Villains of the piece last week were the Blue Toon namely Peterhead whose 2-0 defeat at East Stirling meant a loss for us on the day. My west coast contact told me that Peterhead missed numerous chances and only had themselves to blame for the defeat.
The other two bets saw stakes returned with Dundee United in particular being unlucky on a bad pitch in Inverness. The Arabs were denied a stonewall penalty late in the game when Gary MacKay-Steven was pulled back in the box when through on goal and about to pull the trigger.
We dust ourselves down and go again this weekend. Selections as follows:
Premier League
Aberdeen to beat Inverness CT – 5/6, 2pts
Outside leaders Celtic, the Dons and Motherwell are the hottest teams in the league at present and I fancy the reds to take care of Inverness for the third time this season.
Aberdeen are winning in all kinds of ways and have the mentality to win ugly when things aren’t going to plan. Their defence in one of the tightest in the country and lays the platform for the team to go and win the points.
The Dons have goals from all over the pitch with the likes of Robson and Flood scoring from midfield which augments the strikes from McGinn, Pawlett and Vernon further forward indeed even a couple of defenders have got in on the act in recent weeks.
I told you about the current well-being of Inverness last week namely a poorish run of results under the new manager and the unavailability of one or two key players. Expect the dons to keep their good run going.
St Johnstone to win to nil v Hearts – 23/20, 1.5pts
Saints were fantastic in their 2-0 win over St Mirren last week and welcome a struggling young Hearts side who have yet to score against the Perth men this season.
St Johnstone are a solid, reliable team at home especially against the lesser sides and they should be far too strong for the Jambos. Striker Stevie May scored a wonder goal in last week’s win and has scored in both games against Hearts therefore I wouldn’t put anyone off backing him to get on the scoresheet tommorrow.
Hearts problems are well documented i.e administration, which means they can’t buy players and have to field a very young side in every fixture.
Selection has become even tougher for manager Gary Locke with a number of players becoming unavailable in recent weeks which has meant even younger players being forced to join the first team squad.
The latest injury sees key forward Jamie Walker being out for a few weeks with a foot injury and he is the one player who is capable of opening up a defence. Given the jambos problems and lack of goals against both St Johnstone and other opposition I can’t see anything other than a comfortable Saints win this weekend.
League 1
Ayr Utd to beat Brechin
Since writing this I have read that Ayr striker Michael Moffat is to serve a 6 match ban for betting on his team’s matches therefore this bet is now void. Feel free to bet on this game but I’m not going to advise one.
Ayr impressed me when I saw them earlier in the season and I’ve monitored their progress ever since. The honest men have suffered one or two setbacks since then but have always bounced back from a defeat or two. Main striker Michael Moffat is firing again and he’ll be a real handful for a pedestrian like Brechin defence tommorrow. Ayr’s results have been solid against teams outside the top three and I expect them to have too much going forward for the Hedgemen in this one.
There’s no doubt Brechin have underachieved this season, with the players at manager Ray McKinnon’s disposal this is a team who should be challenging for promotion and not trying to avoid relegation at the other end.
Away results have been the problem for the Hedgemen with their only successes coming at nearby venues in Arbroath and East Fife. When travelling to the west the team have lost most of their games losing plenty of goals in the process. Ayr is one of the toughest places to visit in the division and it won’t be a game Brechin are looking forward too.
Happy punting this weekend.
