Celtic are back at home for the first in a double-header with Vauxhall Motors on Saturday (kick off 3pm). This is a re-arranged fixture brought forward from March due to Celtic's free Saturday after Farsley continued in the FA Cup.
Vauxhall are currently 6th in the table after scraping a 1-1 draw at Hyde, with a last gasp goal from Vauxhall's top scorer, Karl O'Donnell. It has been Vauxhall's best start in the Conference North, with the Ellesmere Port side reaching second in the table at the start of the season with a run of three wins and two draws in their opening five games. At the start of September things took a downturn with two back-to-back losses at home to Hucknall Town and away at Workington. An impressive 4-1 win away at Worksop Town (two own goals and a penalty!) followed by a 2-0 win over Worcester saw a revival of their fortunes, but in their last four games, they have recorded an away win at Gainsborough, drew at Hyde and lost to Nuneaton (home) and Harrogate (away).
Chasing Karl O'Donnell for top-scorer is Anthony Wright (a different Anthony Wright to the one playing for Workington). With O'Donnell on six, Wright needs two more to catch him. All of O'Donnell's goals have come in the second halves of matches, whilst Wright has scored all of his goals at home. On their travels, Vauxhall have scored half of their twenty goals, whilst conceding half of their sixteen concessions. This gives them away goals per game ratio of 1.4, and an away conceding ratio of 1.1. Their most dangerous period is the final quarter of an hour, where they have scored ten of their twenty goals this season, whilst their most vulnerable period is around the hour mark when six of their sixteen conceded goals have gone in.
An ex-Celtic player is gracing Vauxhall's midfield, Tom Field, who scored a in the last meeting between the two sides, at Vauxhall at the end of last season. Previous visits to the 'Fold have been honours even between the two sides, with Vauxhall winning twice; once in April 2004 in the Unibond, and once in November 2004 in the Cheshire Senior Cup. Both of the wins for Celtic were 2-1, whilst both of Vauxhall's visiting wins were 4-3! Their other competitive visit was a 2-2 draw back in August 2002.
In their last match, the 1-1 draw away at Hyde United, Vauxhall lined up as:
1. Sean Lake
2. Brian Moogan
3. Lee Dames
4. Alan Griffiths
5. Steve McNulty
6. Tom Field
7. Mike Garrity
8. John Lawless
9. Karl O'Donnell
10. Stuart Whitaker
11. Gary Martindale
Celtic will still be without the talismanic Mark Haran, whilst Steve Brodie is attempting to return to match fitness. In our last match, the 2-1 loss at Kettering Town, Celtic lined up as:
1. Paul Pettinger
2. Grant Black
3. Scott Maxfield
4. Barrie Keeling
5. Darren Hollingsworth
6. Kevin Parr
7. Steve Smith
8. Paul Sykes
9. Lee Ellington
10. Mark Hume
11. Neil Prince
Celtic's run in to the end of the year will be viewed as winnable, and Celtic will have to get back to winning ways if we are to pull away from the relegation zone. We are currently only eight points away from the play offs, and the league is still wide open. With away trips to Redditch and Worksop and home ties against Alfreton and Farsley, Celtic will be hoping for eighteen points out of the next eight matches, and that's possible, though with the automated prediction algorithm not having much confidence (predicting a 4-2 loss on Saturday), Celtic have obviously got to overcome recent poor results first.