Celtic v Ross County Betting Tips

Celtic prepare for the New Year’s Eve Old Firm derby match against Rangers by hosting Ross County on 28th December.

Obviously Celtic are top of the league and lead the division by a staggering 14 points. There is only a six point difference between the gap from second place Rangers to Celtic as there is from Rangers to bottom side Partick Thistle. The title will once again be going to Celtic park this season – something that seems to becoming more and more predictable as the seasons go by.

The Hoops have no weaknesses in the Scottish league, as shown by the fact they have dropped points just once this season and that was a draw against Inverness Caledonian Thistle back in September. They have scored a ridiculous 47 goals, conceding just 13 in 17 matches. There is seemingly no stopping Brendan Rodgers’ side.

Unsurprisingly Celtic have a superb record at home and are on a ten-match winning streak in the league at Celtic Park. The only thing that will slightly alarm The Bhoys going into this match against Ross County will be that the highland side were the opponents the last time Celtic dropped points at home, back in April.

Ross County are actually on a pretty decent run themselves in the league at the moment with no defeats in their last six matches (at time of writing) and they recorded an impressive win against third place Aberdeen in their last match.

Whilst Celtic have little trouble in finding the back of the net, Ross County seem to struggle to score as shown by their ‘Goals For’ column which reads a paltry 19. However, they do have a striker in Liam Boyce who can take chances when presented to him – hence why he is currently the second top-scorer in the Scottish Premiership with 10 goals.

The side from Dingwall also struggle a bit defensively and have conceded a rather high 29 goals in just 18 league games.

With goal statistics like those, it is a wonder that they are not lower in the table. However, they just seem to have a habit of picking up results despite their flaws.

Going to Celtic Park is a daunting task for any team and perhaps even more so for Jim McIntyre’s team with their record on the road – The Stags have only won two matches away from the Global Energy Stadium this season.

As per usual with a Celtic match in the Scottish Premiership, they are pretty much guaranteed to win here so it is about finding a more profitable market and so firstly ‘Celtic to Win -2 Handicap’, at 11/10, is the way to go. I am a bit surprised that an odds-against price can be obtained here. Winning by a three goal margin shouldn’t be beyond the hosts, in fact this is something they’ve managed to achieve on four occasions at home this season – against side who’re arguably better than Ross County too.

However, despite that which is written above, The Bhoys have not been dishing out the highest scoring of thrashings recently and their last three matches have contained no more than three goals. Furthermore, with a massive fixture against Rangers just a couple of days later, Celtic may look to get the job done early and take their foot off the gas a bit. With this in mind, a 3-0 win looks a rather likely outcome. On this basis, at 7/5, ‘2-3 Total Goals’ is a nice addition and allows flexibility.

See Wednesday’s Premier League tips here.