£5 Scottish Cup acca pays £57
Published:We pick out the weekend’s best bets
The Scottish Cup Fourth Round dominates this weekend’s schedule north of the border, as the Premiership sides return from their winter-break to join the fray. Matches go ahead over the course of Saturday and Sunday, with three scheduled for the live TV treatment.
This historic competition has given us some memorable upsets over the years, including Inverness, then a part-time team, knocking Celtic out at the third round stage, a result that led to the end of manager John Barnes’ time in Glasgow. Remember? That was almost 17-years ago.
The Scottish football experts at Coral have run our expert eye over the fixtures and offer up our best bets for an accumulator. Odds are correct at the time of writing, with £5 returning £57.45
Rangers beat Motherwell
The Gers have added a couple of new faces to a midfield missing Joey Barton and Niko Kranjcar. Emerson Hyndman and Jon Toral arrive from Bournemouth and Arsenal respectively, and that can only help the locals’ cause.
Rangers were last seen losing to Celtic at this venue, but The Well are on a horrible run of form, winning just one of their last seven league starts, conceding 13-goals in the process. Mark Warburton’s side took a 2-1 win when last hosting Motherwell back in August, and I expect something very similar. The home team start us off at 1/3.
Dundee beat St Mirren
Premiership plays Championship at Dens Park and if this one follows the league form of both, it’ll shape as one of the easiest inclusions to our bet. The Dark Blues won two of their last three before going off on holiday, and will come back much sharper for it.
Dundee hammered St Johnstone 3-0 last time out in an impressive result, while opponents St Mirren just can’t do right for doing wrong, and look dead-cert to be relegated to League One come the better weather. The Paisley boys have won just two league games so far, and show -19 in their goal difference tally. Dundee make perfect sense at 4/9.
Ross County beat Dundee United
Another Premiership vs Championship and County used their couple of weeks off to boost their ranks. Jason Naismith comes from St Mirren to strengthen the defence while Jim O’Brien joins from Shrewsbury Town on-loan until the end of the season to lend a hand in attack.
Dundee United will be hoping to share the top-flight with their hosts next term and make this a regular thing, but they have much work to do and have hit a flat spell, losing two and drawing one of their last three. The Arabs have struggled to find the net of late and shouldn’t get too many chances here. Staggies to show their class at 17/20.
Hearts beat Raith Rovers
The Jambos have endured a bit of a season of it so far. After beating Rangers in Edinburgh and looking like a side capable of finishing second, they’ve lost manager Robbie Neilson to MK Dons and his replacement, Ian Cathro, hasn’t won too many friends.
Slovenian international Andraz Struna is one of the higher profile names to come in during this transfer window, but they have handled their business well. Raith were beaten 2-0 by Greenock Morton last week and haven’t won a game in nine. That makes The Jam Tarts tasty at 1/2.
Dunfermline beat Alloa Athletic
Lastly, an in-form Pars are taken to do the business away to Alloa Athletic at Recreation Park. It’s a tight little venue and the part-timers of Alloa will look to make things as difficult as possible in front of their own fans, but they are another low on confidence, winning just two of their last nine.
When we place that against the form of Dunfermline, who ply their trade in the division above, it makes The Pars very easy to trust. Allan Johnston has turned around the fortunes of his side and they enter this unbeaten in eight. They are familiar with challenges like this from their time in the lower leagues and should get the win at an attractive 23/20.
