FEB 28: SPFL FIRST-SCORER TIPS & CONTEST

THE only online bookmaker listing first-scorer prices on all SPFL games are McBookie.com. It’s a great service they provide and we’ve teamed up with the Scots firm to look at some of the best bets from the Scottish lower leagues.

Also, leave a first-scorer prediction for any of the weekend SPFL matches at the end of this article to have a chance to win a £10 free bet with McBookie.com. Remember to quote odds. There was no winner last week.

Here is McBookie’s Damian Walker’s first-scorer tips for this weekend. He writes: One of the positives (if there can be any) of the financial problems that shook Hearts over the past few seasons has been the blooding of young players who otherwise might not have got their chance so soon.

One such player has been the Jambos’ Jamie Walker who was initially sent out on loan to Raith to gain some valuable first-team experience.

Since then he has returned to Tynecastle and this season in particular has really come good, with Real Betis supposedly linked with a move for the player back in January.

Walker has been banging in the goals with eight this campaign from 22 Championship appearances, including five in his last seven games.

He has a great chance to add to his impressive scoring stats this weekend, with Hearts at home to second-bottom Cowdenbeath. McBookie make him 11-2 to score the opening goal.

In League One it has taken a long time for the penny to drop but some bookies may finally be realising Dunfermline have only a slightly better chance than zero of winning the league title.

Ante-post liabilities have kept the Pars ludicrously short in the title betting but even allowing for that they were still way too skinny and just 7-2 with one firm prior to last weekend’s defeat to Forfar.

After their midweek reverse to Brechin they sit 10 points behind leaders Stranraer and nine adrift of Morton and Forfar, yet with just 11 games to go one firm still has them chalked up at just 7-1.

In short Dunfermline are worth taking on and if bookies haven’t realised it punters have. Leaders Stranraer – with seven League One wins from their last 11 league matches – were initially chalked up at 6-4 to beat Dunfermline who have just two wins from their last 11. The 6-4 is ancient history and McBookie are at the time of writing are shortest at 23-20.

Stranraer should run out comfortable winners but who from Jamie Longworth, Craig Malcolm and Jon McShane is most likely to get the first goal? It might be worth siding with McShane who has started brightly since joining on loan from East Fife with a view to getting the Blues up. McBookie make him 6-1 to grab the opener.

Bookmakers have also been slow to react to the improved form of Elgin. They are the form team in League Two taking 19 points from a possible 24 from their last eight games. Those six wins have propelled them off the bottom to sit joint sixth just six points of the play-off spot with two games in hand.

Amazingly Elgin can be backed at 5-1 with one firm at the time of writing to win at Arbroath on Saturday. But it isn’t just Elgin’s good run that makes them so appealing – second-placed Arbroath are in dire form and have yet to win in 2015 drawing three and losing four yet they are as short as 1-2.

Backing 1-2 shots with Arbroath’s form profile against teams with Elgin’s should carry a wealth warning. The odds mean Elgin’s players are probably good value for the first goal and striker Shane Sutherland, who has scored four goals in his last four games, can be backed at 7-1 with McBookie.

Can you find a winner this weekend?

Recommended Bets

Walker (Hearts) 11-2

McShane (Stranraer) 6-1

Sutherland (Elgin) 7-1

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