St Johnstone vs Kilmarnock Predictions

Bottom-placed Kilmarnock faces an away trip to Perth where they’ll be hosted by St Johnstone at McDiarmid Park on Saturday. Can either side pick up their first win?

After a poor start to the season, St Johnstone went into damage control mode as they tried to put their early Scottish League Cup exit and a 7-0 thrashing by Celtic on the opening day of the Premiership behind them .

The Saints’ most recent outing was a dramatic 2-2 draw at Easter Road against Hibs. The Saints went 1-0 down within the first 25 minutes after some lacklustre defending on their part. Tommy Wright’s men struggled to get an equaliser, but they eventually found one in the 68^th minute after a lengthy counterattack. However, Hibs went ahead again a minute later, seemingly taking all 3 points. But St Johnstone still had a goal left in them, with Jason Kerr taking advantage of a poorly-defended cross to earn the visitors a point, taking their league tally to a measly 2 points.

Kilmarnock’s season has been considerably worse, although the team can take some positives from their last 2 outings in which they avoided defeats.

Last week’s game was a goalless draw with Aberdeen at Rugby Park that saw little action but did award Killie their first point of the league campaign. The week before saw their first win in 3 games as they narrowly overcame Hamilton in the last-16 of the Scottish League Cup. The Ayrshire club had lost to Hamilton on the 2^nd day of the season but did get the better of the Accies this time around.

Despite their place in the league table, Angelo Alessio’s can be reasonably happy with some of their performances, like their opening day clash with Rangers. The club deserved a point after holding the Gers off for so long, but the Glasgow club’s quality eventually shone through.

It’s hard to say how this game is going to go as neither side has sufficient quality to easily overcome one another. They do share a need to win, as failure to do would raise some serious questions over the losing side. St Johnstone’s home record is surprisingly impressive, with the Saints losing just once in their last 8 games at McDiarmid Park.

The same can’t be said for Killie’s away form, as they have suffered 3 defeats and a draw in their last 6 away days. The clubs are struggling for points, but we believe that St Johnstone can be the ones to take all 3 points here, which is why we’re backing them to win by a narrow margin of 1-0.