Two teams looking to end pitiful spells of form in the Scottish Premiership will lock horns on Wednesday afternoon as St Johnstone play host to Hamilton Academical.
Both sides came up short in their Boxing Day fixtures, with Callum Davidson's men losing 2-1 at Aberdeen while Hamilton were put to the sword by Celtic.
Match preview
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St Johnstone's form is becoming all the more concerning for Davidson, who witnessed his side fall to their fourth successive league defeat at the weekend.
Aberdeen fell behind to Liam Gordon's header, but the high-flyers soon restored parity through Sam Cosgrove's penalty on the stroke of half time before Ash Taylor propelled Aberdeen to victory against a struggling St Johnstone outfit.
Davidson's side are now winless in the top flight since a 1-0 triumph over Kilmarnock on November 6 - a run of seven games without victory in the Scottish Premiership - and St Johnstone are edging ever closer to the bottom two heading into the New Year.
Only three points separate St Johnstone and Hamilton in the table heading into Wednesday's bout, and while Hamilton do have a game in hand, the hosts are unlikely to be overtaken given their superior goal difference.
Brian Rice's visitors were no match for Celtic in spite of the champions' recent woes, with Odsonne Edouard, Leigh Griffiths and David Turnbull all finding the back of the net against Hamilton on Boxing Day.
Rice was without 10 players for that encounter owing to injuries, suspensions and coronavirus, but the Hamilton manager was quick to praise his team's "magnificent" effort under challenging circumstances.
However, Hamilton's plethora of absentees is doing them no favours in their fight to climb away from danger, with this week's visitors currently occupying the relegation playoff spot ahead of their trip to St Johnstone.
No team has shipped more goals than Hamilton's 45 in the current campaign, although Rice's men did keep clean sheets in their most recent victories over Ross County and Kilmarnock.
St Johnstone have come up trumps in their last three meetings with Hamilton, including a 5-3 thriller when the sides met most recently back in October.
St Johnstone Scottish Premiership form: DDLLLL
St Johnstone form (all competitions): DLWLLL
Hamilton Academical Scottish Premiership form: DWLWLL
Team News
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St Johnstone lost Scott Tanser to injury after only five minutes against Aberdeen, and the left-back will cede his place to Callum Booth for the visit of Hamilton.
Callum Hendry picked up two yellow cards in quick succession in the weekend's defeat and will not be available for this one either.
However, Michael O'Halloran and Jason Kerr are both back from suspensions of their own for this encounter, with the latter likely to return to the defence in place of Shaun Rooney.
Hamilton would have been able to welcome Ross Callachan back from a ban for this one too, but the striker was one of the COVID-related absentees against Celtic.
Scott Martin and Nathan Thomas are sidelined for the same reason, while goalkeeper Ryan Fulton is the latest to join a long list of absentees which includes Will Collar, David Templeton, Marios Ogkmpoe and Shaun Want.
St Johnstone possible starting lineup:
Clark; McCart, Kerr, Gordon; McNamara, McCann, Craig, Davidson, Booth; Kane, May
Hamilton Academical possible starting lineup:
Gourlay; Easton, Hamilton, Martin; Hodson, Hughes, Odoffin, McMann; Mimnaugh, Munro; Moyo
We say: St Johnstone 1-0 Hamilton Academical
Hamilton's lengthy list of absentees has hit them hard in recent weeks, and despite winning at Ross County a couple of weeks ago, Rice's men are notoriously poor away from home. St Johnstone will view this game as a perfect opportunity to create some breathing space between themselves and the bottom two, so we expect Davidson's men to extend their lead over Hamilton to six points with a narrow win on Wednesday.
Top betting tip
Ben Knapton
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a St Johnstone win with a probability of 48.51%. A draw had a probability of 27% and a win for Hamilton Academical had a probability of 24.45%.
The most likely scoreline for a St Johnstone win was 1-0 with a probability of 13.71%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-0 (9.7%) and 2-1 (8.91%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (12.6%), while for a Hamilton Academical win it was 0-1 (8.91%). The actual scoreline of 0-0 was predicted with a 9.7% likelihood.
