On Monday Celtic are at home again, this time to face Atherton Collieries in the league. Last season, Atherton finished thirteenth, twenty-seven points and ten places below Celtic. Kick-off is 3pm.

With only three games played (all of them at home), Atherton are at the wrong end of the table for them. One win from three, having beaten Hanley 1-0 at home. Either side of the loss, Padiham and Mossley have both beaten them, 2-4 by Mossley and most recently, 1-0 by Padiham. Last season, they started poorly in the opening three games, too, losing all three. However, they then went on a seven-game unbeaten run, with six wins and a draw, and won another two after a defeat away at Bootle. This lifted them to third in the table; however, after losing 2-0 away at Darlaston at the end of October, wins became hard to find, picking up eight more in the remainder of the season.

Chinedu Uche got the golden boot at Atherton last season, with ten goals, and though he has not yet scored for Collieries this season, he is still with the club. On average, last season, they scored their 31 home goals at a rate of 1.5 goals per game, and their 25 away goals at 1.2 goals per game (56 goals total, 1.4 overall). They conceded 31 goals at home at a rate of 1.5 goals per game, and 37 goals away from home at a rate of 1.8 goals per game (68 total, 1.6 overall). Collieries kept four clean sheets on the road (from nine total) and failed to score eight times away from home (from twelve total). Atherton had the eighth worst away defence and the ninth worst away attack.

Over the last ten years, we’ve met Atherton twelve times competitively. In the 2019/20 season, they beat us home and away and knocked us out of the League Cup. Though we beat them home and away last season, 1-0 at home from Benni Smales Braithwaite, and 2-0 away from Ruben Jerome and Andy Scarisbrick, there has only been one other Celtic win at Bower Fold from five meetings. Atherton won here the season before last, beating us 3-1 to get revenge for Celtic’s 5-0 thumping at their place.

In Atherton’s last match, a 4-1 away defeat in the FA Trophy to Congelton, Collieries lined up as:
1. Harvey Bardsley
2. Ben Rydel
3. Jack Sloan
4. Alex Doyle
5. Luke Nick
6. Freddie Gordon
7. Will Decandia
8. Sam Sheridan
9. Connor Hughes
10. Kielan Adams
11. Chinedu Uche

In Celtic’s last match, the 2-1 home win in the FA Trophy over Bradford Park Avenue, Celtic lined up as:
1. Charlie Monks
2. Rohan Butler
3. Kyle Brownhill
4. Cam Fogerty
5. Jack Byrne
6. Charlie Doyle
7. Andy Scarisbrick
8. Liam Tongue
9. Benni Smales-Braithwaite
10. Jack Irlam
11. Ellis Horan

With five players on the treatment table, Celtic’s injury worries continue and Atherton will be a tough game to play under those circumstances, but this is the hand Celtic hold at the moment. Add the wafer thin squad played at 110% against Bradford, this will be a big ask.