Match Preview :- Halesowen Town - Saturday April 28th, 2018 (15:00:00)

On Saturday, Celtic travel to Halesowen in the final match of the campaign (kick off 3pm). Halesowen are currently twenty-third in the league on forty-two points, one place and six points below Celtic. There will be a match centre and Twitter feed for the game.

Halesowen have been in the bottom three all season, spending several weeks propping up the table. They settled into twenty-third back in October and have never budged since. They hold the league season record for the most number of consecutive games conceded in, failing to keep a clean sheet until November, spanning eighteen games, and have the league's fifth worst defence (Celtic's is the second worst behind Sutton Coldfield Town). However, they have only lost four in their last thirteen, winning five and drawing four. In their last five they have drawn four and lost one, away at Coalville. Their last five home games have seen them win three, drawn one and lost just once, to Altrincham. They have lost nine times at home this season, drawn six and won seven.

Halesowen's issue has been scoring, with the worst attack in the league, by some margin, finding the net forty-six times, twenty-seven of them at home, at a rate of a goal per game, and 1.2 goals per game at home. They conceded their seventy-six goals (thirty-five at home) at a rate of 1.7 goals per game and 1.6 goals per game at home. They have failed to score in three of their last five, including their most recent game, a goalless draw at Mickleover on Wednesday. In total, they have failed to score sixteen times this season, though only five of those were at home, whilst keeping five clean sheets at home from eight overall.

In the last thirty years, we've not played at Halesowen, and the only time the two teams have met in the last thirty years was this season when Celtic won 1-0 at Bower Fold back in September with Liam Dickinson's early goal enough to lift Celtic from the bottom of the table and put Halesowen there.

Halesowen's last match was the 0-0 away draw with Mickleover on Wednesday. In that match, Halesowen lined up as:
1. Daniel Platt
2. Enock luc Ekongo
3. Jack Kelly
4. Jordan Goodard
5. Kyle Morrison
6. Marcus Poscha
7. Danny Byrnes
8. Daniel Bragoli
9. Roland Agbor
10. Ahmed Ali
11. Kevin da Veiga Monterio

Celtic's last match was the 5-0 home defeat to Witton, on Thursday. In that match, we lined up as:
1. George Sykes-Kenworthy
2. Danny Morton
3. Callum Penistone
4. Elisene Fernandes
5. Luke Ashworth
6. Liam Dickinson
7. Jake Charles
8. Oli Roberts
9. Brice Pouamoun
10. Matty Wolfenden
11. Connor Hughes

Ross Killock, Tom Brown, Jack Taylor, Greg Wilkinson and Alex Honeyball will all be missing through injury. Otherwise, such as it is, Celtic will have a full squad.

Celtic cannot finish outside the bottom four, though a win could lift us above Whitby. Nor can we finish any lower, with Halesowen unable to catch us. Although it would be nice to finish above Whitby, the team we first faced away and started our season horriblis, it really isn't a relevant game at all.

Other games on Saturday:
Altrincham (92pts 1st) v Hednesford Town (57pts 17th)
Coalville Town (52pts 20th) v Rushall Olympic (63pts 10th)
Farsley Celtic (77pts 5th) v Marine (53pts 19th)
Mickleover Sports (60pts 12th) v Barwell (63pts 9th)
Nantwich Town (57pts 16th) v Stafford Rangers (58pts 15th)
Shaw Lane (76pts 6th) v Matlock Town (60pts 13th)
Stourbridge (59pts 14th) v Warrington Town (82pts 2nd)
Sutton Coldfield Town (35pts 24th) v Grantham Town (78pts 4th)
Whitby Town (49pts 21st) v Buxton (63pts 8th)
Witton Albion (67pts 7th) v Lancaster City (55pts 18th)
Workington (62pts 11th) v Ashton United (79pts 3rd)

Directions
Distance: 100
Time: 2 hours and 10 minutes

Take the M56 to junction 4 (A556) and join the A556 following signs for M6.
At the M6 join southbound.
Stay on the M6 for 60 miles to junction 8 (M5, Birmingham South).
Stay on the M5 for 9 miles to junction 3 (A456, Kidderminster).
At the roundabout at the end of the slip-road, turn right (3 of 4) onto A456 (Manor Way).
Stay on the A456 for 2 miles to a roundabout with the A459 and turn right (3 of 4) onto A459 (Grange Road).
Stay on the A459 for a mile to a roundabout with the A458 and turn left (exit 1 of 2) onto A458.
After a third of a mile, at the roundabout, turn right (2 of 4) onto Old Hawne Lane.
The club is on the left after three hundred yards.