West Allotment are looking to make it three wins in a row in the league when they travel to Ryton & Crawcrook on Saturday afternoon. Following an impressive win against Willington on Wednesday night, West Allotment are looking to start putting together a good run of results in the league after a compilation of cup games led to a disruption of league fixtures for the club.
West Allotment looked impressive on Wednesday as they came away with all three points against a resilient Willington team following a well earned 3-1 win. The game presented West Allotment with many positives to carry forward into this weekends game, such as the quick start in front of goal with young striker, Nelson Ogbewe, slotting the ball into the back of the Willington goal only 3 minutes into the match. The other two goals for the home side came from Gilberto Chapim in the 69th minute and a late penalty just before stoppage time scored by last seasons top scorer, Matthew Hayton. Despite an overall solid defensive performance from the side on a cold, wet night at Sam Smith’s Park, Willington were awarded a penalty 10 minutes into the match after a clumsy foul from Jake Forster in the box. Luke Bailey blasted the ball straight up the middle into the roof of the net, leaving debutant-goalkeeper Ross Logan little chance of saving it. West Allotment will be hoping to learn from defensive mistakes like this going into the weekends game and into the rest of the season. Celtic will, however, be mainly pleased with their performance on Wednesday, and hopefully take confidence from it on Saturday against Albion.
Saturday’s game provides another chance for Celtic to get a win and maintain their pursuit of climbing the league table to get back towards the top amongst the early pace setters. A win for Celtic could see them end the day as high as 6th place if results go their way, putting the side in a great position to pursue a place towards the top of the league. However, a loss for Celtic on Saturday could see them fall as low as 18th with their opponents on the day, Ryton, overtaking them in the process. Despite it still being early in the season, this is a big game for Celtic as the teams at the top are all on good form and aren’t slowing down so a defeat could slow down any fight back to the top of the league immensely.
The hosts on Saturday are only two places below West Allotment in the league but have played three more matches. Ryton are in extremely poor form at the moment with no wins in their last five games, in which they lost four and drew one. They managed to pick up a 1-1 draw against mid-table Birtley town on Wednesday night. Scott Gunn scored in the 19th minute for Ryton before a penalty was awarded to Birtley in the 78th minute. Anthony Smith stepped up to take the penalty for the away side and missed. Birtley picked themselves up again though late into the game and caused heartbreak for Ryton in the 93rd minute when Richard Tanoh snatched an equaliser for his side. It will be a real test of character for Ryton on Saturday to see how they pick themselves up from that disappointment against a Celtic side who have now won their last two league games and are looking to make it three in a row.
The last time West Allotment played Ryton it ended in a 1-0 victory for Celtic back on the 7th December 2019. The lads will definitely be looking to achieve a similar result at the weekend and keep their recent run of form going. It will be a tough game for Celtic though as continuing injury problems within the squad are most likely going to lead to more makeshift changes for Saturday’s game. The away side will still be favoured to win this match however due to their significantly better form than the hosts and will be hoping to add three more points to their current tally come Saturday afternoon, in what should be an entertaining spectacle.
Below shows Dean Walker scoring the opener last week against Redcar
