Last week was a tough one in which to find bets but we picked the right ones with all three going in for over 7pts profit. Celtic thrashed helpless Motherwell 5-0 on Friday night to land the first of our handicap bets while two late goals at Tannadice for Dundee Utd provided us with two further handicap winners in that game (-1.25 and -2.5).
Form is good on the run up to the festive season and here’s hoping the luck will stay with us for a good while yet.
Again it’s another hard week to pick out value bets, I shortlisted five teams early on (Inverness CT, Dundee Utd, Alloa, Dundee and East Fife) but all have been backed into shorter prices and no longer value and now best swerved unless prices lengthen again. I’ve never known so many teams I’ve fancied to be supported so quick, it was if the early bird punters were reading my mind!!!
As a result I’m left with the following bets:
League 1
Forfar to beat Arbroath – 4/5, 2pts
I covered Forfar’s cup game with Brechin in midweek and was most impressed by the loons never say die attitude which eventually won them the tie on penalty kicks following extra time. Forfar were missing four regular starters most of whom will hopefully be available this weekend for another Angus derby.
The loons have been in decent form of late and are always competitive at Station Park where they’ve won three of their last four games which is in stark contrast to their Arbroath neighbours who have lost six out of seven away already this season and who I’m told were very poor in a home defeat by Stranraer last weekend.
Chris Templeman was in tremendous form for the loons the other night and this Arbroath defence like Brechin’s will find it very tough to stop the tall striker reaping havoc in front of goal especially too as the red lichties do concede plenty usually at least two per game minimum.
There is the worry that the other night could take plenty out of Forfar but with players coming back in to the squad that hopefully won’t be the case.
Important – wait and see if key striker Swankie is fit for Forfar before placing bet.
League 2
Annan to beat Queens Park – 5/6, 2pts
In light of the lack of options this week I’m reluctantly including Annan in my bets. This is a team who have let me down on a couple of occasions this season but I’m going to give then another chance against a Queens Park side propping up the rest of scottish football at the moment.
The Galabankies are a tough team to get right but are unbeaten in their last four at home and enjoyed a 5-2 victory in the reverse fixture at Hampden Park. A feature of that game I’m told was the greater physicality that Annan had over QP and nothing has changed since to suggest QP can handle that aspect any better.
Queens Park did improve from their disastrous start to the season a couple of months back when picking up a few points in a four or five game spell but since then they’ve reverted to type and have now lost five games on the bounce. I’m hoping the struggles endured by the visitors continue this weekend.
Stirling v Elgin – Over 3.5 Goals – 5/4, 1pt
Here we have two free scoring sides and a visiting team who also concede plenty in this fixture on Saturday. Both Stirling’s and Elgin’s last five home/away games have seen four goals or more in three of these games and I don’t see anything changing in this game. The home side have goals throughout the team and aren’t reliant on one or two individuals however striker Jordan White is the main man for goals and is in good form.
I saw Elgin play at Montrose a few weeks back and was impressed by their counter attacking ability which yielded three goals but was equally unimpressed by their failure to keep things tight at the other end when conceding three goals. The highlanders have good strikers in Gunn, Sutherland and the wily old predator Wyness but are equally as flaky at the other end. Elgin won the reverse fixture 4-0 so I’m certain Stirling will be fired up for a revenge mission now.
Happy punting this weekend.
