GOALS TO BE IN SHORT SUPPLY AT TYNECASTLE

Backing Celtic has proved to be very profitable in recent months as the Hoops turned around a stuttering start to their season to take a firm grip on the title race and set up a potential treble winning season by progressing to the final of the League Cup and the quarter final of the Scottish FA Cup

At the same time their only serious rivals Rangers are falling apart both on and seemingly off the pitch. This is a nightmare scenario for Rangers fans but an incredibly satisfying one for Celtic supporters and their next fixture is away to Hearts on Wednesday night where they'll try to win their 16th domestic fixture on the spin

However, this is one of the more difficlut venues for Celtic to visit and they lost here 0-2 early in the season already. Hearts are always highly motivated for the visit of Celtic and have only conceeded 9 goals at home all season from 12 matches. They've also managed to avoid defeat to Celtic in 10 of their last 20 encounters home & away, which is very impressive and Celtic have only won here 3 times in their last 8 visits

When you factor in the hostile home support for the visit of Celtic there's no reason to doubt the difficulty they will face in attempting to continue their winning sequence and it has to come to an end at some stage, somehwere, or does it??

If Celtic were available at around evens I'd probably back them but their odds of 1.73 are poor giving the factors involved in a game like this so instead I'm drawn to the over/under 2.5 goals market and I'm predicting it will stay under this market, so any result involving 2 or fewer goals gives us a winning return - regardless of the actual result

I feel this is a game that Celtic won't force and whilst they'll try to control the possession they won't be bombing forward and leaving gaps for Hearts to exploit. Hearts will know they're up against it here though and I doubt they'll force the game either so we could see a tight game with few chances, unless offcourse we get an early goal

When you factor in the time of year as well and the almost artic conditions in Scotland weather wise then this could be a low scoring encounter and this draws me to opting for the under 2.5 goals market

Another stat that points me towards few goals is only 3 of the last 8 fixtures between these 2 on this ground have finished with 3 or more goals and both of their encounters this season to date have finished under as well so I'm backing this trend to continue

No more than 2 goals is my pick here... Good Luck

1

Supporters

1. luckygirl34

Posted on: 05.02.2012, 22.45 CET (Viewed: 391 times)
Match starts on: February 08, 2012

8/10 on Under 2.50 at 1.80 with Skybet (Total Goals)

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