St Johnstone will look to keep their survival hopes alive on Saturday as they welcome fellow strugglers Ross County to McDiarmid Park.
St Johnstone’s 15-year-long stay in the Scottish top flight looks to be coming to an end, as they fell to a third consecutive loss last time out, losing 0-2 at home to Kilmarnock.
The best Simo Valakari’s side can hope for is a shot at the relegation playoffs, but they are six points behind their visitors, the only team they can realistically catch, so anything other than a victory will seal their fate on Saturday.
Ross County’s poor run of form continued last time out, as they fell to a 1-3 defeat at home to Hearts despite taking the lead in the first half.
That’s now six defeats on the spin and seven from their last eight for County – failing to even score in five of those defeats – and whilst they are six points clear from their hosts, they are two points adrift of automatic safety.
How the bookies view it: Saints to fight another day?
Despite their poor run of form, St Johnstone are favourites to keep their survival hopes alive, with BoyleSports pricing them up at 23/20.
County are 11/5 to end their six-match winless run, whilst the stalemate is 21/10.
Head to head: Saints with the upper hand
St Johnstone are unbeaten in their three outings with Ross County this season, drawing 3-3 up in Dingwall and winning 1-0 and 3-0 in Perth.
Players to watch:
Makenzie Kirk is St Johnstone’s leading scorer in the Premiership with eight this campaign, and has scored in both victories at home to County this season.
Ronan Hale is County’s leading scorer with 10 in the Premiership this season, including their opening in their loss at home to Hearts last weekend.
Predicted line-ups:
St Johnstone will be without Drey Wright, Sam McClelland, Bozo Mikulic and Zach Mitchell who are all in the treatment room.
Ross County could be once again without the injured Ryan Leak and Aidan Denholm, whilst Noah Chilvers is out for the season with an ACL injury.
St Johnstone: Fisher, Balodis, Sprangler, Douglas, Holt, Griffith, Watt, Carey, McPake, Kirk, Ikpeazu
Ross County: Amissah, Wright, Tomkinson, Harmon, Brown, Randall, Kenneh, Ashworth, Samuel, White, Hale
Anything else catch the eye?
As already alluded to, St Johnstone simply have to win this game if they are to keep alive any hopes of survival, and whilst they don’t head into this clash in great form, they take on a County side that is in even worse form.
What's more, St Johnstone have already defeated Don Cowie’s visitors twice in Perth this season – including a 1-0 victory at the end of February – and I’m willing to back The Saints to make it three in a row against County at McDiarmid.
I successfully backed Makenzie Kirk to score in St Johnstone’s defeat at Fir Park a couple of weeks ago, and I’m having a play on the young Northern Irishman to score for a third consecutive home match against County.
This Scottish Premiership match between St Johnstone and Ross County will be played on and kick off at 15:00. Check below for our tipsters best St Johnstone vs Ross County prediction. You may also visit our dedicated betting previews section for the most up to date previews.
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