LIVINGSTON face a battle to stay in the Premier Sports Cup and welcome Kelty Hearts to West Lothian on Saturday for what could be a tricky encounter.
Like a lot of Premiership clubs, Livi have been a long way from their best in the group stages. Narrow wins at Albion Rovers and Cove Rangers came on either side of a disappointing home loss to group leaders Caley Thistle.
Manager David Martindale has been far from happy at his side's efforts so far and this is a potential banana skin against the runaway League Two winners last term.
Kelty Hearts are under new management and John Potter grabbed his first win in midweek with a fine 3-2 win at Championship new boys Cove Rangers.
Previously, they lost at home to Inverness and followed that up with a real shocker of a home defeat to Albion Rovers. So far, Kelty have opted to go largely with last season's heroes with only three new arrivals.
Livingston will have to do without new signing Esmael Goncalves after he was sent off during their 2-1 win at Cove Rangers after just 25 minutes.
How the bookies view it
Livingston are overwhelming favourites at 8/15 with McBookie.com. The draw is 16/5 with bet365 and a win for the Fifers can be backed at 21/5 with SBK.
Recent head to heads
The clubs have never met before, but here is Livingston's dramatic comeback win at Cove Rangers with only ten men last weekend.
Players to watch
Andrew Shinnie netted the goal that dragged Livingston back into the game at Cove Rangers and he is likely to be used again as a striker with Goncalves suspended and doubts over Bruce Anderson.
Kelty's prolific hitman Nathan Austin got off and running the other night with a goal at Cove and he will aim to add to his 17 goals in 19 league starts in League Two last season.
Anything else catch the eye?
Now that Kelty have found how to find the net following two blanks, there's no reason for them not to add to the goalscoring tally at the Tony Macaroni.
They were involved in a five-goal encounter in midweek and with the Livingston defence suspect, there should be goals at Almondvale.
Try the 15/8 with Paddy Power on over 3.5 goals on Saturday. And for a bit of excitement, how about the 10/1 on both teams to score in both halves with McBookie.com.
This Scottish League Cup match between Livingston and Kelty Hearts will be played on Jul 23, 2022 and kick off at 15:00. Check below for our tipsters best Livingston vs Kelty Hearts prediction. You may also visit our dedicated betting previews section for the most up to date previews.
