On Saturday, Celtic face North Ferriby United in the FA Cup Fourth Qualifying round. Ferriby are currently just in the play-off spots in the table, in fifth on twenty-two points and four places above ninth placed Celtic. There will be a match centre for this game.
North Ferriby beat Nuneaton Town in the previous round, beating them at home 2-1, but struggled in the round before when they were away at Newton Aycliffe, drawing 0-0 away, then easily winning 3-0 after taking them back to Hull. North Ferriby are also doing very well in the league, having lost only once this season, in their opening game away at Tamworth. Having said that: they have won five out of their last twelve games, and have drawn the other seven. They are something of a draw specialist this season. They have only won once away from home, against Brackley.
They have only conceded two goals at home, and have conceded twelve on the road, which suggests strongly that if we are going to beat them, it has to be at the first time of asking, and not going back to North Ferriby Village on Wednesday. Their top scorer this season is Curtis Bateson, with seven; of course, Tom Denton is up there, right behind him on five. On average they score 2.2 goals per game away from home, and conceded two.
We've met the Villagers four times, and have yet to beat them. We got a draw in their last visit to Bower Fold, which finished 2-2, wunderkind Dominic Calvert-Lewin grabbing both of Celtic's goals in the first half, only to be cancelled out by a Matt Regan own goal and a late equaliser from Gregg Anderson; it was this game that saw Tom Denton's foul on Kelvin Bleau effectively end Kel's career at Celtic. Ferriby's previous visit was a 3-2 win for them, after Paul Ennis had cancelled out Liam King's sixteen seconds goal, and a Liam Dickinson penalty giving Celtic a second half lead, only for it to be cancelled out by goals from Nathan Jarman and Josh Wilson. Both games in Ferriby finished 2-0 for the Villagers.
There's a great incentive for Celtic to progress to the first round proper: £12,500.
Tom Denton is suspended for this match, and Ferriby's other striker, Ryan Kendal is also likely to be missing through injury, whilst defender Danny Hone missed their last match, their 1-0 win over FC United of Manchester. In that match, they lined up as:
1. Adam Nicklin
2. Sam Topliss
3. Josh Wilde
4. Liam King
5. Ash Palmer
6. Mark Gray
7. Danny Clarke
8. Russell Fry
9. Danny Emerton
10. Adam Bolder
11. Curtis Bateson
Danny Wisdom is not far off returning for Celtic, and Aidan Chippendale has missed the last couple of games through illness, hopefully he can make a return against North Ferriby, whilst Alex Johnson was rested against Telford. In Celtic's last match, the 2-0 away defeat to AFC Telford, Celtic lined up as:
1. Tony McMillan
2. Oliver Crowley
3. John Shaw
4. Matty Hughes
5. Jack Higgins
6. Aaron Chalmers
7. Bohan Dixon
8. Dale Wright
9. Darius Osei
10. Steve Tames
11. Adam Farrell
Whilst Celtic are in FA Cup action, those teams without an FA Cup match are playing in the league:
AFC Telford (8pts 22nd) v Boston United (22pts 6th)
Corby Town (11pts 21st) v Curzon Ashton (15pts 13th)
Hednesford Town (17pts 11th) v Nuneaton Town (21pts 7th)
Lowestoft Town (12pts 19th) v Tamworth (20pts 8th)
Stockport County (23pts 4th) v Bradford Park Avenue (12pts 17th)
