Scottish Challenge Cup
The Scottish Challenge Cup begins on Tuesday, although calling it Scottish seems an extension of the truth given the tournament now includes representation from the National League (England), the Welsh Premier League, the League of Ireland and the Northern Irish Premiership. All very strange.
Like the English EFL Trophy, it’s also a competition open to the junior sides from those sides who have second string teams, although they don’t have a great record to date in the competition, and that’s our angle in this week.
Since the start of the 2017/18 season, U21 sides have played 18 matches against Scottish League opponents, with 14 of them going the way of the senior league outfit, just one draw, and three wins for the kids. We have seen similar trends in the English Cup, although not as exaggerated.
Let’s start with Cove Rangers who came up from the Highland League last season. They’ve been dominating non-league for a good while now and it was about time they stepped up, and their opening day thrashing of Edinburgh on Saturday was completely dominant. They registered 24 shots on goal to just three against in their 5-0 rout, and that was against a side expected to compete with them for the title. They take on St Johnstone U21 this week and I would have them odds-on here to be honest, so the evens generally available looks too big.
Queens Park opened the regular season well with a 1-0 win at Stirling which was well deserved, and they face arguably the toughest of the reserve sides in the shape of Celtic U21.
It’s tempting to avoid taking on the Bhoys given the strength throughout the club, but their previous exploits in this competition suggest its worth taking a chance against them.
They lost 3-1 in the first round to Annan last campaign, while Livingston beat them 5-1 in 17/18 in the 3rd round after Celtic won through 2-1 at Cowdenbeath and 5-1 against Annan. At 9/4 Queens Park deserve a chance in this one.
Continuing the theme, Elgin travel to Hibs U21, whose only previous effort in this competition was the same fixture, with Elgin winning that one 2-1 in 17/18. Elgin won well on Saturday and are expected to field a similar team, while Hibs look likely to be quite light for this one. 6/4 is decent value on the travelers.
Finally Albion Rovers take on Hearts U21 and will be looking to build on a good start to their league season which saw them win at Stenhousmuir. Hearts went down to a battle Aberdeen, but that’s probably not relevant with only a couple of the players involved in that one likely to be on show tonight. Another potential men against boys here, and the 9/5 on Albion with home advantage is surely too big to ignore.
Recommended Bets
4pts Cove Rangers to beat St Johnstone U21 at Evens (General)
1pt Albion Rovers to beat Hearts U21 at 9/5 (Betfred)
1pt Queens Park to beat Celtic U21 at 9/4 (Bet Victor)
1pt Elgin to beat Hibs U21 at 6/4 (General)