On Saturday, weather permitting, Celtic travel across Cheshire to Nantwich for our vital league clash. Nantwich are currently level on points with twenty-seven and one place above Celtic in seventeenth by goal difference. Kick off 3pm.

After opening the season with two wins in their first sixteen games, Nantwich have pulled themselves off the foot of the league with two losses in their last nine games. In that period they have had five wins, four of which were away. Their last two home games were both 1-1 draws with Gainsborough and, in their last match, Warrington Town. Their last home win was a 3-0 defeat of Morpeth, adding to a 1-0 earlier in the season when they beat Belper Town. Their last home loss was at the end of October when Ashton beat them 2-1.

Three different players are tying the league goal scorer’s chart, Sean Cooke, Dan Cockerline and Byron Harrison all on three goals each. Only Liversedge have scored fewer goals this season, giving them the second worst attack overall, whilst at home, Liversedge and Lancaster have scored fewer giving them the third worst home attack. On average they score 0.9 goals per game. Defensively they have the fifth best home defence in the league, with South Shields, Hyde, Gainsborough and Marine the only teams to concede fewer goals, giving them an average of 1.2 goals per home game, and 1.1 overall. Two of their five clean sheets have come at home, whilst they have failed to score four times at home from nine overall. With nine of their twenty-nine goals conceded around the half time interval, this is their most vulnerable period.

We’ve already played Nantwich this season, back in September when they beat us 2-1, with Theo Bailey-Jones’s opener overturned out either side of half time. They have won all six of the last six encounters between the two teams, with Celtic’s last win back in 2018, when we won 1-0 at home in the FA Trophy thanks to a Scott Bakkor penalty. Our last league win in Nantwich was in the same year, when we won 3-2 with a brace from Matty Wolfenden either side of a Connor Hughes goal, scoring the winner in stoppage time. In our last ten visits, we have won four and lost six.

In Nantwich’s last match, the 3-1 away win over Belper Town, Nantwich lined up as:
1. Tom Jackson
2. Ben Rhodes
3. Ben Algar
4. Harry Middleton
5. Tom Wilson
6. Todd Jordan
7. Rio Molyneaux
8. Ethan Cartwright
9. James Tague
10. Jacob Gratton
11. Shaun Tuton

In Celtic’s last league match, the 1-1 away draw with Lancaster, Celtic lined up as: 1. Greg Hall
2. Ciaran Summers
3. Matty Carson
4. Kyle Harrison
5. Dahrius Waldron
6. Tom Miller
7. Theo Bailey-Jones
8. Domaine Rouse
9. Raul Correia
10. Chris Dagnall
11. Nathan Caine

Raul Correia was subbed off in Celtic’s last match, the 3-0 win over Cammell Laird in the Cheshire Senior Cup after picking up a minor knock, whilst Dahrius Waldron, Nathan Caine and Chris Dagnall were rested.

A win would see us go above Nantwich and could see us overtake Lancaster (away at Liversedge), Morpeth (away at Bamber Bridge), and Atherton (away at Radcliffe) depending on results and reach fourteenth. A loss, however, could see us drop into the bottom four with Whitby breathing down our necks one point behind us and away at Warrington Town.