On Saturday, Celtic travel to face Gainsborough in the re-arranged fixture after both teams were knocked out of the FA Cup at the first time of asking, with Trinity losing to Sporting Khalsa in the division below.

Trinity’s away form, with five losses from five games, has left them nineteenth in the table, three places and two points below Celtic. Their home form has been better, with both of their wins this season coming at home, though they have also lost one and drawn one at home this season. The two wins, a 2-1 over Morpeth and a 1-0 over Whitby, are their last two home matches, with their most recent two games both away, losing 2-0 at Basford, with goalkeeper Matt Yates stretchered off inside the first twenty minutes after a collision. Striker Jack Gibson donned the keeper’s jersey for the remainder of the match.

Last season they won three of their five home matches, including beating Celtic 3-2, before the season ended. Either side of beating us at home, they lost their home matches 1-0 to South Shields and 3-1 to Witton and they finished tenth. In the previous curtailed season, they won six of their fifteen home matches and drew four. They also lost six, including losing 3-1 to us. They finished that season eleventh.

This season’s top scorer is fullback Toby Gould, who scored in their last home match, with Trinity not having scored in their last two away matches and having failed to score in five of their matches so far this season. They have kept one clean sheet, the 1-0 win over Whitby (in which Gould got his other goal).

Gainsborough are the team we have probably visited the most over the past thirty-five years. Since 1988, we have visited twenty-eight times. In that time, we have won eight, lost nine and drawn eleven times. Our last visit saw us lose 3-2 after a mad ten minute spell put the hosts 3-1 up, cancelling out Jon Ustabasi’s opener, and though Charley Doyle pulled one back, Celtic could not go on to cancel out the third goal despite throwing everything at the home side. Our last win was the season before when we won 3-1, with goals from Paddy Lacey, Ustabasi and Scott Bakkor making it comfortable in stoppage time.

In Gainsborough’s last match, the 2-0 away defeat in Basford, Gainsborough lined up as:
1. Matt Yates
2. Joe Wilson
3. Toby Gould
4. Dominic Roma
5. Brad Gascoigne
6. Declan Dunn
7. Terry Hawkridge
8. Matt Thornhill
9. Aaron O’Connor
10. Kane Richards
11. Alex Howes

Celtic’s last match was the 3-0 away win over Scarborough Athletic, in which we lined up as:
1. Lewis Hood
2. Connor O’Grady
3. Ashley Smith-Brown
4. Sam Wedgbury
5. Ioan Evans
6. Shane Killock
7. Scott Bakkor
8. Keenan Quansah
9. Kieran Wells
10. Ethan Padden
11. Jay Fitzmartin

Celtic were missing Grant Shenton, Dougie Nyaupembe, Stephen Brogan and Callum Harris through injury. This could not prevent Celtic putting in the performance of the season so far to keep our unbeaten record in Scarborough. We also have a decent record against Gainsborough, having come away with something in nineteen of our twenty-eight visits. Jack Ryan and Keano Deacon have both departed whilst Ioan Evans joined Matlock after an approach was made last week.