ST JOHNSTONE welcome Motherwell with both sides having reasonably encouraging starts to their campaigns.
But it will be the visitors who will be on a high after chalking up an impressive first league win of the season at the weekend with a 3-1 victory over last season's third place side Hearts.
Well have now started with a win, draw and defeat and even that loss wasn't a disaster as they went down fighting to a 2-1 setback to Rangers at Hampden .
Considering they lost top scorer Theo Bair this summer to Auxerre and brought in 13 players, they've started reasonably well. And manager Stuart Kettlewell has also had to contend with a lot of injuries too.
Saints made folk sit up earlier in the month with a brilliant 3-0 win at Kilmarnock, but they rather blotted their copybook last week when they went down to a 2-0 loss at Dundee United and star man Adama Sidibeh was sent off.
That means he won't be available to face Motherwell and he could be a big loss.
However, Craig Levein's side are a far more entertaining watch than last season's dire struggle against the drop.
How the bookies view it: Well edging favouritism
Motherwell are narrow favourites across the board despite giving up home advantage and the best you will get is 6/4 with William Hill.
The same firm are also best priced at 19/10 for a home win and the draw is 13/5 with bet365.
Recent head to heads: Treble draws
There was three draws in the four meetings last season and the other game saw Saints sneak a 2-1 win in Lanarkshire which saved them from a relegation play-off.
Motherwell are unbeaten in their last four visits to Perth.
Players to watch: Benji banging them in
Benji Kimpioka has already scored six goals for the Saints last season. The Swedish striker is 3/1 to score anytime with bet365.
Zimbabwean youngster Tawanda Maswanhise started last week for Well and caused Hearts plenty of problems. The ex-Leicester City striker is 15/4 to score anytime with bet365.
Predicted line-ups.
Saints will be without the suspended Adama Sidibeh for this. Sam McClelland is out long-term with an Achilles injury and Uche Ikpeazu is also out.
Motherwell have plenty of injury worries with Apostolos Stamatelopoulos, Callum Slattery, Sam Nicholson, Shane Blaney, Harry Paton, Ross Callachan and Johnny Koutroumbis all missing.
St Johnstone: St Johnstone: Rae, Neilson, Sanders, Cameron, Wright, Essel, M Smith, Carey, Raymond, Kimpioka, Clark.
Motherwell: Oxborough, O'Donnell, Casey, Gordon, McGinn, Wilson, Zdravkovski, Halliday, Miller, Maswanhise, Robinson.
Anything else catch the eye?
It's tempting to go for the draw here again – after all that's what happened three times last season and already the sides are sixth and seventh in the table with little to separate them.
But for the price, it's worth having a stab at Saints who were probably slightly unlucky to come away with nothing at Tannadice last week and have improved from last season.
It's something of a surprise to see Well favourites given they are on their travels.
Despite Mothrwell scoring three goals last week against a Hearts side who were desperately pushing bodies forward, it's hard to see this being a classic.
It could quite easily take some time to burst into life and St Johnstone's last two games have been goalless at the interval. It's
Go for UniBet's 39/20 on a 0-0 draw at the break.
This Scottish Premiership match between St Johnstone and Motherwell will be played on Aug 31, 2024 and kick off at 15:00. Check below for our tipsters best St Johnstone vs Motherwell prediction. You may also visit our dedicated betting previews section for the most up to date previews.
