On Tuesday, Celtic are in Cheshire Senior Cup action away at Altrincham. Altrincham are currently flying in the Conference National, sitting in seventh on thirty-five points. Kick-off 7:45pm.

Altrincham have a game in hand on four of the teams above them, which could put them in the top four. Will they be concentrating on the league rather than the Cheshire Senior Cup? Absolutely. Will they be a formidable opponent? Also, absolutely. They have won nine of their twenty-one matches this season, drawing eight and have only lost four times. Most recently, they played Solihull Moors, a team above them in the league, and destroyed them 6-1. Prior to that, they lost away at Rochdale and Eastleigh. Their last home loss was in the FA Cup, when Oldham beat them 1-0 in October. The only other home match they have lost this season was back at the start of September when Bromley beat them 2-1. In the previous round of the Cheshire Senior Cup, they beat 1874 Northwich 4-2 on penalties after drawing 1-1. In that match, Altrincham did play a weakened side.

Altrincham have scored in every home match so far this season, scoring at a rate of 2.4 goals per game at home, twice getting six, the other match a 6-1 win over Ebbsfleet. They have failed to score in only two away matches. The Robins have kept one clean sheet at home and one away, conceding at a rate of 1.1 goals per home game. Their top scorer this season is Chris Conn-Clarke, who has ten. His nearest rival is Justin Amaluzor, who has found the net six times.

Celtic have a terrible record at Moss Lane. In the last thirty years we have played Altrincham there twenty-three times and won twice. Once in the Cheshire Senior Cup in 2003 winning 2-0 with goals from Phil Eastwood and Steve Foster, and again in our last visit there, in 2018, when we won on a bitterly cold March Saturday in the league, winning 2-1 with goals from Matty Wolfenden and Liam Dickinson. The standout from that game was stand-in keeper Aidan Winterbottom who was finally beaten in stoppage time from a corner. Altrincham have won eleven of our visits, with ten visits being draws. However, there are no draws in the Cheshire Senior Cup this year. Altrincham’s last win was in the Cheshire Senior Cup in 2014. We’ve met in the Cheshire Senior Cup seven times since 1990, four times at Moss Lane. We have won one of those visits. We have beaten them in the cup three times and lost four. Most recently, we beat them 2-0 at Bower Fold with Darius Osei and Neil Kengni the scorers.

In Altrincham’s last match, the 6-1 win at home to Solihull Moors, Altrincham lined up as:
1. Ethan Ross
2. Lewis Banks
3. Eddy Jones
4. Marriott
5. James Jones
6. Chris Conn-Clarke
7. Sam Roscoe-Byrne
8. Elliott Osbourne
9. Marcus Dackers
10. Alex Newby
11. Justin Amaluzor

In Celtic’s last match, the 1-1 home draw against Prescot Cables, Celtic lined up as:
1. Luke Hewitson
2. Pawel Zuk
3. Cole Lonsdale
4. Joseph Robbins
5. Scott Wara
6. Max Leonard
7. Obua Mugalula
8. Michael Brewster
9. Darius Osei
10. Jack Irlam
11. Jordan Burton

Marcus Dackers was briefly a Celt, on loan from Salford and is now at Altrincham on loan from Salford. Going the other way, Max Harrop was formerly a Robin (and nearly scored against us last time the two sides met) and though Greg Wilkinson is pure blood Celtic, he did have a stint with Altrincham.

Though Vauxhall host Mossley and Witton host Nantwich while we’re at Celtic, neither are in a position to drop Celtic away from their third place spot.