Highlands League side Brechin City welcome Scottish Premiership outfit Livingston to Glebe Park on Saturday afternoon for their opening match in the League Cup group stages.
The hosts head into this encounter after losing 4-1 to Dundee United in a pre-season friendly last weekend, while the visitors won both of their warm-up games 3-0 and 4-0 against East Stirlingshire and Arbroath respectively.
Match preview
For the first time in 67 years, Brechin City will not be competing in the SPFL, following their 3-1 defeat on aggregate to Kelty Hearts in the League Two playoff final, which confirmed their relegation to the Highlands League.
Player-coach Michael Paton has since left the club with former Hearts Women's manager Andy Kirk appointed as his replacement.
The 42-year-old is tasked with guiding City – who were in the Championship just five years ago – back into the fourth tier of Scottish football at the first attempt, but he must first turn his attention to the League Cup, with four games in 10 days to prepare for.
Brechin have failed to win any of their last nine meetings against Livingston, and although a victory on Saturday is unlikely, Kirk will be hoping that his side can at least put up at fight and begin the new campaign with a positive performance.
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Livingston head into the 2021-22 campaign after accumulating their highest points total in their top-flight history last season – finishing in sixth place – and also reaching the League Cup final at Hampden Park.
The Lions were unable to win the competition for the first time since 2004, as they lost 1-0 St Johnstone in February.
Head coach David Martindale was not in charge of Livingston during the group stages last season – in which the Lions scored 15 goals and won all four of their matches – but he is hoping that his side can replicate that form this term and reach the latter stages of the League Cup once again.
Livingston last faced Brechin in the Championship five years ago, where they won three and drew one of their four encounters, scoring at least twice on each occasion.
The Lions will fancy their chances of claiming all three points on Saturday, as they look to begin the new campaign on a high.
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Team News
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Brechin City's defender Iain Davidson, who joined the club from Raith Rovers this summer, is unavailable for the next two matches due to suspension, after being found guilty of using discriminatory language towards Inverness striker Nikolay Todorov in March.
With only 10 senior players available to play this weekend, Kirk is set to name a number of trialists in his squad, with a few likely to feature.
Experienced forward Garry Woods, who has joined from Formartine United, is expected to lead the line up front alongside Rory Currie.
As for Livingston, goalkeeper Max Stryjek is set to replace Norwich City loanee Daniel Barden, who started the last pre-season friendly against Arbroath.
One of Jackson Longridge, Adam Lewis or Jack McMillan is likely to play at left-back, while Tom Parkes could make his competitive debut for the Lions at centre-back alongside Jack Fitzwater.
With forward Jay Emmanuel-Thomas leaving the club to join Aberdeen, Bruce Anderson has made the switch in the opposite direction and is set to start up front on Saturday.
Brechin City possible starting lineup:
Wills; Trialist, Bollan, Jordan, Docherty; Paton, Mackintosh, Inglis, Cox; Wood, Currie
Livingston possible starting lineup:
Stryjek; Devlin, Fitzwater, Parkes, Longridge; Bartley, Holt; Forrest, Pittman, Kabia; Anderson
We say: Brechin City 0-3 Livingston
With four divisions separating Brechin City and Livingston, Saturday's fixture will strongly favour the Premiership visitors.
Livingston have found their form in front of goal during pre-season and we expect them to continue with another convincing performance and victory at Glebe Park.
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 Livingston win with a probability of 85.03%. A draw had a probability of 10.3% and a win for Brechin City had a probability of 4.62%.
The most likely scoreline for a Livingston win was 0-2 with a probability of 12.4%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 0-3 (12.38%) and 0-4 (9.28%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (4.92%), while for a Brechin City win it was 1-0 (1.64%). The actual scoreline of 0-3 was predicted with a 12.4% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Livingston would win this match.
