On Saturday (kick off 3pm, weather permitting), Celtic travel to Grantham Town. Grantham are currently in the bottom three in twentieth on twenty-six points, eleven places and sixteen points behind Celtic having played two games fewer and are two points from escaping the bottom three.

After a reasonable start to the season that saw them lose just once in their opening eight games, winning three and drawing four, wins have been hard to come by. Since the start of October, they have won twice, with thirteen losses and four draws. Their first two games in October were a 4-0 home defeat to Ashton and a league record away defeat of 7-0 at Buxton. Their most recent game was a 3-3 away draw at Warrington, with their last home game a 3-1 defeat by South Shields. Their most recent win was at the start of January when they beat Stafford 2-0 at home (the other one was at home to Scarborough at the start of November). They have not won away all season. In their last fifteen games, they have won twice, drawn twice and lost eleven. In that period, they have set this season's record for consecutive losses, at six.

Craig Westcarr is their danger man, scoring ten goals so far this season. Six of those goals have come at home and he has scored a third of all their twenty home goals so far this season; they've scored thirty-five home and away. His closest rivals are on two. They have had twenty different scorers this season (Own Goal is currently joint second, on two). On average, they score 1.3 goals per game at home and 1.2 overall, whilst their sixty-eight goals conceded (thirty at home) have come at a rate of 2.4 per game (two goals per game at home). Nobody has conceded more goals than Grantham this season, giving them the worst defensive record in the league. They also have the worse home defensive record, conceding thirty goals. At home they have kept four clean sheets, with the last one the 2-0 win over Stafford, and have conceded twenty-one in their last seven matches. They have failed to score in three home matches (eight overall), most recently against Lancaster mid-January. They have had two home games since then and scored one in both.

We played Grantham earlier in the season, back in September, when they had only lost once all season, and beat them 3-2, with Darius Osei scoring two in his second game for us, and Craig Hobson scoring the other. We have visited twice. The first time in 2017 when we drew 0-0 and the second a 1-0 win just before Christmas in 2018 with Andrew Scott getting the goal. We've played them five times in total, won three, drawn once and lost at home earlier this year at the end of last season.

The Gingerbread's last match was the 3-3 away draw with Warrington. In that match they lined up as:
1. Jon Worsnop
2. Curtis Obeng
3. Connor Bartle
4. Joseph Skarz
5. Chris Robertson
6. Declan Dunn
7. James Berrett
8. Joel Carta
9. Lee Hughes
10. Akeel Francis
11. Curtis Morrison

In Celtic's last match, the 3-1 away win over Gainsborough, Celtic lined up as: 1. Alex Fojtícek
2. Kallum Mantack
3. Scott Metcalfe
4. Max Taylor
5. Stephen O'Halloran
6. Chris Smalley
7. Adam O'Reilly
8. Patrick Lacey
9. Craig Hobson
10. Declan Walker
11. Jonathan Ustabasi

Celtic should be fully fit ahead of the match, though Craig Hobson is suspended for three matches after his straight red at Gainsborough, but we have bolstered the strike force with the additions of Chris Holroyd and Alfons Fosu-Mensah.

A win for Celtic could see us overtake Scarborough (at home to Radcliffe), as they are currently the only team within three points. A loss could see us drop a place, with both Morpeth and Bamber Bridge within three points of us, but playing each other.