Kelty Hearts and St Johnstone will meet in the fourth round of the Scottish Cup on 22 January. St Johnstone are the current cup champions but they have had a rough season so far. Could this be Kelty Hearts’ chance to pull off a major upset as they continue their march up through the leagues?
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Finding a bookmaker that offers accumulator insurance is a great way to make your accumulator bet a bit of a safer option. Instead of losing everything when one link in your betting chain lets you down, acca insurance will let you replace the losing bet with a new one.
One thing we do know for sure about the upcoming match is that restrictions have been lifted on fan attendance. Let’s take a look at how having the crowd back could affect Kelty Hearts’ performance against St Johnstone.
Their opponents
St Johnstone has had a very bad season. They are at the bottom of the league table and are on the path to relegation. This is a hard fall for a team that has spent most of the last decade in the upper middle of the table.
Fans attribute a lot of this season’s struggle to coach Callum Davidson. His inflexibility in how he approaches matches and his repetitive lineups and plays have made the team easy prey for their opponents.
This demoralisation is likely to impact how they play in the Scottish Cup. They won it last year, so the added pressure coupled with their performance this season could be enough to allow Kelty Hearts to win.
Crowd impact
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon recently announced that as of 17 January, the limit of 500 attendees at football matches would be lifted. This is obviously great news for Scottish football fans. It does mean that attendees will have to present their vaccine certification at the doors but that’s a small price to pay.
For the last couple of years, much of our sports broadcasting has included added crowd noise to make up for the silent stadiums. It always sounds a little off but silent grounds are a little unsettling too. For fans, crowd noise helps us feel connected to one another and hypes us up as we watch.
For the players on the pitch, a roaring home crowd can energise them and improve how they play. Research has even been done that shows that the home field advantage is almost solely due to crowd noise.
Kelty Hearts will be facing St Johnstone at New Central Park, their home ground. This is an exciting year for the team. It’s their first season in the Scottish Professional Football League and they look to be on track to be promoted at the end of the season.
For loyal fans of a small team, this is essentially a fairy tale come to life. An already supportive crowd is going to be even more vocal and excited, knowing how hard their team has worked this year. This level of support could give Kelty Hearts the boost they need to beat St Johnstone.
Could it be too much?
Unlike the big teams like Celtic, Rangers and Heart of Midlothian – and their opponents St Johnstone – Kelty Hearts are new to playing in a top-level competition such as the Scottish Cup. The massive crowds that Scottish Premier League matches attract will be a new experience for the team.
A massive, unfriendly crowd could have a devastating impact on an inexperienced team. St Johnstone’s home ground, McDiarmid Park, holds roughly five times as many people as Kelty Hearts’ ground does, and 10,000 people can make a whole lot more noise than 2,000 can.
Luckily for Kelty Hearts, they won’t be playing at McDiarmid Park just yet. It will be something for the coaching staff and team to keep in mind, though, if they progress in the Cup.
On 22 January, we’re going to be seeing a team from the lowest division, playing at the top of their form, up against a top tier team that has been struggling to function all season, facing off in a Cup round. It’s the sort of matchup that’s so unpredictable it’s incredibly exciting to watch.
No one expects Kelty Hearts to go all the way to the final, but this game could very well be a David and Goliath moment for the Jambos. And personally, who doesn’t love rooting for the little guys?