Scottish Football Tips: Kai Watson's Best Bets, August 1
It's the opening weekend of the new Scottish Premiership season, with all 12 clubs kicking off their campaigns as another fascinating title race gets underway.
Our Free Bets Scottish football expert, Kai Watson, runs the rule over five matches north of the border.
Scottish Football Tips
Here are Kai's five top football betting tips for the weekend action, featuring the best odds from the top UK betting sites, ensuring you get maximum value on your bets.
There’s no harder prediction to do than the first game week of the season. Teams could have been terrible in pre-season then it clicks for the first game, or vice-versa, where they think they’re in a good spot and then get a reality check back in the league.
That being said, proper Scottish football is finally back (no offence League Cup fans) so let’s get into it!
Falkirk vs St Mirren - Both teams to score
It’s going to be incredibly difficult for Falkirk to repeat their heroics of last season. They went from consecutive promotions to a top six finish which was absolutely unprecedented. This summer though, they lost star striker Barney Stewart to West Brom and their main creative threat in Calvin Miller to Hearts. Adding to that, starting midfielder Dylan Tait went to Dundee United, probably their best defender Filip Lissah went back to Swansea, alongside dynamic winger Kyrell Wilson.
They have signed some interesting players but it’s now a relatively young and inexperienced squad. Players like Ethan Laidlaw and Joe Gardner are good prospects but it remains to be seen how they’ll fare in the Premiership.
St. Mirren’s recruitment has gone through a bit of a change with Craig McLeish then the arrival of Gavin Miller from Motherwell. They signed Samuel Ramos, after a standout season for the same club Hearts signed Kyziridis from. He’s already got 3G/1A in four matches in the league cup, Eseosa Sule has also been brought in permanently and if he stays fit, can be a solid goalscorer.
Both sides are predicted to struggle but I think there’s enough talent in each team for there to be goals in this game!
Aberdeen vs Hearts - Hearts to win
Hearts lost 6-0 on aggregate to Sturm Graz in the Champions League qualifiers and there’s plenty of questions being asked of Wouter Vrancken. His team looked good going forward and created chances despite not being able to score over two legs. I don’t think the lack of goals will continue though and Aberdeen may get the brunt of that.
Stephen Robinson said he wants his side to compete and has made plenty of signings this summer with the likes of Brad Lyons and Lewis Mayo coming through the door. The Dons had an incredibly disappointing season and will be looking for a good start this time around.
Aberdeen won all four League Cup fixtures, scoring 11 and conceding just 2, albeit they had a relatively easy group.
Technically Aberdeen are coming into this fixture in good form and Hearts aren’t but I have seen enough of Hearts going forward to think that Aberdeen will struggle to keep them out. There’s some doubt with Hearts fans around their new system that a good start in the league feels necessary ahead of another important European qualifier.
Morton vs Partick Thistle - Partick Thistle to win
I genuinely can’t believe these odds, Morton lost all four League Cup group stage matches which included defeats against Inverness, Linlithgow Rose and East Fife. Ian Murray is already under an incredible amount of pressure with many Morton fans already having lost faith in his ability to turn it around.
Partick won two against Brechin (6-0) and Forfar (4-0) before drawing with Livingston (won the penalty shoot-out) and Stenhousemuir (lost the penalty shoot-out) so finished second in their group.
Partick managed to keep most of the team they had last season including signing the likes of Ethan Ingram and Oisin Smyth permanently. They have also added Euan Henderson, Ben Dempsey and Seb Drozd who all performed well in the league last season.
They are one of my favourites for the title and I’m predicting a simple win on the opening day.
Ayr United vs Arbroath - Ayr United to win
Ayr go into the new season with a new manager in Gary Naysmith and have added some potential difference makers up top with Kieran Shanks and Ross Taylor who both stood out in League One last season.
He did a brilliant job at Stenhousemuir, who ended up getting promoted to the Championship, and has had a good start at Ayr. They won all four League Cup group stage matches which included an impressive 1-0 win away against Premiership side Falkirk.
Arbroath were knocked out of the League Cup due to losing against Montrose (2-0) who took second place in their group. On paper, I think they have one of the weaker teams in the Championship and despite punching above their weight last season, I would be surprised if they could repeat that.
Ayr have a new manager, made some good signings and I think they’ll win this one at home.
St Johnstone vs Kilmarnock - Kilmarnock to win
Kilmarnock vastly improved under Neil McCann last season and if he had more time (alongside John-Jules not getting injured) they could have had a chance at the top six. They won’t have Findlay Curtis who was big for them last season but keeping Tshibola alongside adding Mark O’Hara, Roshaun Mathurin, Ieuan Owen and Erik Ring could be really positive.
One of the biggest positives though is managing to secure Joe Hugill on a longer term deal, the same as they did with John-Jules, because the 22-year-old ended the season with seven goals in eight games.
I have my doubts on this St. Johnstone side, they’ve signed a few Championship players that stood out last season but that didn’t work for Livingston when they did it.. Unax Alvarez comes in as an unknown and looks like he has decent ability but Simo Valakari is expecting a lot of his team to be able to step up a level.
It’s a very risky strategy and they have also just come off finishing third in their League Cup group behind League One East Fife and newly promoted Championship side Inverness.
Killie have a stronger squad with more experience at this level and I think that will show in the opening game.
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