Hearts vs St Johnstone Predictions

• Hearts’ only competitive wins this term came in both of their home league games.
• Hearts won six of the last seven home H2H encounters.
• St Johnstone only survived via a play-off last term and have began with three defeats from four.

Hearts can bounce back from Europa disappointment

After losing both legs of their Europa League qualifying play-off against Zurich, Hearts return to Premiership duties against perennial strugglers St Johnstone. The hosts can at least celebrate making a European group stage for the first time since 2005 in the form of the Conference League, so confidence will likely be unharmed.

While the hosts won just two of their opening six competitive games, those were the only two home league games of the bunch. Moreover, Hearts won six of the last seven home encounters with St Johnstone, so normal service may well resume this Sunday.

On the other hand, St Johnstone survived by the skin of their teeth in a relegation play-off last year before making a pretty dire start to the new season (W1, L3), suggesting that they’ll be scrapping it out for places in the bottom-half yet again.

Jam Tarts can put in a sweet performance

Since defeating Livingston away from home back in February, St Johnstone have failed to win 13 of the following 15 competitive trips. Meanwhile, they also failed to score in five of their last seven visits here, suggesting that streak could yet get worse.

We predict that Hearts will bounce back to form with a win at a relatively short, but fair price. As for the correct score, we’re happy to go for a small stakes pick on a 2-0 home win.