St Johnstone vs Kilmarnock Predictions, Betting Tips and Match Previews

St Johnstone managed to bounce back from consecutive defeats last weekend with a 2-1 victory over Ross County away from home. This makes it four wins and three losses in their last seven games in all competitions, although to be fair to them two of these defeats came at the hands of the dominant Celtic.

This has lifted them to within a point of 3rd placed Hearts in the Scottish Premiership, and with the troubled Rangers just five points further ahead than them, St Johnstone are back in the hunt for a spot in the top three.

Their home form in the Premiership hasn’t been overly convincing at times this season though. They have only won four of their 12 home games in the league, drawing three and losing five. Whilst two of these defeats have come against Celtic, they have also lost at home to three lower placed sides. One of these was Kilmarnock back in October as well.

The visitors’ three match unbeaten streak came to an end last weekend with a rather expected 2-1 loss to Aberdeen, but last season’s 11th placed side have every reason to be positive about this season as a whole. They have only lost one of their last five outings in the league, and whilst only one has been a victory as well, they are still picking up points with some regularity.

This last left Kilmarnock in 8th position in the Premiership, but with just eight points separating 6th position from the bottom of the table, no team in the bottom half is anywhere close to safe from the drop, just yet.

Away from home wins are harder to come by for Kilmarnock, but they are still proving difficult to beat with just one loss in their last four trips away. They haven’t won on the road since the middle of October though, which coincidentally was against St Johnstone.

This could be a much closer match up than the bookies are predicting here, and that leaves us with a lot of value to play with. Kilmarnock have performed well on the road recently, and whilst I don’t think they have a win in them, I do think they can take something from a St Johnstone side who have failed to live up to expectations at McDiarmid Park this season. Odds of 3/1 for a Draw look incredibly good value, considering almost half of Kilmarnock’s trips away have ended in a stalemate, so I’m backing that alongside a 1-1 correct score predictions at 13/2.