With the first knockout stage of the League Cup upon us, there’s a broken up SPFL fixture list with the Championship and Premiership taking a breather but there’s still plenty of action across Leagues One and Two, as well as the Premier Sports Cup. I’ve picked out some of my favourite selections for this weekend with picks from across both the league and cup competitions. 

It was a mixed week for Scottish sides in Europe so I’ve avoided any of the five that had continental midweek duties just to avoid any big upsets like last weekend, like Dundee United beating Rangers or Celtic keeping a clean sheet.

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Airdrie v Falkirk

Despite League Cup campaigns that suggested these two might be in for different starts to the League One campaign than they’ve both recorded, Falkirk look a side on cloud nine but that same can’t be said of the hosts.

Airdrie racked up a strong League Cup group stage set of results, beating Motherwell and doing the same to Queen’s Park on penalties but they’ve not managed to keep that run going into the new season. There have been murmurings of discontent amongst the Airdrie faithful after a 3-0 walloping at home to Montrose and then the self-combustion at Dumbarton last weekend. They were in complete control of the game, 2-0 up but a silly second yellow for Sam Wardrop and the Airdrie players losing their heads let Dumbarton back into a game they should have never got a point from. But they threw the points away and now find themselves joint bottom of the table, and even at such an early stage it’s far from ideal for Ian Murray’s side.

They aren’t too likely to rocket off the bottom of the table this weekend either. Falkirk are flying with Paul Sheerin bringing a feel-good factor to a club that has been sorely lack just that for a long time. They’ve dominated each of the four games they’ve actually played this season with the possible exception of the defeat to Championship Hamilton. A three of Craig McGuffie, Aidan Nesbitt and Calumn Morrison, one I flagged up during pre-season, looks so dangerous and capable of ripping sides to shreds this year. There’s talent around them too and they should have too much for Airdrie this weekend, even if they may not have quite all their own way at the Excelsior.

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Cove Rangers v East Fife

To say Cove had a difficult start to the season is something of an understatement, they’ve faced the other two sides that are favourites for the division alongside themselves. They’ve not been awful in either game against Queen’s Park or Falkirk but picking up a single point from the six available does dent their title credentials somewhat.

A first half red card at Queen’s Park last Saturday really took the steam from their sails and they were beaten by a strong Spiders side. They should be capable of recording a first League One win of the new season this weekend though. Particularly on home turf. These two actually met on the opening day of the last campaign in Aberdeen, with Cove running out 3-1 winners. They’ve built an even stronger side with the likes of Iain Vigurs and Shay Logan adding quality, and some highly thought of young signings adding some much-needed depth too.

As for East Fife, they’ve had far from an easy start to the season themselves, facing relegated Alloa and promoted Queen’s Park. Though a point from those two games isn’t an awful showing, their four games in the League Cup are the bigger cause for concern, where they lost to two League Two outfits in the shape of Kelty Hearts and Elgin. Two goals in the space of a minute cost them last weekend and I’d be surprised to see them put up a better fight this weekend against a Cove side that does look stronger than Alloa in my eyes.

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Forfar v Kelty Hearts

The final league game I’ll look at this weekend takes us down a division to League Two and I’m expecting Kelty to record another win against one of the better sides in the division, just as they did last weekend in beating Stirling 3-1 away from home.

Kelty were so comfortable in that win against a side expected to be one of their nearest challengers and if that win is anything to go by it should be a fairly comfortable season for Kelty Hearts en route to the League Two title, in the same way it was for runaway winners Queen’s Park last season. I think it should be for Kevin Thompson’s men. I feel like I’m repeating myself, not just on previous times I’ve mentioned Kelty but there are certainly comparisons to be drawn with Queen’s Park last season. Kelty’s squad has a decent amount of quality that could be playing at least a level, if not two, higher (they’ll be there soon enough) and it really shows. The likes of Joe Cardle, Jamie Barjonas, Tam O’Ware and Jordan Forster are all capable Championship players and should be able to get past Forfar with little issue. Forfar have started the season incredibly well after relegation from the third tier and have only tasted defeat just once thus far, a 5-2 League Cup pasting at Dundee. There’s an acceptance in the Forfar camp that they’re the underdogs for this one but that’s not to say they’ll be steamrollered here. They’ve got a talented squad that looks capable of challenging at the upper end of the division, though Kelty are simply a step above.

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Dundee v Motherwell

Switching focus to the League Cup for my final preview and Dundee will be keen to bounce back after a very difficult trip to Parkhead last weekend. They took a very sore one at the hands of a rampant Celtic and were utterly pumped 6-0. Games like that need not define their season, with these sorts of games against Motherwell a fer better barometer of success for James McPake’s men.

They’re just two games away from a trip to Hampden, and Motherwell are likely to be one of the sides contending for points in the bottom six of the Premiership this season. Dundee had been going fairly well until they met Kyogo Furuhashi and his Celtic team mates so there’s still reasons to be cheerful at Dens despite the half dozen goals conceded without reply. They have shown themselves to be a far from solid side at the back already this season, conceding twice to each of their last three opponents in the shape of Celtic, St. Mirren and Forfar. They do possess a fairly talented and dangerous pool of forwards that should be able to cause Motherwell some issues at the other end though.

Motherwell have shown in their two league games, against better sides than Dundee in St. Johnstone and Hibs, that they can carve out decent opportunities. They scored twice against Hibs and probably could have had more and in Zander Clark they met a keeper in fine form and had St. Johnstone had a lesser stopper between the sticks then Motherwell could’ve had three of four, but Clark was imperious. These are two sides who look dangerous going forward and ropey at the back over both the League Cup and Premiership so far this season, I suspect it will be more of the same as they meet at Dens this weekend.

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18+ please gamble responsibly. All odds displayed correct at the time of publishing.

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