On Saturday, Celtic travel to Ellesmere Port to face Vauxhall Motors. Vauxhall are currently seventeenth on eighteen points, five points and six places behind Celtic. Kick-off is 3pm.

With one loss in their opening six, but also only one win, Vauxhall’s inauspicious start to the season hasn’t improved yet. Four wins, two at home and two away, have left them in the bottom third of the table. With six draws so far this season, they equal Chasetown, Padiham and Runcorn for the most draws. Motors won their last home match, beating Lichfield 2-1, but have played four away games since, conceding two in all four, winning one, drawing one and losing two, most recently to Wythenshawe. Three of their home losses have been against in form teams, Stafford, Bootle, and Shifnal, the other loss coming to Kidsgrove. Only Lichfield and Northwich have won fewer home games.

Michael Burkey is leading their scorers’ chart, with seven, five ahead of his nearest rivals, with twelve other players on the scorecards this season. On average, they score 1.4 goals at home (1.3 overall), whilst conceding 2.2 home goals (1.9 overall). Motors have not kept a clean sheet this season and have failed to score in three home matches and twice away. They have the sixth worst home attack, and fifth worst home defence.

This will be the fortieth meeting of the two teams since the year 2000, with only one friendly. We have visited eighteen times, mostly in the league, though we visited in 2010 and knocked them out of the FA Trophy winning 3-1 ()Connor Jennings, Craig Hobson and Lloyd Ellams scoring), and our first visit of the millennium was in the Cheshire Senior Cup in 2000, when we beat them 2-0. You have to go back to 2014 to find our last win at Rivacre Park, when both teams were in the Conference North, and Celtic won 3-1, Matt Regan, Ryan Crossdale and Kristian Platt scoring. Since meeting back up in this league, we’ve met three times. Vauxhall won the first two, 3-1 (Aaron Dwyer for Celtic) and 3-2 (Liam Tongue and Max Leonard for Celtic). Our last visit finished 1-1, a Ruben Jerome penalty cancelled out with a late equaliser. The last meeting between the two teams, around Christmas last year, saw a fabulous game for the neutral, which finished 4-4, both sides conceding own goals, two for Aaron Chalmers and one for Andy Scarisbrick giving Celtic the lead, only for Nick Rushton to score deep into added on stoppages.

In Vauxhall’s last match, the 2-0 away defeat to Wythenshawe, Motors lined up as:
1. Jack Atkinson
2. Harry Deakin
3. Joe Akpan
4. Adam Hughes
5. Adam Rooney
6. Haydn Cooper
7. Tom Owens
8. Kieran Hamm
9. Kevin Ellison
10. Jacson Coppak
11. Arthur Lomax

In Celtic’s last match, the 2-2 home draw with Lower Breck, we lined up as:
1. Charlie Monks
2. Cam Fogerty
3. Harvey Brookes
4. Liam Tongue
5. Kailen Hatfield
6. Charlie Doyle
7. Rohan Butler
8. Andy Scarisbrick
9. Ruben Jerome
10. Jack Irlam
11. Declan McLoughlin

Celtic have signed centreback Macauley Wilson, freeing Liam Tongue to return to his favoured midfield engine role, though who drops out is a question for Dave Jones. Mike Koral missed the last match through injury, but should be available. Meetings with Vauxhall have always been interesting. Hopefully, with a win, Celtic can climb into the top ten.