On Saturday, Celtic face Basford United. Basford have won four of their opening seven games, drawing one putting them third in the table, behind Matlock on goal difference. Please note, this is an all ticket game and tickets can be purchased from here.

Basford are arriving on the back of beating Stafford 1-0 and Bamber Bridge 2-1 in Basford and Radcliffe 3-0 at Radcliffe. Their last loss was a 2-0 defeat away at Witton, adding to their opening day defeat of 2-0 at home to Warrington. They have also beaten Lancaster 2-1 away and their final match was a 2-2 away draw with Matlock. Before last season was halted, they had started to slip from a second spot that they had occupied since the start of 2020, finishing with three losses without scoring a goal. They finally finished in fourth having played 32 games, 8 places and thirteen points above Celtic.

Last season, they scored 19 of their 49 goals away from home at a rate of 1.4 goals per game (1.5 overall), failing to score 5 times from 10 overall. Their top scorers were Nathan Watson and Kane Richards, both of whom had 10 goals, Richards is still will the club and is currently on 2 goals. Defensively, they conceded 17 of their 39 goals away from home at a rate of 1.2 per game whilst keeping 2 of their 8 clean sheets at home. They have kept 1 clean sheet on the road this season, the last one their last away match, the 3-0 win over Radcliffe.

We first met Basford two seasons ago, the two teams having now met 4 times, with Basford winning all 4. Their last visit in January last season was a 3-2 win for the Basford, with Jon Ustabasi and Darius Osei putting Celtic in front only for Kane Richards to score twice in 10 minutes and an own goal to send Basford home winners. It was an improvement on the season before when they won 2-0. In Basford, they won 3-0 last season and 5-2 the season before.

In Basford’s last match, the 1-0 home win over Stafford, Basford lined up as:
1. Jordan Pierpoint
2. Dominic Roma
3. Ryan Wilson
4. Declan Dunn
5. Stefan Galinski
6. Lewis Carr
7. Kyle Dixon
8. Callum Chettle
9. Niall Towel
10. Kane Richards
11. Revernelle James

Celtic’s last match was the 2-3 away loss at Gainsborough, in which Celtic lined up as:
1. Tom Stewart
2. Kallum Mantack
3. James Ellison
4. Scott Sephton
5. Stephen O’Halloran
6. Matty Makinson
7. Jonathon Ustabasi
8. Charley Doyle
9. Lewis Salmon
10. Callum Harris
11. Nico Evangelinos

Will Goodwin twisted his ankle against Atherton and was missing for Gainsborough and is unlikely to feature, however, Mike Burke is back having finished his self-isolation, along with Freddie Sass.