ST Mirren vs Heart Of Midlothian Prediction

Right then, let's have a proper gander at this one. The league table tells you all you need to know, really. Hearts are sitting pretty at the top, unbeaten all season with 8 wins and a draw from 9 games. That's proper championship form, that is. Meanwhile, St Mirren are down in 9th, having a right old struggle with just 2 wins to their name.

The form guide makes for even better reading if you're backing the Jambos. Hearts have been absolutely flying recently - 8 wins in their last 10 games, including some proper scalps like Celtic (3-1), Rangers (2-0 away from home), and Falkirk (3-0). They're scoring for fun too, averaging 2.3 goals per game and keeping clean sheets in half their matches.

St Mirren, bless 'em, are having a nightmare of it lately. They've lost 3 of their last 4 league games, including a 3-1 stuffing at Dundee Utd and a 1-0 loss at home to Aberdeen. At home, they're only managing 0.6 goals per game, which ain't gonna cut it against the league leaders.

The head-to-head doesn't make great reading for Mirren either. Hearts have won 4 of the 8 meetings between these two, with Mirren only managing 1 win. The last league meeting saw Hearts win 3-1, though they did draw 1-1 in the League Cup back in August.

Now, let's talk value. Hearts are 1.85 to win away from home. Given they're unbeaten, scoring 2.2 goals per game on their travels, and facing a team that's shipping goals and struggling to score themselves, that looks like decent value to me. St Mirren do draw a lot at home (60% draw rate), but against a team in this kind of form, I can't see them getting anything out of this one.

The stats back it up too - Hearts are averaging nearly 3 shots on target per game more than Mirren, and their possession stats are better as well. This looks like a straightforward away win to me.