On Tuesday Celtic face City of Liverpool at Bower Fold in this re-arranged fixture. Liverpool are currently thirteenth in the league on seventeen points, seven points and ten places behind third-placed Celtic. Kick-off is 7:45pm.

Liverpool are the current in form team, having won four of their last five matches, only dropping points at home to Trafford in a 2-2 draw. Quite a turnaround having won only once in their opening seven matches, beating Avro 1-0 away. Their other point in their opening seven was a 2-2 draw at home to Leek. Although they beat Avro away and most recently, Kidsgrove away, those are the only two away wins for Liverpool all season. Four of their last five matches have been at home. Clitheroe, Vauxhall and Prescot have all beaten them on the road.

Six goals in their last five matches have put Josh Quarless top of their scorers chart, with seven in total, including a hattrick at home to Mossley. He scored the only goal in their last match over Chasetown, got the opener against Kidsgrove and the winner over Hednesford. In total, they have scored twenty-one goals, one third of which were away from home, at a rate of 1.7 goals per game (1.4 away). Only in one away game have Liverpool failed to score this season, and that was their opening game away at Clitheroe. Two of their three clean sheets have come in their last two matches; having conceded eighteen all season, with seven of them on the road at a rate of 1.5 goals per game overall and 1.4 away.

This is City of Liverpool’s first visit to Bower Fold, with the club only forming in 2015 and not playing until 2016. If not for Covid, Liverpool’s rise would probably have been back to back promotions.

In City of Liverpool’s last match, the 1-0 home win over Chasetown, Liverpool lined up as:
1. Calvin Hare
2. Michael Simpson
3. Jack Hont
4. Adam Rooney
5. Michael Grogan
6. Simon Wills
7. Callum Schorah
8. Max Allen
9. Jawad Jebrin
10. Josh Quarless
11. Xenon Bahula

In Celtic’s last league match, the dramatic 3-2 home win over Nantwich, Celtic lined up as:
1. Luke Hewitson
2. Pawel Zuk
3. Cole Lonsdale
4. Joe Robbins
5. Connor O’Grady
6. Jai Curran-Nichols
7. Brad Byrne
8. Max Harrop
9. Darius Osei
10. Aaron Dwyer
11. Matty Bryan

The only other game taking place mid-week is Runcorn hosting Leek. Both are within three points of Celtic, so a loss would see us drop a place, regardless of the result of that game. More importantly, a win for Celtic would see us go level with points with Prescot Cables. Celtic have a goal difference of three, to Prescot’s eleven, so it would require Celtic to win by eight goals to go top.