We’ve got a jam-packed fixture list across the SPFL between now and the new year and the Premiership breaks off for a winter break so let’s get stuck right into this weekend’s acca, starting in North Lanarkshire.

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Motherwell v St Johnstone

There haven’t been any serious calls for his head yet – and who in their right mind would call for the position of the cup double winner – but Callum Davidson is undoubtedly going through the toughest spell in charge of his St Johnstone side. Goals have been a huge issue for the team that’s rooted to the bottom of the division and they should struggle at Fir Park this weekend.

They’ve managed just one strike in their last 540 minutes of football and have picked up just one win in their last 10 games – a 1-0 win at Tannadice nearly two months ago now. Even in that game, they were lucky they were playing a similarly goal-shy side and that Zander Clark played out of skin, racking up a highlight reel’s worth of saves over the 90 minutes. Looking at their form on their travels doesn’t make for much better reading either. They’ve scored just two goals in their eight matches away from Perth this season. That’s grim and is unlikely to get markedly better this weekend.

Motherwell find themselves neatly tucked in mid table and do boast a decent record against those sides at the wrong end of the table. Five of their seven wins this season have come against teams beneath them and they’ve only lost twice to sides in the bottom six this season. They’ve not done nearly as well against the few sides above them but the likes of Celtic, Rangers and Hearts posses far more quality than this injury-hit St. Johnstone side currently do. We should see Motherwell get a positive result on home soil against a St. Johnstone side who can’t buy a goal, let alone a win, just now.

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Rangers v Dundee United

Rangers will see this as the ideal opportunity to exact revenge on a Dundee United side who beat them earlier on in the season – ending their long domestic unbeaten run – with the added bonus that all three points would extend their lead over Celtic to seven points at the top of the Premiership.

This game did look to be something of a Covid-influenced doubt but at the time of writing it appears the match will go ahead despite a couple of positive tests in the Dundee United camp. United’s squad has been threadbare over the recent weeks so another set of absentees will be far from welcome for a side enduring a woeful run after such a promising start to the new campaign. Tam Courts’ men have just one win in their last eight and do look a side running out of steam thanks to having something of a lack of strength in depth and their fine margin football just going against them after weeks of narrow results going in their favour. They still find themselves in a decent spot in the table so there’s no need to head to the panic stations but a replica of the performance that earned United a 1-0 win back on the second weekend of the new season is far from likely at Ibrox this time around.

Rangers haven’t missed a beat under their new boss Gio van Bronckhorst and in fact have looked better in the seven games under the Dutchman than they did towards the end of Steven Gerrard’s reign, before he snuck out the backdoor for the middle of the Premier League. They’ve regained their defensive stability that was so key en route to winning the Premiership unbeaten last season, keeping five clean sheets in the seven matches under the former Feyenoord manager. Should United have a few more absentees due to Covid, on top of the likes of Marc McNulty, Liam Smith, Dylan Levitt and Calum Butcher who could all miss this game then I fear this could be a bit of pumping for the men from the city of discovery. Not only will Rangers be keen to get a result over the only side to have beaten them on league duty in a long time but the fact Celtic are busy on League Cup final duty this weekend means it’s a great opportunity for Rangers to stretch their lead too.

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Arbroath v Morton

Dropping down to the ever-entertaining Championship for the next selection on the acca, and Arbroath are on an absolute tear at the minute. While they may struggle beyond January with some key players set to depart, the likes of Joel Nouble and Anton Dowds are still at the club till then which is good news for us and Dick Campbell, less so for a woefully out of shape Morton.

It doesn’t appear that Morton will be able to get their new manager in charge ahead of this one after the dismissal of Gus MacPherson two weeks ago. They took a pumping from Inverness last weekend with their temporary boss Derek Anderson overseeing a 6-1 drubbing and I really wouldn’t be too surprised if we see another big score line, with Morton on the wrong end of another bad one, this time at an icy cold Gayfield.

As I mentioned, I might be a little sceptical of Arbroath maintaining their current run of form after the turn of the year with departures likely but as things stand they have just as much quality, if not more, than their four title rivals. They’re unbeaten in their last nine across all competitions and are right in amongst one of the most tightly contested title races across Europe, if not the world. Morton shouldn’t present too tough a test given the shambles they are both on and off the park at the minute and they’re likely to rack up a ninth defeat in just 18 league games in Arbroath.

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Stranraer v Kelty Hearts

Seeing as how I missed a week I thought I better make it up to you by playing the greatest hits and if there’s been one selection I’ve gone for a fair few times this season it’s for Kevin Thomson’s Kelty to get all three points.

Though Stranraer are on a fine run – three consecutive wins stopped a winless run of five prior – and there are few places colder than Stranraer in mid-December they should come unstuck against a far superior Kelty side. They’re three successive victories came against sides all currently occupying spots in the bottom four of League Two and to say there’s a gulf in quality between those sides and the one sat atop the division would be something of an understatement. The bottom end of the fourth tier does look fairly poor this season, especially when you consider some of the quality vying to take their spots in the professional pyramid and the opposite is true in Kelty.

While you can make a case for the likes of Cowdenbeath, Elgin and Albion Rovers being replaced some of the bigger spenders in the divisions beneath them making League Two (and the SPFL as a whole) stronger, Kelty shouldn’t, and won’t, be in this division for much longer. They posses quality befitting of a squad at least one if not two levels higher in the pyramid and, I’ve said it before, but their march to the title is inevitable. Worryingly for the nine sides that make up the rest of the division and most pertinently Jamie Hamill’s Stranraer, the division’s top scorer Nathan Austin has got himself out of a mini scoring drought. He bagged two in Kelty’s 6-1 win over Albion Rovers last weekend taking his tally to 10 for the league season (four clear of anyone else) and ended a run of six scoreless games for the former Falkirk forward. He could fill his boots again this weekend in what should be a fairly comfortable Kelty win to maintain their title as the only unbeaten men’s side across the senior leagues in UK football for another week at least.

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