Motherwell v Hearts

Motherwell vs Hearts Preview

Motherwell will be hoping it's a case of third time lucky as Sunday afternoon's hosts seek their first win of this new Scottish Premiership season when they play host to Hearts at Fir Park following a draw and a loss, while Hearts will be looking to bounce back from their Europa League loss in midweek to Czech Republic outfit Viktoria Plzen when they make their way over to Fir Park.

Motherwell picked up a point on the opening day of the Scottish Premiership season thanks to a 0-0 stalemate at home with Ross County but they then slipped to a 2-1 defeat away from home at Rangers last time out, so the hosts will be keen to get themselves off the mark here on Sunday afternoon.

The ‘Well ended last season's domestic top flight campaign in eighth place in the final standings of the regular Premiership season and although this meant they had to drop down into the Relegation Round group, the hosts safely avoided relegation despite being handed back-to-back defeats towards the end of the campaign with losses incurred against Hibernian and St Johnstone.

The bigger picture shows Motherwell have managed to collect just six wins in their last 20 matches in the Premiership along with winning just once in their last seven home games at Fir Park but the goals market is attractive here as five of Motherwell's last seven home games have resulted in both teams scoring.

Hearts have established themselves as the ‘best of the rest' in the Scottish Premiership behind Celtic and Rangers and The Jambos duly achieved a third place finish at the end of the second phase of last season in the Championship Round group which earned the Edinburgh side a place in this season's Europa League.

However, the visitors have now failed to win any of their last nine matches in all competitions which includes being handed no fewer than six defeats within this period, so the prospects of an away win here for Steven Naismith's side looks fairly unlikely.

At the time of writing, Hearts also find themselves facing a 1-0 deficit in the Europa League to Viktoria Plzen following their 1st leg defeat at the Doosan Aréna in midweek and the visitors may understandably have one eye on that 2nd leg tie as they seek to secure a place in the group stage of that competition.

On the domestic front, Hearts were also involved in a 0-0 stalemate in their opening game of the new Premiership season at home with Rangers but they were then dealt a 3-1 loss on the road at Dundee.

However, six of Hearts' last 10 away games have also produced goals for both teams as well.

Motherwell v Hearts Verdict

Both Motherwell and Hearts look capable of scoring and conceding in equal measure here!

Therefore, our main bet will be BTTS Yes @ 1.61

Other side bets worth considering:

Draw @ 3.40

Correct Score: 1-1 @ 6.50