Kilmarnock and Hearts round off their Premiership campaign at Rugby Park on Sunday afternoon in what is effectively a dead rubber for both sides.
Despite plenty of speculation linking him with the Hearts job, Derek McInnes was on the Kilmarnock dugout on Wednesday night, but he won’t be happy with what he saw as his side slumped to a 3-0 defeat away at Motherwell on an evening where one of my goal scorer selections landed.
Whilst that was another defeat on the road for Killie, they have been far more consistent on their plastic pitch, losing just three of their last 17 Premiership matches in front of their supporters, winning eight of their past 12 (W8-D2-L2).
Hearts make the trip to Ayrshire in their best run of form in the season, as they defeated St Johnstone 2-1 on Wednesday night to relegate The Saints.
That's now three wins from three since Liam Fox took temporary reins of the Gorgie club once again, and he’ll hope to round off the season by winning consecutive away games for just the second time this campaign.
How the bookies view it: Tough one to call
The bookies are struggling to separate these two sides, with a home win and an away win both priced up at 6/4 at BoyleSports.
The draw is 23/10 with the same firm.
Head to head: Slight advantage Killie
Kilmarnock won both of the first two meetings in the Premiership this season – including a 1-0 victory in their last clash at Rugby Park – but Hearts won the most recent meeting 3-2 in the capital at the end of January.
Players to watch: Shankland to score again?
Lawrence Shankland has had a pretty miserable season for his own high standards, but the Hearts skipper has scored four goals in Liam Fox’s three matches in interim charge of The Jambos and is 7/5 at BoyleSports to bag again.
Daniel Armstrong has scored three goals in his last five matches for Kilmarnock and will hope to sign off with another in what looks like his final appearance for the Ayrshire club.
Predicted line-ups:
Killie centre back Robbie Deas will be unavailable on Sunday following his red card at Motherwell on Wednesday night.
Hearts defender Gerald Taylor and Costa Rican attacker Kenneth Vargas will be missing.
Kilmarnock: O’Hara, Ramsay, Mayo, Findlay, Ndaba, Armstrong, Donnelly, Watson, Murray, Anderson, Wales
Hearts: Fulton, Forrester, Kent, Halkett, Penrice, Baningime, Devlin, Spittal, Grant, Forrest, Shankland
Anything else catch the eye?
Hearts have been much more of an attacking threat since Liam Fox took over from Neil Critchley and deployed captain Lawrence Shankland back in his preferred centre forward role.
The Jambos have fired eight goals across their last three Premiership matches, with each of those going Over 2.5 Goals.
Killie themselves rarely fail to find the target at home, scoring multiple goals in five of their last six, and that could lead us to a high-scoring game despite both teams having nothing to play for.
GambleAware