Seeking their first points in this season's Scottish Premiership, Livingston travel to Easter Road to face high-flying Hibernian on Saturday.
The hosts are sitting top of the table with seven points from their three league matches, while the visitors are rock bottom after three successive defeats.
Match preview
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Despite suffering a disappointing exit from the Europa League qualification stage, Hibernian have had a strong start to their domestic campaign.
Their 100% record in the Premiership, however, was ended last weekend as they drew 2-2 away at newly-promoted Dundee.
After Jason Cummings had given Dundee an early lead, Martin Boyle's 39th-minute penalty and a strike from Ryan Porteous in the 59th minute turned the game on its head for Hibs. However, they were unable to hold on as Paul McGowan headed in the equaliser seven minutes from time.
Hibs are realistically competing to be the best of the rest behind Glasgow giants Rangers and Celtic and they have been living up to that expectation since Jack Ross took the reins in November 2019. Since Ross's first league game in charge, Hibs have earned 95 points in 59 Premiership games, behind only Rangers (144) and Celtic (132) in this period.
The Edinburgh outfit have an inconsistent record in recent meetings against Livingston, alternating between victory, a draw and defeat in their last six encounters.
Hibernian won the last clash between the two sides in April, securing a 2-1 victory on home soil, and another triumph this weekend will see them claim successive league wins against the Lions for the first time since 2005-06.
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Livingston's poor start to the new campaign continued when they suffered a 2-1 home defeat against Motherwell last weekend.
The Lions were in front at half time after Alan Forrest found the net in the 38th minute. However, the Steelmen responded quickly in the second half with Tony Watt equalising three minutes after the break, before the comeback was complete thanks to Liam Grimshaw's 79th-minute strike.
Head coach David Martindale highlighted a missed chance from Nicky Devlin and some poor defending as the reasons for their third successive loss in the top flight. That result leaves Livi rock bottom of the table and the only team who are yet to claim a single point.
Including results from the backend of last season, Livingston are winless in nine league matches, suffering defeat on seven occasions. The last side to start a Premiership campaign with defeats in each of their opening four games were Dundee in 2018-19.
The Lions managed to claim all three points from one of ther league trips to Easter Road last season, comfortably winning 3-0 in January, and Martindale will be hoping for a similar performance on Saturday.
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Team News
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Hibs will be hoping to have Kevin Nisbet available this weekend after the striker missed the draw with Dundee due to illness.
Fellow frontman Christian Doidge, however, is set for a lengthy spell on the sidelines after picking up an Achilles injury, joining Melker Hallberg (knee), Chris Cadden (thigh) and Sean Mackie (foot) on the treatment table.
Ross is not expected to make too many changes to his starting lineup, with defensive quartet Paul McGinn, Porteous, Darren McGregor and Josh Doig all set to start again in the back four, shielding goalkeeper Matt Macey.
As for Livingston, they will still be without left-back Jack McMillan and winger Jaze Kabia who are unavailable with long-term knee injuries.
Club captain Marvin Bartley could be set to make his first appearance of the season following the end of his suspension, though he is more likely to start on the bench, with Jason Holt, Scott Pittman and Craig Sibbald all set to play again in midfield.
Forrest, who has scored in each of the last two games, should keep his place on the left wing, joining Bruce Anderson and Odin Bailey in a three-man attack.
Hibernian possible starting lineup:
Macey; McGinn, Porteous, McGregor, Doig; Doyle-Hayes, Gogic; Boyle, Magennis, Murphy; Nisbet
Livingston possible starting lineup:
Stryjek; Devlin, Fitzwater, Obileye, Longridge; Holt, Pittman, Sibbald; Bailey, Anderson, Forrest
We say: Hibernian 2-0 Livingston
If Hibernian have Nisbet fit to start in attack, then the hosts will look much stronger in the final third and should cause Livingston problems on Saturday.
Ross's men are in good form, unlike their opponents, and we feel that a routine home victory is on the cards at Easter Road.
Top tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Hibernian win with a probability of 53.55%. A draw had a probability of 26.5% and a win for Livingston had a probability of 19.94%.
The most likely scoreline for a Hibernian win was 1-0 with a probability of 15.4%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-0 (11.35%) and 2-1 (8.91%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (12.08%), while for a Livingston win it was 0-1 (8.2%). The actual scoreline of 2-0 was predicted with an 11.4% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Hibernian would win this match.
