Scottish Football Tips: Kai Watson's Best Bets, January 31
It's another busy weekend of action in the SPFL, and Kai Watson, our Free Bets Scottish football expert, is back looking at five games north of the border.
Scottish Football Tips
Here are Kai's five best football betting tips for the weekend, complete with the best prices available at the top UK betting sites.
Kilmarnock vs Aberdeen - Aberdeen to win
I fancy Aberdeen to make it two league wins on the trot for the first time since October. Kilmarnock haven’t won a game at all since October and, in all honesty, they haven’t looked much better under Neil McCann and have a really tough run of fixtures coming up.
They actually did start the game relatively well against Motherwell and even had a goal disallowed but Lowery picked up a silly second yellow and they weren’t in the game after that. It ended 4-0 to Motherwell but in all honesty, it could have been as many as Jens Berthel Askou’s side wanted it to.
They have conceded the second highest number of goals in the league and have also scored the third lowest amount of goals, they are really struggling all over the pitch.
On the other hand, Aberdeen put six past Livingston last weekend after being 2-1 down just before half-time. A quickfire Kevin Nisbet double in first-half injury time put them in front. Then after the two red cards, they added three more in the last 15 minutes. It’s the most dangerous that Aberdeen have looked going forward in a long time and they will be looking to build on that.
Aberdeen have won both previous meetings this season, winning 1-0 at Rugby Park in October and 2-1 at Pittodrie in December. Aberdeen just lost top scorer Jesper Karlsson who Bologna took back to send out to Utrecht after him not really hitting the levels that Aberdeen fans had expected given his reputation.
Even with that, I still think Aberdeen will have more than enough to comfortably win this one.
Dundee United vs Hearts - Hearts to win
The late game on Saturday gives Hearts an incredible opportunity. With Celtic and Rangers both playing on Sunday, Derek McInnes’ side could go seven clear of Rangers and nine clear of Celtic which would put plenty of pressure on both Old Firm sides.
Dundee United are on a poor run, having one only once in their last five and that was against rock bottom Livingston. Not only that but their fixture against St. Mirren last weekend was called out so it’s been a couple of weeks since they played. They recently signed a new goalkeeper in Ashley Maynard-Brewer who Jim Goodwin will be hoping can be the steady pair of hands that they have lacked, at times, this season.
Hearts had won three in a row without conceding a goal after their derby defeat before they faced then Celtic at Tynecastle last Sunday. Although Celtic went in front twice, Hearts will perhaps feel that they were unlucky not to come away with all three points.
They certainly created enough chances and if it wasn’t for a couple of excellent saves from Kasper Schmeichel they would have won the game comfortably.
Dunfermline vs Airdrie - Dunfermline to win
Airdrie had started to look better under Aaron Taylor-Sinclair but they have no wins in their last five and look in trouble with Ross County’s recent resurgence and now find themselves just two points clear of bottom of the table Queen’s Park. That 1-0 loss against Ross County last weekend could be massively detrimental to the rest of their season as it was a massive game and they came up short.
Dunfermline are on a good run and have won their last three which includes a brilliant Scottish Cup victory against Hibs two weeks ago and then a huge 1-0 win at McDiarmid Park against St. Johnstone. Neil Lennon’s side are building momentum and they’ve been adding to the squad this month to add even more depth.
They’ve added pace with Callum Morrison and Olly Thomas then also added the experience of Graham Carey into what is a relatively young side. Dunfermline have two games in hand over third place Arbroath but currently sit eight points behind them and then it’s a further six points to Partick in second and another two to St. Johnstone at the top.
Things are looking positive in terms of their squad and results and I fully expect them to make it three league wins in a row on Saturday.
Stenhousemuir vs Peterhead - Stenhousemuir to win
Stenny are the most in-form team in League One and are currently joint top, although they have played one more game than Inverness. They haven’t conceded a league goal in five matches which stretches back to December 13th.
They also had a massive victory against Morton a couple of weeks ago, beating the team in the league above them 4-0, again, not conceding. The tightening up of their defence is one of the main reasons they’re in this title race and why it is so close.
Peterhead have been on a hot and cold streak, losing their two having won the previous two before that and have lost three of their last five. They have the second worst defensive record in the league with only bottom of the table Kelty conceding more. In two of their last three defeats they lost 4-0, first to Alloa at the start of December and then against struggling Cove at the end of December.
Their game was called off last week and I can genuinely see this ending in another 4-0, especially at Ochilview.
Elgin vs Spartans - Spartans to win
This is this weekend's banker for me, especially after Spartans absolutely destroyed second place East Kilbride 6-0 on Tuesday! They have won four of the last five, only losing once against high flying Clyde but in those four wins they have only conceded one goal and scored twelve!
Elgin haven’t won any of their last five and continue to fall down the table, they currently sit in eighth but the reality is, if both Dumbarton and Edinburgh City didn’t have their five and fifteen respective points deduction, they would be rock bottom.
They’ve conceded ten in the last five and I can’t see any way in which they can keep Spartans at bay.
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