On Tuesday, Celtic have their opening home fixture against Atherton Collieries. Atherton finished last season fifteenth on fifty-six points, nine places and fourteen points behind Celtic. Kick-off 7:45pm.

Atherton’s start last season left them rooted to the table, picking up two points from their opening eight games, with draws at home to Newcastle and away at Wythenshawe. In those eight games, they scored once and conceded thirteen (five of them scored by us). Things looked bleak, back-to-back 1-0 wins over Mossley and Hanley (a certain Lewis Rawsthorn getting the Cols’s goal) A brief spark in a poor start and it wasn’t until November that Atherton got going properly, putting together several wins including one over Celtic at Bower Fold, with Aaron Dwyer grabbing two of those goals. Only Kidsgrove, Chasetown and Runcorn beat them home and away.

Dwyer went onto become their top scorer, with sixteen goals in the league, double his nearest rival Keilan Adams. On average, they scored 1.2 goals per away game (1.3 overall) with a total of fifty-six, and conceded 1.5 goals per game consistently home and away, with a total of 62. Their most dangerous spells came in the opening five minutes and just before the interval and full time, whilst they conceded most heavily around half time.

The last meeting between the two sides came at Bower Fold and Atherton walked away comfortable winners, though Lewis Rawsthorn scored against his former club, it wasn’t enough to stop the Aaron Dwyer show. Their previous visit to Bower Fold was a 3-3 draw after Celtic had already been confirmed relegated, with goals from DJ Pedro and Frankie Sinfield. Our last win over them at Bower Fold was the game before, 1-0 in 2022, Raul Correia scoring on his debut.

Atherton’s last match (and only match so far this season) was a 2-0 home defeat to Runcorn Linnets. In that match, Atherton lined up as:
1. Conor Robson
2. Ben Rydel
3. Calen Galagher-Allison
4. Ethan Kershaw
5. Daniel Lafferty
6. Javid Swaby-Neavin
7. Chinedu Uche
8. Rodney Ajayi
9. Joe Piggott
10. Luke Nock
11. Aaron Dwyer

Celtic’s last match a 1-1 away draw at Vauxhall Motors, saw them line up as:
1. Charlie Monks
2. Mike Koral
3. Kyle Brownhill
4. Jordan Butterworth
5. Jack Byrne
6. Jack Tinning
7. Charlie Doyle
8. Liam Tongue
9. Ruben Jerome
10. Jack Irlam
11. Dylan Scott

Atherton had a poor start too the season last season, if that continues, this is a good chance for Celtic to grab their first win of the season, but as Atheron have shown, complacency against them is punished.