Motherwell v Hearts: Home side boast psychological advantage tonight

Tonight we’ll see Ladbrokes Premiership heavyweights Motherwell and Heart of Midlothian come head-to-head, with both sides knowing that a win will put them into second in the table, albeit temporarily.

And as Fir Park prepares to welcome Hearts in the first Premiership match of the weekend, they’ll do so with a psychological advantage over their opponents at home.

That’s because the visitors haven’t won in these parts for almost five years, and while Motherwell are priced at 3/1 to take all three points, there’s plenty of reason to get on the home side.

Unbeaten in their last four after a shaky start which saw them pick up just three points from their opening trio of games, Mark McGhee’s men are finally starting to click as a unit.

And the last time the Steelmen played at home, ex-Wrexham striker Louis Moult netted a staggering four goals. The 24-year-old opened the scoring in this fixture last year after just two minutes, and he’s ODDS to do the same again tonight.

It’s a gradual process, but Well are slowly turning things around. While they suffered two defeats on the bounce earlier in the season, they’ve since came from behind on two occasions to earn precious points away at Ross County and Partick Thistle.

The next step in the process is turning those draws into wins, and what better place to start than at home against a side who struggle at Fir Park?

While the visitors are 17/20 favourites to take three points back to Edinburgh with them, a statistic which may be of concern to fans is that their side have not only failed to score in their last two outings, they’ve had 32 chances to do so.

An optimistic supporter would argue that this means a goal is due, and they’re facing a side notorious for their leaky defence. You’d also have to go back to the 2012-13 campaign to find the last time Hearts managed three consecutive games without a goal.

Given that these two are fairly evenly matched, the value has to be in the home side winning at 3/1.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing