have started to pick up wins, and though they have one win in their last five, a good November of five wins in seven, lifted them out of the drop zone. During this spell, they got their last away win, when they beat Trafford.

Keilan Adams is leading the scoring chart for Collieries, with seven, and former Celt, Aaron Dwyer is close behind on five. On average they score, 1.1 goals per game and conceded 1.7. Five of their ten failures to score came away, while two of six clean sheets have been on the road.

The last meeting between the two sides was Celtic’s first away game, when we won 5-0. Atherton’s last visit was a 3-3 in April 2023. Celtic’s last win over Atherton at Bower Fold was a 1-0 in November 2022, whilst Atherton’s last league win here was a 2-1 in September 2019.

In Atherton’s last match, the 2-1 defeat away at Clitheroe, Atherton lined up as:
1. Sol Honor
2. Toba Obitayo
3. Tom Warren
4. Danny Lambert
5. Danny Lafferty
6. Toby Oliver
7. Will Riding
8. Ethan Kershaw
9. Keilan Adams
10. Matty Bryan
11. Joe Edwards

In Celtic’s last league match, the 3-1 away win over Stafford, Celtic lined up as:
1. Charlie Monks
2. Jordan Butterworth
3. Kyle Brownhill
4. Brandon Newell
5. Sean Tse
6. Jack Tinning
7. Jack Irlam
8. Liam Tongue
9. Lewis Rawthorn
10. Joe Duckworth
11. Elliott Rokka

Jordan Butterworth is unavailable for selection due to an accumulation of bookings, but Max Leonard is back available for selection.