The Scotsman Football Show

The Scotsman

Mark Atkinson discusses the weekend's matches in the Scottish Premiership.

Transcript

00:00Hello, it's Mark Atkinson here, Sports Editor of the Scotsman,

00:10quickly talking you through the William Hill Premiership card this weekend.

00:16We've got five games on Saturday, one on Sunday.

00:20Let's start at Celtic Park where the leaders, rampantly leaders,

00:24you would say Celtic host Hibs,

00:27who got themselves off the bottom of the table last weekend.

00:32They're two points clear of capital rivals Hearts

00:35at a point behind 10th place Kilmarnock,

00:38but there won't be many people who expect them to get anything from Celtic Park.

00:43Britain Rochester's men got a massive result against Aberdeen

00:47at midweek to move further clear at the top of the Premiership.

00:50They only dropped two points all season in the league,

00:53that was at home to Aberdeen,

00:55and most people will have it down as a comfortable home win for Celtic.

01:00You would expect Brendan Rodgers potentially to rotate his team a little bit

01:03given they go to Zagreb on Tuesday night,

01:05but the reality is his squad is so strong that they should have enough to prevail.

01:10For David Gray, he's probably cursing the fixture list a little bit

01:14given that Hibs got themselves back in a good place last weekend

01:18and he'd want to try and build some momentum,

01:20but ultimately he won't be judged on performance against the champions.

01:24I suppose a lot of eyes will be on the game at Tynecastle

01:28between Hearts and Dundee now.

01:31Hearts slipped to the foot of the table after the weekend results last time out,

01:36despite actually getting what I thought was a pretty good one-all draw at home to Aberdeen.

01:41Neil Critchley's team haven't won in five matches across all competitions,

01:45but it must be said they've played the Dons,

01:47both halves of the Old Firm,

01:50and also two European matches against Heidenheim and Circle of Bruges,

01:54but not an easy run of fixtures by any stretch of the imagination.

01:57December is kinder for Hearts.

02:00They have got a run of fixtures against teams who are currently in the bottom six,

02:05starting off against Dundee, who are in good form themselves,

02:08having beaten Motherwell 4-1 in midweek.

02:12Their free-scoring and Lyle Cameron, the midfielder, is playing very well indeed.

02:16It'll be very interesting to see how Hearts perform against one of the lower-ranked teams,

02:21you would say.

02:22There's a lot of expectation on Critchley to get them turning in the right direction,

02:27starting this weekend,

02:28but they'll be up against a Dundee team who I think are one of the most pleasing on the eye

02:33when they go forward.

02:34Al Batulo is there for us and that'll be a really good watch, I think.

02:38Aberdeen, another team that probably need a win,

02:41but for different reasons.

02:42They've now gone four matches in the league without a victory,

02:45losing to St Mirren, drawing at Hebs, drawing at Hearts,

02:48and then losing to Celtic.

02:49That's taking a little bit of shine off their start to the season.

02:52They're at home to St Johnstone at Baton Drie on Saturday afternoon

02:56and there'll be a lot of people thinking that should be a straightforward three points.

02:59I was quite impressed by St Johnstone when I saw them in the flesh against Rangers at the weekend.

03:03They're playing a different brand of football under Simo Alakai.

03:08They play out from the back, they play some very neat triangles,

03:12and up front they have two strikers in Adam Asitaba and Benji Kempioka,

03:17whose pace and power can cause problems for any defence.

03:20And bear in mind that Aberdeen do leave gaps in the back.

03:22That could be quite an interesting match.

03:24Jimmy Tolleen, he's been very, very grounded throughout his time as Don's manager.

03:30Not getting too high and not getting too low,

03:33but he'll know that he'll require a response from his players

03:38when they take to the field against the Saints.

03:41Another manager who needs a response is Kilmarnock boss Derek MacInnes.

03:45They were beaten 6-0 by Rangers during the week.

03:48MacInnes was really unimpressive as team's second-half performance

03:52and they head on the road again, this time to Tandeyes to take on fourth-placed Dundee United,

03:57a team that not many people have talked about.

03:59They've had a great start to the season since getting a promotion to the championship there

04:03and are in a really, really good place right now.

04:06I have no doubt that MacInnes will get a reaction from his Kilmarnock team

04:09but will it be enough to get any points off a United side who are pretty marginally at the back

04:15and have got goals with them, especially with Sam Dalby.

04:17That'll be a really interesting game.

04:19The other match on Saturday is between St Mirren and Motherwell.

04:23Now, Motherwell have been on the end of two really bad defeats of late.

04:28They lost to Hibbs 3-0, a game I was at,

04:30and it was probably the worst team performance I've seen from anyone this season.

04:35You were expecting a reaction against Dundee on Wednesday

04:38and they lost 4-1.

04:40There is some pressure building on Stuart Kettlewell,

04:42who, of course, went through a wretched run of form last season only to turn it round.

04:46The Motherwell are still in the fifth place,

04:48so a lot of people would say it's premature to talk about any type of panic or crisis that far apart.

04:54But given some of their performances this season, which have not been particularly brilliant,

04:59they'll be able to go and get some sort of result and some sort of reaction

05:05because the St Mirren team are always very strong at home

05:08and motoring along quite nicely under Steven Robinson.

05:11That takes care of Saturday's card.

05:13The Sunday match is High Noon Showdown in Dingwall, Ross County against Rangers.

05:19Remember last time these two met up in the Highlands?

05:22Ross County put a spear into Rangers' title challenge.

05:26Some people would argue that Rangers have already speared their title challenge this season,

05:30and it was only in December.

05:32But I would say that Philippe Clement's team,

05:34they're a really, really good morale-boosting victory against Clement.

05:39Can you expect them to bounce up there looking for more of the same?

05:42County are a much better team at home than they are away,

05:46but they are without their number one goalkeeper, Ross Laidlaw, who's got a serious knee injury.

05:51Nevertheless, we'll learn a lot about this Rangers team this weekend,

05:55given that they have struggled for consistency in performances this season.

06:01And that game is live on Sky Sports.

06:03That concludes the premiership preview, essentially, for this weekend.

06:08We'll have all the previews, reaction and analysis across the weekend on Scotsman,

06:14across all digital and print platforms.

06:16Enjoy your football weekend.

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