On Saturday, Celtic travel to Yorkshire to face Guiseley. Guiseley are currently eleventh in the table on fifty-one points, nine places and twelve points ahead of Celtic, though they have played a game more. Kick off 3pm.

After dropping into the Northern Premier, Guiseley have blown hot and cold, stringing together a few unbeaten runs, before hitting a losing streak. Though they have done enough to avoid relegation, being two points from mathematical safety, but with the teams below them having to play each other, they cannot be caught even if they lose every match. They have currently won one game in their last eight and lost five of their last six, including losing their last three games to Rylands, Belper and Ashton. Guiseley’s last home win was five home games ago and ten games ago home and away, at the start of February when they stuffed Stafford 4-0. Their last win was away from home, beating Marine 3-1 at the start of March. Any game they have been winning at half time, they have gone on to win, whilst any game they have been losing at half time, they eventually lost.

Guiseley have had twenty-one different scorers this season, with Adam Haw, Callum Chippendale and Jake Cassidy sharing the league golden boot on five each for the season. Ben Smales-Braithwaite is coming up fast, currently on four and has scored three of their last four goals. He scored their only goal in their match against Rylands, three games ago, which was the last time Guiseley scored, he also scored the winners against Marine in their last win. In their last four home games, Guiseley have scored one goal, in a 3-1 loss to Radcliffe, failing to score in the other three. This has left them with a negative home goal-difference, scoring twenty-four and conceding twenty-five at a rate of 1.3 goals per game for both defence and attack and for both home and overall. In total they have scored fifty and conceded forty-nine, failing to score five times at home from nine overall and keeping half of their clean sheets at home. With ten goals conceded in the last five minutes, and nine goals scored, this is both their most dangerous and weakest point in the game.

Eight years ago, almost to the day, we got our first (and only) win over Guiseley at their place pulling us out of the drop zone and saving our season. Aidan Chippendale and Alec Mudimu scored our goals in a 2-0 win. We have already played them once this season, drawing 0-0 in August. Our previous win, at home, was in 2000 when we won 2-1 and in the last thirty years, we have beaten Guiseley three times had seven draws and they have beaten us nine times. In our last five visits, we have won one, drawn one and lost three.

In Guiseley’s last match, the 2-0 away loss to Ashton, Guiseley lined up as:
1. Morgan Bacon
2. Leigh Whelan
3. Kwame Boateng
4. Ross Daly
5. Jameel Ible
6. Harrison Nejman
7. Ben Smales-Braithwaite
8. Callum Chippendale
9. Jake Cassidy
10. Kallan Murphy
11. Courtney Meppen-Walters

In Celtic’s last league match, the 4-1 home defeat by Ashton, Celtic lined up as:
1. Joseph O’Shaughnessy
2. Luke Barlow
3. Anis Zaknoune
4. Kyle Harrison
5. Danny Burns
6. Tom Miller
7. Curtis Morrison
8. Ethan Padden
9. Raul Correia
10. Ethan Padden
11. Harry Benns

Celtic still have a few injury concerns, without Nathan Caine and Greg Hall, plus Ciaran Summers missed the last two match. Theo Bailey-Jones is available, but Kyle Harrison has a four-match ban.

A win for Celtic could see us escape the drop zone, with Nantwich (away at South Shields), Morpeth (away at Hyde on Friday) and Marske (at home to Marine) all within reach. Belper are now relegated, and Liversedge have too great a goal difference to overtake us, even if they beat Radcliffe at home and we lose.