Stenhousemuir
- Stenhousemuir have hit top gear ahead of this match and are on a five-game winning run after two consecutive wins, starting with a 4-0 hammering of Greenock Morton in the Scottish FA Cup and a 2-0 success away at Kelty Hearts in League One.
- Gary Naysmith has his players playing a patient and disciplined mid-block, which is hard for opponents to break down and allows his side to exploit the flanks on the counter-attack.
- The hosts are currently sitting second in the table, having accumulated 40 points from 22 matches and they’ve been rock solid at the top end of the table all season.
- Naysmith’s side have the best home record in the division (W6, D4, L1) and score an average of 1.73 goals per home league match, conceding just 0.64.
Peterhead
- The Blue Toon’s form book makes for grim reading as they come into this clash with no wins, two draws and three defeats from their last five outings, the most recent being a 2-3 defeat to Hamilton Academical at home and a 0-0 draw away at Montrose.
- The visitors are a direct side, preferring to press high up the field and look to win the ball back early, playing at tempo and getting forward in numbers.
- Jordon Brown, alongside co-manager Ryan Strachan, oversees an energetic and aggressive style of soccer, although Peterhead have lacked firepower away from home this season.
Head-to-Head
- Stenhousemuir have won two of the last three H2H matches, beating Peterhead 4-1 in the last meeting two months ago.
- Peterhead have failed to win on their last two visits to Stenhousemuir.
Key Players
- Euan O’Reilly is Stenhousemuir’s main man up front, the number 10 has scored seven goals in 19 League One appearances this season.
- Kieran Shanks leads the way for Peterhead in the scoring charts with eight goals in 20 league appearances, however, they have only scored seven times in their nine away league games this term (W3, L6).
Betting Insights
- Stenhousemuir are the narrow favorites at 2.17, while Peterhead are a massive 3.08!
- Both teams to score is also quite short at 1.96, so we’re going to give Over 2.5 Goals a try at 1.94 here as both of these teams like to cause havoc in transition.
Prediction
The game of chess between Naysmith’s disciplined structure and Peterhead’s aggressive press should be interesting to watch and the tempo of the game could be a deciding factor, although we think Stenhousemuir will edge it .
