RANGERS will be aiming to make it five wins from six when they face Hamilton Academical at the Fountain of Youth Stadium on Saturday evening.
Steven Gerrard's men took maximum points from their opening three league matches before surprisingly stumbling at Livingston a fortnight ago – a stalemate that saw the Gers fail to move further clear of fierce rivals Celtic, at least temporarily.
However, the Teddy Bears bounced back from their Tony Macaroni setback last weekend with a hard-fought 2-0 win at home to a stubborn Kilmarnock side.
Rangers strong start to the season can be attributed to their well-schooled defence who set a post-war record last Saturday when recording their fifth consecutive clean sheet at the start of a campaign.
This weekend Rangers' rigid rearguard will come against a Hamilton Accies outfit who left it late to land their first victory of the season with a much-needed win away at local rivals Motherwell last Saturday.
Brian Rice's battle-hardened side have forged a reputation as one of Scottish football's survival specialists and they once again demonstrated their knack for upsetting the odds when claiming three points at Fir Park.
Outright Betting
Hamilton are huge outsiders at a whopping 20/1 with Sky Bet and the draw is also deemed unlikely at 7/1 with the same bookmaker.
Rangers haven't lost away to Hamilton since the 1930's and another road success on Saturday is heavily fancied at a best 2/11 with Betfred.
Betting Angles
Hamilton boss Brian Rice made it clear in his pre-match press conference that his side won't sit back against Rangers and therefore I'm going to start off by delving into the corners market on Saturday evening.
The Accies clocked up an eye-catching eight corner kicks at Celtic Park on the opening weekend of the season and they have since hit 11 across their two home games before taking five at Fir Park last Saturday.
With that in mind, I like the look of backing Hamilton to hit over two corners this weekend at 4/5 with Bet 365 – a bet that would have banked profit in both fixtures between these sides at the Fountain of Youth of Stadium last season.
Both Livingston and Kilmarnock set out to frustrate Rangers but I suspect Accies could be a bit more adventurous and that only adds to the appeal of siding with the above-mentioned corner punt.
Indeed, there is much to be admired about a youthful Hamilton side who play without fear, however,the hosts have kept just four clean sheets across their last 20 Scottish top-flight assignments.
Such defensive frailty does not bode well ahead of a tussle with a top-heavy Rangers team who have scored three or more goals across each of their last six visits to this venue.
There is little value in backing Rangers to score at least two goals on Saturday at a general 1/4, however, adding two or more Hamilton cards will boost the price up to a much-more enticing 17/20 with William Hill.
The aforementioned betting angle clicked for me when Hamilton met Celtic and I'm happy to side with a repeat here on an evening where Rangers could be subjected to some rough treatment from an Accies outfit who could revert to the dark arts when trying to shackle their superior opponents.
Rice's men racked up a nonsensical nine red cards across 30 Scottish Premiership tussles last term and that coupled with the fact that controversial whistler Willie Collum will be the man in the middle on Saturday adds to the appeal of siding with the above-mentioned combination.
This Scottish Premiership match between Hamilton and Rangers will be played on Aug 29, 2020 and kick off at 17:30. Check below for our tipsters best Hamilton vs Rangers prediction. You may also visit our dedicated betting previews section for the most up to date previews.
