Blue Squares favourites

Nov 30 2007

AFTER last weekend’s long-overdue success at national level, St Johnstone return to the bread-and-butter business of league action as they re-commence their attempts to gain promotion with an intriguing-looking duel against Partick.

Their recent visits to Firhill have produced contrasting results: they’ve scored 17 goals in their last six matches, but none in the last two! No wonder bookies have had difficulty splitting the pair.

Despite only winning one league game away from McDiarmid Park, the Saints kick off as Blue Square’s marginal 7/5 favourites to win, with Partick priced at 8/5 by William Hill; many bookies make the teams even closer than this, prices which suggest that another draw, available at 13/5 (Stan James), cannot be ruled out.

Indeed, there has been sustained support for the 11/10 price chalked by Coral.co.uk against the first half ending in stalemate, while the 17/10 posted by bet365 for the opening period to finish goalless has obvious appeal.

Punters who suspect a level first half will establish a predictable trend for the second can get 9/2 (Stan James) against both halves ending with honours even, while bet365 post a massive 10/1 against the match finishing 0-0.

Punters who believe there will be no repeat of recent high-scoring matches between the pair can get virtually even money (13/14) at Betdaq against the fixture yielding fewer than 2.5 goals and those who enjoy hedging their bets will find the seductive nature of Sportingbet’s 3/4 odds posted against St Johnstone in the firm’s ‘draw no bet’ market difficult to resist.

Bullish types may prefer the 9/2 offered by Blue Square against the Saints emerging victorious following a drawn first period, or else VCBet’s chunky 8/1, marked in favour of a 1-0 away win.

Odds supplied by www.betrescue.com