Hello,
Sorry folks been a bit off the radar recently but I'm back, no doubt you have all missed me........;-)
Anyway, new format below, featured game followed by summary of other matches. The featured game cam also be found on selectabet.net website, take a look!
Good luck as always.
The Gaffa.
Motherwell v Dundee Utd
SPL - 19th February 2013 - KO 7.45pm
Second
place Motherwell host nineth placed Dundee Utd in the SPL tonight in a
fixture that you would normally say pitches two evenly matched teams
together and I certainly believe that is the case. I'm happy to ignore
league positions as the Scottish Premier has been a bit "tit for tat"
between the rest of the teams bar Celtic and Dundee this season. The
bookmakers have given the edge to Motherwell understandably with home
advantage and are available at 11/10 (Coral), with Dundee Utd price at
13/5 (BetVictor) for the away win and a Draw being similarly priced at
13/5 (bet365). However, this is not a market that interest me as to be
honest no result would ultimately surprise me greatly!
Motherwell
have been quietly going about their business this year and now find
themselves up into 2nd place after a slow start which I think had to do
with the distraction caused by their small foray in Europe at the
beginning of the season. Manager McCall has been quick to quash
excitement as he knows a couple of bad games could see Motherwell plumet
back down the league. The players will be full of confidence though
with a superb 3-0 win over Inverness at the weekend, making them
unbeaten in their last 4 games at home. Another boost comes with the
return of former Scotland international James McFadden for a second
spell at the club, although I imagine he may only be in a postion to
come off the bench tonight. Captain Lasley and Kerr are out tonight
through suspension but Ramsden is available after recovering from a
suspected hand fracture.
Dundee Utd will be looking to put last
weekends 6-2 defeat at Celtic Park behind them which saw them drop 3
places in the league. To be fair though they did meet a wounded Celtic
team who simply played very well on the day. This was new manager Jackie
McNamara's first defeat since he's been in charge but I reckon apart
from the obvious defensive frailties, he can take some positives away
from a match in which they scored twice and even missed a penalty. The
leaky defence is starting to become a real issue though and certainly
wont be helped with an injury to Gavin Gunning that may see him out for
the rest of the season.
On that note, goals is the angle that
I'm looking for in this match and I'm pretty sure we should see them as
the stats are there to back them up. Motherwell's last 6 out 6 homes
games have gone over 2.5 goals together with the fact that Dundee Utd's
last 9 out of 9 away matches have gone over 2.5 goals! Indeed if you
look at just Dundee Utd, in their last 17 matches (home & away) 15
of them have gone over 2.5 goals. For some reason Ladbrokes have set
their price for OVER 2.5 GOALS much higher than their competitors at 4/5
and I'm happy to have a piece of that! There will be sufficient
striking talent on the pitch in Higdon, Ojamaa, Mackay-Steven, Russell
and Daly to cover the over 2.5 goals comfortably in my opinion. Lets
just hope that McNamara has not had the time to do much defensive
coaching on the United back four.
For people that like to back an
anytime scorer Michael Higdon at 11/8 (Bet Victor) is the standout, he
has scored 8 goals in his last 6 home games for Motherwell and is
clearly bang on form.
As far as the result goes, as I said early, it could go either way and to be honest I don't care!
Good Luck.
Bet selected : OVER 2.5 Goals @ 4/5 (Ladbrokes)
St Johnstone v Celtic
St Johnstone are unbeaten at home in their last 5 matches but certainly will have to be at their very best if they are to stop this Celtic team clocking a result following their outstanding performance at the weekend verus Dundee Utd. Celtic looked revitalised with Stokes starting up front with Hooper together with Commons appearing to have found his form. In truth Celtic are dangerous all over the park and I expect them to handle the threat of Vine and probably MacLean to claim a win.
The best price of 1.5 (Stan James) doesn't really appeal to me though. Tiny bet on Celtic HT/FT 2.15 (betvictor)
