Scottish Football Tips: Kai Watson's Best Bets, August 29
It's another action-packed weekend of Scottish football, with matches across the SPFL, and our Free Bets Scottish football expert Kai Watson picks out five fixtures worth watching 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.
Hearts vs St Johnstone - Hearts to win
Hearts came through an energy-sapping Play-Off tie against Rapid Vienna with a penalty win and secured Conference League group stage football! Beau Reus was the hero in the end, saving the final penalty after it was balanced on a knife-edge with Oisin McEntee missing Hearts' fourth penalty.
After an opening day defeat at Aberdeen Hearts have improved with every match, they were handed a tough European draw. First up was Sturm Graz in the Champions League, then it was Benfica in the Europa League before Rapid Vienna in the Conference League. No easy games there and there may have been some doubts over Wouter Vrancken and his style for this Hearts team.
Since the 6-1 hammering in Portugal by Benfica, things have started looking up, the next league game was a 4-0 dismantling of Dundee United, then Benfica came to Tynecastle and left with a 1-1 draw. The cup game against Inverness could have been a tricky one, Hearts went 1-0 up but just after the second half began, Inverness brought it back to 2-1.
Hearts equalised relatively quickly but it took until the 83rd minute to take the lead and they ended up scoring another three late on to win 6-2. Going forward they look exciting but there’s still some questions defensively.
St. Johnstone looked great going forward against Kilmarnock in their 4-3 opening day victory but struggled in their 1-0 defeat against St. Mirren. They also haven’t played a match since August 8th due to an early cup exit and their match against Celtic being postponed due their Champions League Play-Off second leg.
Despite going to penalties, Hearts will still be sharper and I think Simo Valakari’s side will struggle against their attacking prowess, especially at Tynecastle.
Kilmarnock vs Dundee United - Both teams to score & over 2.5 goals
Both teams are really poor defensively, in their four matches since the league started, Dundee United have conceded eleven goals whilst Kilmarnock have conceded eleven goals in three matches since the Premiership opening day!
Dundee United have only scored once in three league matches and Killie have scored four in two, I don’t think either side is strong enough at the back to keep the other out, even with Jim Goodwin’s side struggling so much in front of goal.
They actually hit the woodwork FIVE times against Celtic in a game that they lost 4-0! It needs to come together eventually, doesn’t it?
As previously mentioned, both sides struggle defensively but actually have decent attacking options, so I can see this being a goal fest!
Aberdeen vs Rangers - Both teams to score
Rangers have been incredibly poor under Derek McInnes so far and suffered an embarrassing defeat to Jablonec in the Europa Conference League Play-Offs which knocked them out of Europe completely.
Fans are already wanting the manager out which I’m not sure if going to happen, just yet, but is going to take a massive upturn in performances to not be the eventuality. If anything, Rangers fans would have expected to be well organised and hard-working under the former Hearts boss.
The reality is that no players on the pitch look like they know what they should be doing and it’s all a disjointed mess.
Aberdeen have been very up and down so far this season. They snuck an opening day home win against Hearts after a late turnaround but looked lost the next game as they were defeated 2-0 by Dundee. However, in their next match they hammered Steven Pressley’s side 3-0 so it’s difficult to know what to expect of them.
They have signed some exciting players, particularly Tony Yogane and Lewis Smith but Stephen Robinson hasn’t properly realised how to utilise them yet.
Aberdeen have scored twelve in their last five Premiership matches with Rangers only scoring eight, the last league clean sheet Rangers kept was 15th March, a horrible record for supposed title challengers.
There’s a chance that this is a really drab affair, especially with Rangers being slow and boring whilst coming off of a penalty shoot-out on Thursday. Aberdeen have a real chance here having not beaten Rangers in the last six but I think both teams will definitely score in this one.
Ayr United vs Morton - Ayr United to win
After a positive League Cup Group Stage campaign and bright start to the season Ayr have lost their last two matches. They took a tough, late loss against rivals Kilmarnock at Rugby Park in the League Cup Last 16 and lost 2-0 to Raith Rovers last weekend after an early Leon King red card.
I like Gary Naysmith and the players that he has recruited with Ross Taylor being a particular standout after following him from Stenhousemuir.
Morton are in a lot of trouble, both on the pitch and off it, they have made a couple of signings but in three matches they have scored once, conceded five and lost all three. The late goal they conceded against Arbroath last week was a horrible kick when they were already down.
At home, I think Ayr will win this comfortably.
Hamilton vs Cove Rangers - Hamilton to win
Hamilton have had a great start to the season winning three and drawing once in four games whilst scoring ten goals and not conceding any. Darian McKinnon was probably disappointed by the 0-0 draw against East Fife last weekend as it would have put them three clear of Ross County who have a game in hand.
Cove came away with an impressive 3-0 win against Peterhead last week but that was the first game they had won this season after having lost 3-0 to East Kilbride the week prior. They also lost 2-0 to East Fife and drew 0-0 with Airdrie on the opening day.
They have been up and down but Hamilton have looked so good that I don’t think they’ll be able to stop them scoring, particularly with Accies being at home.
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