Scottish Football / John Girvan / 14 August 2009 / Leave a comment

John Girvan gives us the lowdown on what's been happening in Scottish football recently before going about his business of picking some winners on the first day of the season.

Recommended Bets: Celtic -1.0 @ around [2] (1pt)
Rangers -1.5 & -2.0 @ [1.95] (1pt)
Celtic/Rangers multiple @ around [1.95] (2pts)
Dundee United v Hearts: Under 2.5 goals @ [1.72] (1pt)

There's not much to shout about in terms of Scottish Football at the minute. The national side were humiliated in Oslo on Wednesday night and the country's Premier League is coming to terms with the demise of Setanta Sports. Clubs in the top flight are having to re-jig their budgets now that a combined £60M less is on its way between now and 2012 and there are few optimists out there.

ESPN and BSkyB thought long and hard but have decided it is worth investing £65M in. Subscribers get a double helping of SPL action this weekend as Celtic travel to Aberdeen for the lunch time curtain raiser on Saturday whilst Hearts of Midlothian's Monday night visit to Tannadice is also live.

Aberdeen away from home is as tough an opening league fixture as new Celtic gaffer Tony Mowbray could have envisaged but it could be a good time to visit the Granite City. Mark McGhee's tenure got off to a horrendous start with an 8-1 aggregate Europa League exit at the hands of SK Sigma Olomouc of the Czech Republic. The new boss has admitted "until we make the signings I want I think we will be scrapping to be a top-six team".

Mowbray's Parkhead tenure didn't exactly get off to a flyer either with the 1-0 home leg defeat to Dynamo Moscow in the penultimate qualifying round of the Uefa Champions League. They were facing the same financial disaster as Rangers endured 12 months ago but they pulled it off in Moscow with a 2-0 win on the night and the lift they have given themselves should set them up for what to the naked eye is a tough opener.
Celtic have an excellent record at Pittodrie with five wins in their last six league visits. The fact Sigma Olomouc came here and scored five times should fill Saturday's visitors with a lot of confidence. Yes, Zander Diamond may have been missing from a back four which included midfielder Derek Young, but given Celtic's record here any away win is hard to argue with.
The prices aren't too shabby either with [1.68] available in the Match Odds and Celtic -1.0 at around [2.0] in the Asian Handicap. The latter may be of particular interest given three of those five recent wins at this venue have been by two clear goals or more.
It's a new era at Falkirk but a tough looking one for Manager Eddie May who is assisted by both Steven Pressley and the experienced Alex Smith. The trio could be on a hiding to nothing this term however; six have left the club and quality players at that with Higdon joining St. Mirren and both McBride and Cregg following John Hughes to Easter Road. Eight have come in but it's fair to say they look down on what they had last season when they only just survived the drop.

A serious test of whether they are up to the job or not lies at Ibrox on Saturday where Rangers await to unfurl the flag representing their 52nd league championship. The hosts will certainly be fresh as for the first time since 1995, when Walter Smith was in his first spell as Manager, they are straight into the group stages of the Champions League and have thus avoided any harrowing pre-qualifiers.

There are no fresh new faces for the light blue legions to feast their eyes on however as Rangers haven't brought anyone in despite getting several off the wage bill and recouping £1.7M from the sales of Barry Ferguson and Charlie Adam. A further £2.6M could be on it's way if Celtic fail to overcome Arsenal and some of this could be used to strengthen as concerns remain over both central defensive cover and the problematic left midfield area.

Rangers will have too much for Falkirk on Saturday. Novo is out until at least the end of the month with a shoulder injury but elsewhere Rangers are almost at full strength and it's hard to envisage anything other than a comfortable home win. The Gers have an 100% record in the sides' last five Ibrox league meetings and they have scored at least two goals in each encounter. It's the kind of game in which Smith will probably unleash Boyd and if that turns out to be the case then Rangers -1.5 & - 2.0 in the Asian Handicap appeals at [1.95].

It's a tricky start to the new term for both Dundee United and visitors Hearts on Monday night. This kind of fixture is difficult to predict at the best of times but especially so with no league form to go on. Hearts look slightly weakened from last term whilst United look as though they have made the necessary additions to go one step further than the last two years and qualify for Europe.

Hearts still lack an out an out goal scorer. Csaba Laszlo knows this as much as anyone but he was successful in guiding The Jambos to third last season and in doing so demonstrated he has his men well organised. I like the look of Dundee United at [2.38] in the Match Odds but a prudent approach from the Tyncastle outfit should make for a tight affair and in that case it may be wiser to back Under 2.5 goals at [1.73].

Recommendations:

Celtic -1.0 @ around [2] (1pt)
Rangers -1.5 & -2.0 @ [1.95] (1pt)
Celtic/Rangers multiple @ around [1.95] (2pts)
Dundee United v Hearts: Under 2.5 goals @ [1.72] (1pt)

Tags: David Weir, football odds, football tips, Scottish football bets