Kilmarnock v Aberdeen
Football : Scottish Premier League
Saturday 03/12/2011 - Kickoff 15.00 (local)

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Kilmarnock

Kilmarnock moved up to 7th place in the SPL after their big home win last week against league leaders Rangers in the Sunday fixture. Not only has it kept the title race interesting but the 3pts keep Kilmarnock in the race for the top 6 spots before the split later in the season.

There is no doubt Killie firmly parked the bus against Rangers but it was impressive how they kept their concentration for 90mins and in the end limited Rangers to relatively few chances in the entire match. It has to be said though that they created very little in the way of chances themselves and they were rather lucky to get the goal when it came.

Killie suffered a couple of injuries to key midfielders Buijis and Kelly in last weeks match and will have to play this match without them but apart from that Kenny Shiels has a full squad to choose from.

Possible Kilmarnock lineup : (4-4-2)
Bell, Fowler, Sissoko, Pascali, McKeown, Harkins, Hay, Silva, Dayton, Sheils, Heffernan

Aberdeen

There was a time when the Dandie Don's fans used to chant, "We are the famous Aberdeen" nowadays you are more likely to hear the opposition fans chanting, "You're not famous anymore"....

Aberdeen really are in the middle of a desperate downturn and now find themselves just 1pt off the bottom of the league and winless in their last 4 games. In fact Aberdeen have only managed to win 3 games all season, draw 4 and have lost 8. This is not really the run of results that Craig Brown was hoping for when he joined from high flying Motherwell.

He is facing a massive selection problem for this game too. Apparently Arnason, Fallon, Jack, Vernon and Fyvie are all rated as doubtful and are going to be given till the last minute to prove their fitness. I reckon they really need them all to play as they are certainly Aberdeen's best players.


Possible Aberdeen lineup : (4-4-2)
Gonzalez, Foster, Considine, Mawene, Jack, Milsom, Osbourne, Pawlett, Mackie, Magennis, Vernon

THE BETTING VERDICT

I am tempted to just take a Kilmarnock win here at reasonable odds of around 2.20 but to be honest I'm not really confident Kilmarnock can achieve back to back home wins in the league. Also with the doubt surrounding the Aberdeen players its a bit risky as with these players playing I think Aberdeen can match Kilmarnock.

I fancy Killie will go back to their more open and attacking style of play for this match and I have a feeling it will produce some goals so for me I will be backing over 2.5 goals to be scored at odds of around evens.

6 out of 10 home matches for Kilmarnock this season have gone over 2.5 goals and a massive 8 out the last 10 matches Aberdeen have played have gone over and this encourages me.

The Pick :

Kilmarnock 2-1 Aberdeen

PERCENTAGE ESTIMATE :

Kilmarnock 45% - Draw 35% - Aberdeen 30%

FIXED ODDS BETTING :

Main Bet:
Over 2.5 goals to be scored at odds of 2.05