Scottish Premiership PREVIEW 29 Aug 2026: Celtic come back from Linz, Hearts back from Vienna, and two clubs still waiting for a win

Celtic host Falkirk at Celtic Park with a European exit three days behind them. They were beaten 5-1 away at LASK Linz in the Champions League play-off on Wednesday, which ended their qualification, and Martin O'Neill has spoken about the disappointment lingering and about needing character on the return to domestic football. His team news is the worst on this card: seven players ruled out and four more doubtful, with several calls going to the last. Falkirk arrive from a goalless draw with Motherwell, which is a different kind of week entirely — no travel, no five goals conceded, and a manager picking from what he had last Saturday.

Heart of Midlothian against St Johnstone at Tynecastle comes after the opposite European night. Hearts reached the Conference League league phase on Wednesday by drawing 2-2 with SK Rapid in Vienna and winning the shootout 4-3, having played the last three quarters of an hour and all of extra time with ten men. It cost them Tom Renaud, who was stretchered off early with an ankle injury and was afterwards in a moon boot and on crutches; he is due a scan, is expected to miss at least the next three matches, and Wouter Vrancken has confirmed he is out of this one. Hearts have also added a striker in the window, described locally as a player getting a second chance at a Tynecastle move.

Kilmarnock against Dundee United at Rugby Park is the fixture where the pressure is simplest: neither club has won in the league this season. Dundee United are the ones carrying the longer run, winless in seven league matches, three drawn and four lost, and they arrive from losing the Dundee derby to their city rivals after Celtic had knocked them out of the Premier Sports Cup. Kilmarnock's cup went better — they came through a five-goal Ayrshire derby with Ayr United to reach the quarter-finals, where Aberdeen visit Rugby Park.

For Falkirk and St Johnstone the value of a Saturday like this is the venue as much as the opponent, and for Hearts it is a question of what a Thursday-to-Saturday turnaround leaves behind: eight Scottish Cups and a league championship last won in 1959-60 do not help with a squad that finished Wednesday with ten men on the pitch. Celtic have the deepest cabinet in the country and the shortest list of available players this weekend, which is the sort of week that makes a domestic fixture worth watching rather than assuming.