Match Preview :- Harrogate Town - Saturday October 1st, 2005 (15:00:00)
Celtic?s next match at Bower Fold will be against John Reed?s previous club, Harrogate Town, and this will be the first time he has faced them. Harrogate are currently one point and one place above Celtic in the table in seventh on thirteen points, and are coming into the game off the back of a four game unbeaten run.

Harrogate?s home record this season has been very good, with only one draw (1-1 against Kettering), but they?ve had a poor start away from home, losing their opening three matches. However, they won their last away match, beating Workington 4-2, and won their most recent match, a 3-0 defeat over Great Harwood Town in the FA Cup. With the fifth spot in the table currently occupied by Kettering, who play Northwich Victoria away this weekend, both teams could conceivable get into the play off spots with a win at Bower Fold. So there is plenty of incentive going into the match.

Having lost two of their away games by conceding four goals in each (away at Nuneaton Borough, and Hucknall Town), and conceding a further three in their other away matches, Harrogate are running at 2.75 goals per game conceded in the league away from home this season. They have been finding the net as well, scoring five times on their travels, including three goals from Gareth Grant in their win over Workington. This puts their scoring ratio at 1.25 goals per game.

Their top scorer so far this season is Danny Holland, who is currently joint fifth in the golden boot league (as is Neil Prince), with five goals. Harrogate have been scoring just about equally between the first and second halves, with no particular high spots of note. Conceding-wise has been mostly in the second half, with just three of their conceded thirteen goals going in during the first half. This suits Celtic, who have scored over half of their goals this season in the last twenty minutes. With Lee Ellington currently joint third in the golden boot league with seven goals, and Neil Prince right up their with him on five, Celtic haven?t had any problems finding the net this season, scoring in every home league match (and also conceding in them all as well). Our goal per game ratio is 2.75, whilst the goal against ratio is 1.5. Celtic are also tight defensively during the first period, with two thirds of our conceded fifteen goals in the second half.

Harrogate lined up in their most recent game, the win over Great Harwood Town as:
1. Michael Price
2. Tony Lennon
3. Danny Ryan
4. Leigh Wood
5. Paul Stoneman
6. Chris Ellerker
7. Gareth Grant
8. Roy Hunter
9. Marc Smith
10. Danny Holland
11. Lee Philpott

Celtic are, as usual, ravaged by injury, but Mark Barnard made it through the full one hundred and twenty minutes away at Workington, where we lined up as:
1. Paul Pettinger
2. Mark Barnard
3. Nathan Wharton
4. Barrie Keeling
5. Mark Haran
6. Chris Price
7. Steve Smith
8. Steve Garvey
9. Lee Ellington
10. Paul Sykes
11. Neil Prince

Celtic will be looking to get back to winning ways after a disappointing fortnight has seen them fail to win. It couldn?t have been a harder game to get back to those winning ways in, though. Harrogate will surely have a point to prove, and the team will have to be at their sparkling best against a good Harrogate side. The automated prediction algorithm is on Celtic?s side though ? even if it is predicting a seven goal thriller of a game, with Celtic winning 4-3.
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