On Saturday, Celtic travel to the capital of Staffordshire to face Stafford. Rangers are currently twentieth in the league on twenty-two points, eleven points twelve places behind Celtic, with three games in hand. Kick-off is 3pm.

This will be Stafford’s fifth home game in a row, and in a mirror of their season, the results have been mixed. In their last ten games, they’ve won three, drawn two and lost five. Their three wins saw them win comprehensively, a 3-0 win over Mossley, a 5-0 win over Atherton and a 6-1 win over City of Liverpool, all in Stafford. All four games away saw Stafford lose, and they also lost their most recent home game, when Wythenshawe Town beat them 2-0 giving them their only home loss in their last five home matches.

Former Celtic striker, Dan Cockerline, is Stafford’s top scorer this season with five of Stafford’s twenty-eight goals. Although Stafford have the worst away attack, scoring only seven, at home they have the sixth best home attack, thanks to fifteen goals in their five matches. On average, they score 1.9 goals at home (1.4 overall), failing to score four times at home from eight in total. Defensively, they’ve conceded sixteen of their thirty-one goals at home, keeping three of their five clean sheets at home.

Over the years, we’ve played Stafford a lot. In the last ten encounters, in the last ten meetings, Stafford have won five, Celtic three and there have been two draws. Our last meeting, at the start of the season, saw Celtic win 1-0 with a stoppage time winner from Matty Bryan. Celtic’s last visit to Stafford, in the 2022/23 season, saw Celtic win 3-0, with a brace from Raul Correia and an opener from Nathan Caine. Stafford’s last win was a 2-0 win at Bower Fold in the same season, whilst their last win in Stafford was in the 2021/22 season, when they won 2-0.

In Stafford’s last match, the 2-0 home defeat by Wythenshawe Town, Stafford lined up as:
1. Cameron Belford
2. Callum King-Harmes
3. Sam Fitzgerald
4. James McQuilkin
5. Michael McGrath
6. Scott Wara
7. Abdulrasaq Alamu-Tajudeen
8. Jack Burgess
9. James O’Neil
10. Kaiman Anderson
11. John Atherton

In Celtic’s last league match, the 2-0 home defeat by Congleton, Celtic lined up as:
1. Charlie Monks
2. Jordan Butterworth
3. Kyle Brownhill
4. Brandon Newell
5. Sean Tse
6. Jack Tinning
7. Max Leonard
8. Liam Tongue
9. Lewis Rawthorn
10. Joe Duckworth
11. Jack Irlam

Another former Celt, Scott Wara’s, red card against Wythenshawe town doesn’t kick in until Tuesday, and is eligible to play on Saturday