Hamilton vs Motherwell Prediction, Betting Tips & Preview

Preview

Jon Tait Mar 01, 2016 @ 01:29 pm

With both Hamilton Accies and Motherwell battling to keep themselves above the relegation zone, you can expect a few fireworks at New Douglas Park.

The Accies took a superb point off leaders Celtic last time out to give themselves a boost – and keep the South Lanarkshire side two points clear of Kilmarnock in the relegation play-off spot.

But manager Martin Canning knows that it’s no good putting in a good shift against the Parkhead side and then letting standards drop for the teams in and around them in the scrap to retain top-flight status.

Canning thought his side were excellent against the leaders and told the club’s official website: “In the first 20 minutes Celtic probably dominated the ball, but they didn’t really create anything and that was something we knew we had to withstand in the first ten or 15 minutes.”

“The boys worked ever so hard and on another day we might have won it, or may have lost the game, so a point was probably a fair result and we would have taken it before the game.”

Accies goalkeeper Michael McGovern was beaten by a Leigh Griffiths penalty but pulled off a second spot-kick save to keep the scoreline at 1-0 and sub Eammon Brophy rescued a point with a 73^rd minute strike.

Motherwell boss Mark McGhee switched to three up front for the Steelmen’s 3-1 success against Partick Thistle and he’ll probably stick to that formation after the win that took them up to eighth.

“The starting point for the way we played was really about Marvin Johnson and feeling we were not getting the ball to him well enough and quick enough,” he told the club’s official website.

“The boy’s attitude is unbelievable and he was getting battered, and I didn’t feel he was getting a lot of protection from referees. So I felt I had to take him out the left-hand side but I wasn’t going to put him in a wide area because I wanted to free him up a bit. So we went to the three.”

“When you play three players like that up front they have got to make it work. You can work in training but you can really only show them the defensive side of where we want them to drop back into, but in terms of the attacking side, they have got to make it work. The three of them were terrific and that was the key to it.”

Strike partner Louis Moult profited from the tactical change by hitting a double – including one from the spot – with Johnson putting the other into the back of the net.

The sides drew 3-3 when they last met back in January and there could be chances aplenty at both ends again in this one so getting a bet on both sides to score looks a good option with the bookies finding the two sides hard to separate in the match result odds.

Hamilton Accies Recent Form LDWDLD

Motherwell Recent Form DLLWLW

Head-to-Head record:

02/01/2016 Motherwell 3 Hamilton Accies 3

19/09/2015 Hamilton Accies 1 Motherwell 0

24/04/2015 Hamilton Accies 2 Motherwell 0

20/03/2015 Motherwell 4 Hamilton Accies 0

01/01/2015 Hamilton Accies 5 Motherwell 0

Possible Line-ups

Hamilton Accies (4-1-4-1) – McGovern, Gordon, Devlin, De Lima, Kurakins, Lyon, Imrie, MacKinnon, Morris, Crawford, Kurtaj.

Motherwell (4-3-3) – Ripley, Laing, Hall, McManus, Hammell, Cadden, Lasley, Pearson, Johnson, McDonald, Moult.

Injuries/ Suspension

Hamilton Accies: none.

Motherwell: none.

League Positions