SlipsTips Tips: Heart of Midlothian vs St Johnstone

SlipsTips shares a selection from the Scottish Premiership on Saturday, with Heart of Midlothian's encounter with St Johnstone under examination.

Heart of Midlothian vs St Johnstone (Saturday, 15:00)

Heart of Midlothian will be looking to return to winning ways in the Scottish Premiership when they take on St Johnstone at Tynecastle on Saturday.

While Robbie Neilson's side look well placed to finish best of the rest, they have been somewhat lacklustre of late, winning just one of their last four league games, falling to a listless 2-0 loss at Motherwell last time out.

As for St Johnstone, they could be gearing up to launch a late charge to land a top-six finish having taken seven points from the last 12 on offer, with the Perth side just four points behind sixth-placed Aberdeen following last week’s stalemate with St Mirren.

Despite the fact these two sides come into this match in contrasting form, Hearts, as you would expect, are odds-on 7/10 favourites with most firms to claim top honours here.

However, dipping into the Total Teams Goals market we can get a 5/6 (Spreadex) shot on the home team to score twice on Saturday, a price that holds plenty of appeal.

Although the Jambos are sitting pretty in third spot, they may just be starting to look nervously over their shoulders at high-flying Hibs have moved to within five points of their arch-rivals.

With that in mind, coupled with the fact that the hosts have had 13 long days to stew over their mediocre showing at Motherwell, I suspect Robbie Neilson will demand a response from his players this weekend.

What’s more, Hearts have been strong performers at their capital headquarters this season, winning nine of their 13 Scottish Premiership matches, racking up 31 goals in the process.

In fact, the Gorgie club have delivered two or more goals in all but four of their 13 league fixtures at Tynecastle this term and I suspect they will have too much firepower for Saints to contain in the capital.

While Callum Davidson’s side are a hard-working and well-organised outfit who never go down without a fight, they have filed a league-low four clean sheets in 27 attempts this season.

Furthermore, St Johnstone have shipped 2+ strikes in eight of their 14 Scottish top-flight road trips this term, one of which was when they last visited this venue back in August

It’s also worth noting that this bet would have paid when the pair crossed paths in Perth at the tail end of 2022, so with all things considered, the 5/6 (Spreadex) available on what should be a fresh and fired up Hearts team to score twice here looks enticing.