Falkirk v Queen of the South
Scottish Championship. Kick-Off: 3pm, Saturday 25th August.
AFTER a one-week hiatus, due to Betfred Cup ties, the Scottish Championship swings back into action for the third round of fixtures.
This contest at the Falkirk Stadium could prove to be a pivotal one between the hosts and their Dumfries counterparts.
After opening with two defeats Paul Hartley’s men will be desperate to get their season going if they have any ambitions of being in the promotion race come April.
In both fixtures the Bairns have suffered from poor first-half displays, leaving themselves too much to do to recover in the second part of the games.
This generally is down to the 16 new recruits that have come in and the lack of any apparent shape or game plan in both defence and attack. They’ll be hoping with a week's interval some of these matters will have been worked on on the training field.
The Doonhamers have also started off slowly securing an opening-day draw with Morton followed by a narrow defeat at the hands of Dundee Utd.
What will determine the result on Saturday is two factors. Firstly how Falkirk start the game in terms of formation and intensity and secondly the performance of Queen of the South forward Stephen Dobbie.
The skilful talisman has been arguably the best player in the division for the past two seasons and loves a strike against Falkirk with a record of 10 goals in eight games, including a hat-trick in this fixture in 2017.
Entertainment is guaranteed from any source when these two meet, however, as the four encounters last season amassed 20 goals.
Recommended Bets
- Stephen Dobbie 1st Goal 5/1 (Betfred)
- Over 3.5 goals 9/4 (Ladbrokes)
