On Saturday, Celtic kick off their 14/15 Vanarama Conference North campaign with a nice long trip down to Kidderminster when we face Worcester City. There will be a match centre for this game.
Worcester finished last season in fifteenth with fifty points, four places and eleven points ahead of Celtic. At one point they were in the relegation dog fight, but a good set of results in March allowed them to pull away, although April saw them win only twice, those two wins, though, were enough to ensure survival. It was their home results over the last third of the season that helped enormously, with only Telford beating them at home in 2014. They managed six wins and three draws in their last ten matches at home.
In Celtic's last visit there, we were one of the teams they beat, with Celtic losing 2-1 at Aggborough, Charlie Ennis grabbing Celtic's equaliser, but a late goal from George Williams securing all three points in Worcester's survival bid. Earlier in the season, Worcester had the same score-line, but at Bower Fold, with Kristian Platt's penalty not enough as Daniel Nti came on as a sub and grabbed a winner after Shabir Khan had scored in the opening minute. In eight visits over the last twenty years to Worcester's grounds, Celtic have managed win just twice, and draw twice. Our last win was in October 2012, when we won 2-1, with Kristian Platt getting a late goal, after Adam Pepper had equalised with a screamer. Even in the nine visits to Bower Fold, Worcester have the upper hand, with Celtic winning three and Worcester winning four.
Information on Worcester's current squad is patchy, but it looks like they have retained many of last season's squad, and added four or five new players.
Celtic's last game was a pretty good result over Conference National side Lincoln City, and Celtic's opening line up is likely to be similar to that match:
1. Lewis King
2. Nathan Heath
3. Kelvin Bleau
4. Harvey Wigley
5. Matt Regan
6. Sam Staunton-Turner
7. Aidan Chippendale
8. Matty Mainwaring
9. Ben McKenna
10. Charlie Ennis
11. Liam Dickinson
Both sides will be looking to put last season's difficulties behind them, and start the campaign off with a win. It's a tricky opener for Celtic, but confidence is high, and hopefully the result can match it.
