Scottish Football Tips: Kai Watson's SPFL Bets, November 1
Kai Watson 
It's a busy weekend of Scottish football, with a full round of league fixtures and the Scottish League Cup semi-finals taking centre stage.
Kai Watson, the Free Bets Scottish football expert, reveals his top SPFL betting tips and weekend predictions across all the key matches.
Scottish Football Tips
Here are Kai's five best football tips for the weekend, complete with the top prices and latest odds from our pick of the best UK betting sites.
Falkirk vs Kilmarnock
Falkirk have had an up and down start to the season but if you told them that after ten games they’d have three wins, three draws and four defeats but sit in seventh at the start of the season they would definitely have taken it!
They were on a good run after drawing with Rangers then getting back to back 2-1 victories, away to Motherwell and at home to Dundee respectively. They had probably chalked up the trip to Celtic Park as a ‘free hit’ anyway so the 4-0 defeat on Wednesday evening shouldn’t discourage them too much.
John McGlynn has them playing the type of football that made them so successful in their League One and Championship campaigns but they do need to learn how to stop conceding so many goals.
Kilmarnock finally got their first win of the season away to Dundee United at the end of September and followed that up with an impressive 2-0 victory against St. Mirren. However, they haven’t won since then. A 3-0 hammering from Hearts at Rugby Park has been followed by a 3-1 defeat at Ibrox and a 1-0 defeat at Pittodrie on Wednesday.
They were gaining some momentum before Derek McInnes’ return and now sit behind Falkirk in the table. Two points separate the sides and I can see this being a tight affair. I expect goals in the game and I don’t think either is good enough defensively to keep the other out.
Arbroath vs Ross County
Arbroath have been really up and down this season, which is maybe to be expected from a newly promoted side. If you told David Gold and Colin Hamilton that they would be fourth after twelve games I’m sure they would have snapped your hand off for it!
They hammered Queen’s Park 4-1 and then followed that up with an incredibly impressive 3-1 win against table topping St. Johnstone. Last weekend though they surprisingly lost 1-0 to managerless Airdrie, a result not many foreseen. Their stand out player so far is Findlay Marshall who has already got six goals from midfield and has an assist!
Ross County are not where many would predict that they should be, especially considering how much money they spent on experienced Scottish Premiership players in the summer. They just haven’t really gotten going yet and if it wasn’t for Ronan Hale, probably wouldn’t even have two wins this season.
Neither team can defend and both are capable of scoring goals, there have been 35 goals in 12 games for Arbroath and there’s been 31 in 12 for Ross County, incredible numbers and I hope both teams go for it on Saturday!
Queen of the South vs Stenhousemuir
Stenny currently sit at the top of League One (because of Inverness’ point deduction) and that’s mostly due to their defensive work having only conceded eight goals in eleven games. Queen of the South have been a bit more inconsistent and have won as many games as they’ve lost.
The fact the game is in Dumfries makes it a bit more difficult for Stenhousemuir who drew 0-0 with Alloa last time out, they haven’t scored a lot this season for a table topping side, only scoring thirteen goals in eleven so far. The Doonhamers have managed to score one more than Gary Naysmith’s side but have also conceded fifteen already.
They also had a really strong performance and got a big victory last week against Hamilton and they managed to keep them to just scoring the one goal in the 2-1 win despite Accies being the top scorers in the league.
They’ll be hoping the likes of Kai Kennedy and Liam Smith will help them to get a positive result against the league leaders.
I think this will be a tight game with both teams looking to kickstart a run of positive results to stay at the top/climb up the table.
East Fife vs Hamilton
Hamilton currently sit in seventh place after their six point deduction and lost to Queen of the South last week after having won the previous four, which included wins against fellow title challengers Inverness and Stenhousemuir.
They’re the league's top scorers, with the fourth best defensive record and have the best goal difference in the league. East Fife hammered Kelty Hearts 3-0 in their last match and are currently unbeaten in their last three whilst scoring six and only conceding one.
They’re hitting a run of form and Hamilton will be looking to get back on track after the point deduction and defeat last time out, they can’t afford to slip further behind given how good Stenhousemuir and Inverness have been this season.
Spartans vs East Kilbride
The top of the table clash in League Two should be an absolute cracker! I don’t think many expected Spartans to be this good this season and in particular, Mark Stowe, who scored four league goals last season and has already scored seven this time around.
Spartans have the joint best defensive record in the league but East Kilbride are the league's top scorers but have hit a sticky patch in recent weeks. Mick Kennedy’s side won last time out but hadn’t won in four league games before then so getting back on track could show some real character.
On top of that, the two met each other in the Scottish Cup last week and Spartans came out on top, 2-1 with experienced striker Marc McNulty scoring two after John Robertson had given East Kilbride the lead in the first half.
I expect this to be another tight affair, especially given the fact that East Kilbride could go top of the league with a win. I expect goals and fireworks in this game!
More Football Tips
Check out below for more expert football tips and predictions covering this weekend's biggest matches.
From form analysis to betting insights, we've got everything you need to make smarter picks ahead of the weekend's action.
