On Saturday, Celtic are back at home when the visitors are Leek Town. Leek are currently fifteenth in the table, on seven points, eleven places and seven points behind Celtic but are in a false position having played three less games.

Due to continuing involvement in the FA Cup and FA Trophy, Leek did not play a single league match in September. Instead, in the FA Cup, they’ve so far beaten Belper 5-2 away. Grimsby 5-0 at home, Worcester City 2-0 away and, most impressive, South Shields 2-0 at home. In the FA Trophy, they fared less well. Although they beat Bedworth 5-1 away, they went out in the second round, losing 4-2 at Quorn. Leek’s last league match was Bank Holiday Monday at the end of August, when they lost 4-2 at home to Kidsgrove. Although Leek have two wins in the league, both of those were at home, beating Trafford and Widnes. Away from home, they’ve lost 2-1 to Chasetown and drawn 2-2 with City of Liverpool.

With fourteen goals scored in the FA Cup, with two conceded, and seven more in the FA trophy (with five conceded), it’s no surprise that Leek have scored in every league match this season. Rob Stevenson, Jack Avery, and Aaron Opoku have each scored two league goals. They score equally between the two halves but have conceded all their league goals in the second half. They’ve conceded two in both their away matches, with their only clean sheets coming at home.

Leek finished second last season, losing out in the play-off semi to Workington, the ultimate winners. They had the second-best attack, second-best defence and second highest goal tally. Macclesfield cleaning the board with the top spots in those stats. We’ve met Leek fourteen times in the last thirty-five years. In seven visits to Bower Fold, Celtic have won five, most recently a 3-2 win in 1999. Leek’s last visit was in 2001 when they ended our fourteen-game winning streak by beating us 2-1. The last competitive meeting between the two teams was in 2004 in the FA Cup in Leek, which Leek won 2-1 after four postponements due to a waterlogged pitch and Paul Sykes played in goal when Craig Dootson was injured and we could only field a squad as of the date of the original match.

In Leek’s last match, the 2-0 home win over South Shields in the FA Cup, Leek lined up as:
1. Matt Corran
2. Liam Buckley
3. Louis Keenan
4. Marc Grocott
5. Oliver Harrison
6. Julius Ndene
7. Ross Davidson
8. Tom Scully
9. Aaron Opoku
10. Daniel Trickett-Smith
11. Rob Stevenson

In Celtic’s last match, the away loss at Runcorn, Celtic lined up as:
1. Luke Hewitson
2. Scott Wara
3. Jake Kenny
4. Brandon Newell
5. Connor O’Grady
6. Jai Curran-Nichols
7. Brad Byrne
8. Michael Brewster
9. Matty Bryan
10. Jack Irlam
11. Max Harrop

Celtic dropped down two spots this week after midweek matches. Mossley and Avro are both a point above Celtic, with Kidsgrove now thirteen points clear. A win could put us back to second. Four teams are within three points of Celtic, with Prescot, Clitheroe, Chasetown and Witton all able to overtake us should we lose.