On Tuesday night, Celtic face Stockport County at Bower Fold with a 7:45pm kick off. Like Celtic, Stockport won their opening fixture, beating Alfreton Town 4-3 at Edgely Park, putting both teams on three points.

Last season, Stockport finished in ninth on fifty-nine points, three places and six points ahead of twelfth placed Celtic. They were twelve points off a play-off spot. They had a good start to the season, winning their opening three games, and drawing two, only losing once in their opening nine games, though that was to us, at Edgley Park, when we beat them 3-0 after they were reduced to nine men. A poor spell at the end of 2015 and the start of 2016 saw them fall from the top spots, but they did manage to regain a top ten spot after dropping to fourteenth and one win in fifteen games.

Their top scorer last season was John Marsden, whose seven goals put him just ahead of Kayode Odejayi; though no one player scored a lot, they had twenty different scorers all season, giving them a total of fifty goals, whilst their defence conceded forty-nine. Only six teams scored fewer goals, but only five teams conceded fewer.

In four visits to Bower Fold, Stockport have never won. Last season they drew 1-1 with us here thanks to a last minute own goal from Odejayi, whilst the season before, Celtic won 3-2, with Ben McKenna, Aidan Chippendale and Paul Ennis the scorers for Celtic in the first half, and Jack Ryan and Kirstan Dennis getting two in the second half, but Celtic held out. Stockport have beaten us. They beat us 4-3 at their place a couple of seasons ago, in a game that could have gone either way, whilst it was 2-0 in their favour in our first league visit to Edgeley Park.

Stockport won on the opening day, beating Alfreton 4-3 with an injury time winner from Gary Stopforth. In that match, they lined up as:
1. Ben Hinchliffe
2. Mark Ross
3. Scott Duxbury
4. Courtney Meppen-Walter
5. Michael Clarke
6. Chris Smalley
7. Sam Minihan
8. Lewis Montrose
9. Kayode Odejayi
10. John Marsden
11. Danny Lloyd

Celtic beat Boston United in Boston on their opening day fixture, Andy Owens netting the only goal. In that match, we lined up as:
1. Tony McMillan
2. Aaron Chalmers
3. Danny Wisdom
4. Matty Hughes
5. Nick Ryan
6. Kristian Platt
7. Liam Hynes
8. Jimmy Ball
9. Adam Farrell
10. Andy Owens
11. Danny Pilkington

As opening fixtures go, Boston then Stockport is nobody's idea of an easy start, especially with both teams off the mark already. At this stage of the season, the table is largely irrelevant, though it's better to be at the top of an irrelevant table, than at the bottom.

There is a full mid-week schedule, with Bradford playing Wednesday, and all the other games on Tuesday:
AFC Fylde v Salford City
Alfreton Town v Gainsborough Trinity
Darlington v Chorley
FC Halifax Town v Altrincham
FC United of Manchester v AFC Telford
Gloucester City v Nuneaton Town
Harrogate Town v Boston United
Kidderminster Harriers v Brackley Town
Tamworth v Worcester City
Bradford Park Avenue v Curzon Ashton