On Tuesday, weather permitting, Celtic travel back to Liverpool to face Bootle. Bootle are seventh in the table, two places and five points behind Celtic. Kick-off 7:45pm.

After getting back into contention in the initial attempt to play this game it only serves to make the re-organised match more enticing. Since that match got abandoned, Bootle have gone onto win one, draw two and lose one, ending what had been a five-game winning streak. They are still a force to be reckoned with, though, with two losses since the start of November. Away to Nantwich near Christmas, and, most recently, at home to Witton. A win for Celtic would make the gap between the two teams eight points with seven games remaining, not putting Bootle out of it, but it would give Celtic a great chance to cement a top five finish. Bootle’s last home game saw them beat Chasetown 1-0, adding to a 3-3 draw in their previous home game with Vauxhall.

Since the abandonment, Ryan Beigan has scored three in his last three games, though he’s unlikely to challenge Courtney Duffus for top of Bootle’s league goals chart come the end of the season, Duffus having thirteen to Beigan’s four, but it suggests he’s a striker in form. Also since the abandonment, Bootle have scored six goals while conceding six, improving their goal-scoring stats, and have gone from fifth worst home attack to seventh worst, overtaking Mossley and Kidsgrove and now have twenty-six home goals. They still have the fifth best home defence in the league, conceding twenty-two. On average, Bootle score 1.4 goals per home game (1.6 overall), and concede 1.2. They’ve not altered their failure to score (four at home, six overall) or their clean sheet number (five at home, ten overall) since the abandonment.

Since the 1990s, we’ve met Bootle eight times, though, with the 1993 game being an FA Cup draw at Bower Fold and a replay in Bootle (Celtic won 3-1) seven times is more accurate. Earlier this season, they beat us at Bower Fold, 1-0, with Celtic disappointingly flat in that game. Our previous visit to Bootle was also disappointing, when we lost 5-2, with Celtic’s goals coming from Joe Duckworth and Greg Wilkinson. We had an excuse in that match, with the central defence stretched thin by injuries. The last time we beat them was early last season, when we won 2-1 at home (Sean Tse and Matty Bryan with the goals), and our last win there was the season before when we won 4-0 (Darius Palmer, Aaron Dwyer and jack Tinning with the goals).

In Bootle’s last match, the 1-0 home win over Atherton, Bootle lined up as:
1. Tony Thompson
2. Jay Roberts
3. Xavier Smith
4. Matthew Fenton
5. Tom Hannigan
6. Lewis Earl
7. Michael Simpson
8. Jack Lenehan
9. Courtney Dufus
10. Stephen Edmondson
11. Ryan Beigan

In Celtic’s last match, the 5-0 away win over Newcastle, Celtic lined up as:
1. Charlie Monks
2. Mike Koral
3. Kyle Brownhill
4. Aaron Chalmers
5. Jack Byrne
6. Jack Tinning
7. Charlie Doyle
8. Liam Tongue
9. Ruben Jerome
10. Jack Irlam
11. Andy Scarisbrick

If results go Celtic’s way, we could move up to fourth, with Lower Breck two points ahead, though it may be only temporary, with them playing on Wednesday away at Trafford. And whilst we chipped away at Runcorn’s goal-difference, they still have a three better goal difference to Celtic, which we’re unlikely to overcome on Tuesday, given Bootle’s defensive record, but chipping away further at it, and going level on points will make the final seven game run in tense!