On Tuesday night, Celtic are in Manchester Cup action to face Radcliffe at Bower Fold. Radcliffe are currently in the Conference North, sitting in the bottom four a point from safety. Kick off 7:45pm.

Radcliffe earned promotion to the Conference but have struggled this season. Despite several draws early on, it took until October before they won in the league, with a pair of back to back away draws, beating South Shields and Brackley Town. Their first home wins didn’t come until the start of November, with back to back home wins over fellow strugglers Leamington and Rushall. Though they were knocked out of the FA Cup at the second qualifier by Bury having already beaten Warrington. They’ve yet to join the FA Trophy, when they open on Saturday with a home tie against Worksop.

They are scoring, With Roscoe and Owalabi both finding the net three times this season, but they have drawn a blank five times, four of those away. Although it took until October to keep a clean sheet, they’ve since kept three on the road.

We last met in 2023 as they headed up and we headed down. They’ve had the rub of the green over recent years, with the last seven meetings all going Radcliffe’s way, including dumping us out of the FA Cup in 2018. Our last win over them was back in 2016, when we beat them at Bower Fold in the Manchester Cup. Indeed, since 2001, we’ve won two competitive fixtures over Radcliffe, and other was a league cup.

Radcliffe’s last match, their 3-1 home win over Rushall Olympic saw Radcliffe line up as:
1. Mateusz Hewelt
2. Brad Jackson
3. Rick Smith
4. Louis Maynard
5. Josh Hancock
6. Nicky Adams
7. Jordan Hulme
8. Brad Roscoe
9. Matt Sargent
10. Mworino Doro
11. Tunde Olowabi

In Celtic’s last match, the 4-0 away defeat to Nantwich, Celtic lined up as:
1. James McClenaghan
2. Luke Partington
3. Kyle Brownhill
4. Jordan Boon
5. Jordan Butterworth
6. Brandon Newell
7. Jack Irlam
8. Liam Tongue
9. Joe Duckworth
10. Max Leonard
11. Isaac Modi

Although two leagues above, Radcliffe are struggling and may not take the Manchester Cup all too seriously. It could be a stiff test for Celtic though.