Match preview Vs Stalybridge Celtic

This multiple postponed game at Stalybridge tomorrow evening should finally go ahead and at the destroyed Bower Fold pitch that Celtic have to play on.  It's not them that have ruined it but the rugby club, Oldham, that play there too leaving Celtic to pick up the pieces.  One game recently against Worcester had to be moved to Altrincham and it was thought that ours might be played there too but now it seems not.

We had some practice at playing on a ploughed field on Saturday at Cheltenham but we got through that ok with a hard fought three points in the bag.  Those valuable points became six when the news came through that AFC Fylde had lost 2-1 at Stalybridge of all places so it appears that the league leaders don't like bad pitches either although reports back from Celtic fans were that they played as if their lives depended upon it and they deserved the win.

With the ex Harriers manager Steve Burr now in charge there he seems to be turning their results around with a few wins but maybe not enough to stop them from the drop.  In the week they beat Alfreton 2-0 at home and the previous Saturday the almost won at FC Utd too but for a last gasp equaliser for the hosts.  So we know that their form is improving now and we have to be ready for that.

Just before the Gloucester game came the news that Arthur Gnahoua, Elton N'Gwatala and Liam Truslove would all miss the game due to injuries but it's not known if that situation has changed and they'll be fit for tomorrow evening.  We will be without Ashley Carter still with him serving the fourth of four games out due to the red card at Fylde.

Celtic have recently bought in the former Harriers striker Andy Bishop and he scored one of the goals against Alfreton.  He'd been out of work since he was sacked from the managers job at Southport and ironically it was Steve Burr that got the job following him but he didn't last long there either.

They have no known injuries so should line up with the same team that beat Fylde.  We'll need to do what Fylde didn't do and win our game in hand and if we do then that will put us just three points behind the one time runaway leaders.

With fingers crossed and a good following wind we could achieve that tomorrow night.


Harriers from:
Hornby, A Palmer, Hodgkiss, Ezewele, Lowe, Webb, Williams, Knights, Osborne, Evans, Tunnicliffe, Francis-Angol, Croasdale, Gnahoua, Truslove, Austin, A Brown, McQuilkin, N'Gwatala, Nti, Taylor, Sonupè, Ironside, Waite.

Stalybridge Celtic from:
Shenton, O'Neill, Ahmadi, Bagshaw, Bakare, Bishop, Bourne, Chalmers, Deacon, Dunbar, Gee, Hasler-Cregg, Hughes, Mather, McKnight, Morton, Oyibo, Pilkington, Platt, Regan, Roberts, Ryan, Wilkins, Wisdom.

Talk about the game here

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