On Tuesday, Celtic are home to Whitby Town. Whitby are currently sixth, just two points off a play-off spot, 11 places and 17 points ahead of Celtic. Tickets are available to purchase on the gate or online.

Whitby have won their last two away matches, beating both Grantham and Witton 2-0. Out of their last five away matches, though, they have also lost two against Nantwich and Scarborough and drawn one against Stafford. 

Overall, they’ve lost two games in their last 10, whilst winning four and drawing four. All season, away from home, they have lost six, drawn three and won nine. 

For most of the season, they have been hovering around the play-off spots and have been a pretty solid sixth for much of 2022. 

In all the matches they have been winning away from home at half time, they have gone on to win, when drawing at half time, they’ve won three and lost three, but when losing, they have pulled two back, lost three and drawn one.

In Jacob Hazel, they have the league’s top scorer, who has scored almost half of Whitby’s goals this season, with 20. 

His closest club rival is Bradley Fewster, on eight. 

Whitby have scored 23 of their 47 goals away from home this season, at a rate of 1.3 per game, failing to score in six matches (12 overall). 

They have kept six of their 14 clean sheets while away, two of these in their last two away matches. 

They are conceding now at a rate of 1.2 goals per game away from home and 1.1 overall. 

Whitby’s most dangerous period is the opening 20 minutes, when they have scored 14 goals, whilst midway through the second half is their weakest point, conceding 12 in the 15 minute spell after the hour.

Celtic were the first team to beat Whitby at home this season when we visited in September, winning 1-0 thanks to Marcus Dacker’s only goal of the match, though Celtic could have scored even more. 

Whitby’s last visit to Bower Fold was in December 2019, when Celtic won 2-1 with goals from Chris Smalley and Darius Osei.

 Whitby’s last win at Bower Fold was the 18/19 season, when they beat us 1-0. In their last 10visits, Celtic have won five, Whitby four and there was a 1-1 draw in 2000.

Whitby’s last match, the 2-0 away win over Grantham, saw Whitby line up as:
1. Shane Bland
2. Soni Fergus
3. Jake Hackett
4. Lewis Hawkins
5. Daniel Rowe
6. Jassem Sukar
7. Josh MacDonald
8. Priestley Griffiths
9. Jacob Hazel
10. Bradley Fewster
11. Coleby Shepherd

In Celtic’s last match, the 1-0 away win over Atherton, Celtic lined up as:
1. Grant Shenton
2. Douglas Nyaumpembe
3. Josh Edwards
4. Sam Wedgbury
5. Keenan Quansah
6. Shane Killock
7. Jake Burton
8. Charley Doyle
9. Raul Correia
10. Stephen Brogan
11. Sam McLintock

Hopefully, the win on Saturday will have been a massive confidence boost to the players and we can add Whitby to Atherton to the teams we have done the double over this season.

This match will be our game in hand over Hyde and Nantwich, who are both one point ahead of Celtic. Should we win, we would not only leapfrog them, but depending on the results of Bamber Bridge v Mickleover and Atherton v Witton, we could reach 13th. A loss for Witton would leave them with six games to make up eleven points on Basford and Radcliffe and a possible 15 to make up on Celtic.