On Saturday, Celtic have their first league away game of the season when we travel across Cheshire to Nantwich Town. Kick off 3pm. Please note, this is an all-ticket match, with tickets available from the Nantwich website (here).

Like ourselves, Nantwich drew their opening fixture 1-1. They came from behind to cancel out Paul Ennis’s opener for FC United, with Sean Cooke the scorer. In the season that never was, Nantwich looked set to finish in the top five, though when the season prematurely terminated, they were sixth a point behind our last league opponents, Lancaster, with three game in hand. That said, they had been struggling to make up ground on Lancaster, despite Lancaster’s poor form, with only one win in their last five. Their final match of the season last season was at the beginning of Match when they lost 1-0 at home to South Shields. They lost their previous home match, too, losing 1-0 to FC United, with their last home win being over Bamber Bridge at the beginning of February. Over the entire season, they were strong at home, losing only four, drawing once and winning nine.

Last season’s top scorer was Joe Malkin, who bagged 11 goals, though Sean Cooke (who is already off the mark for them this season) was close behind on 9. In total, their scored 55 goals (28 at home) at a rate of 1.8 goals per game (2 goals per home game), and failed to score just 7 times (3 times at home, and two of those their last two home games). They conceded 39 goals (17 at home) at a rate of 1.2 goals per game (home and away), keeping 8 clean sheets in total, though only 3 of those coming at home and the most recent one, being a 4-0 win over Hyde in Mid-January. They went onto win every home match they were winning at half time.

We didn’t play them in Nantwich last season, as it was one of the games that never happened, but they beat us 2-0 at Bower Fold, with Joseph Mwsaile and James Lawrie finding first half goals, to which Celtic couldn’t respond. Out last visit to Nantwich was at the end of the 18/19 season when we managed to take a single goal lead from Neil Kengni into the second half, only for two goals in two minutes from Joseph Malkin to cancel that out. And despite Dan Cockerline’s late goal, it was too little too late. We had better luck the season before, beating them 3-2 thanks to a late winner from Matty Wolfenden adding to his early goal and Connor Hughes’s just before half time. However, in the Cheshire Senior cup in the same season, we lost 4-3. Since 1996, we have visited only visited twice in the league, winning one and losing one. In all competitions, we have visited 8 times, won four and lost 4.

In Nantwich’s last match, progressing in the FA Cup thanks to a 4-2 away win over Tividale FC, they lined up as:
1. Greg Hall
2. Michael Koral
3. Matty Devine
4. Joel Stair
5. Troy Bourne
6. Ben Harrison
7. James Lawrie
8. Prince Haywood
9. Sean Cooke
10. Callum Saunders
11. Joseph Malkin

Celtic likewise progressed, with a 3-0 home win over Bishop Auckland, in which Celtic lined up as:
1. Tom Stewart
2. Kallum Mantack
3. Freddie Sass
4. Scott Sephton
5. Tom Wilson
6. Luke Barlow
7. Jonathon Ustabasi
8. Charley Doyle
9. Mike Burke
10. Harry Freedman
11. Nic Evangelinos

It’s early on in the season yet, and this is the second of our opening three matches against teams who will be pushing for play-off spots.