Lots of negative posts and threads on here just now about our performances in games, lack of fire power up front and the criticism of both board and manager. So how about looking forwards?

 

3rd in the table and unbeaten 2015 with 6 games to the split, how do people feel we are positioned. Realistically we will be in the top 6 post split, but can we maintain 3rd?

 

28/02 - Well (A)

TBC - D Utd (H)

21/03 - P.Thistle (A)

04/04 - Dundee (H)

08/04 - Dons (A)

11/04 - Celtic (H)

 

Tough games away to Partick and Aberdeen who are both teams we have struggled with this year, then the home games against a Celtic side who keep improving and Dundee Utd fighting with us for that 3rd/4th place.

 

I think we are capable of wins against both Dundee clubs and Motherwell with the prospect of taking something against PT. In all honesty beating Celtic and loosing to the Dons wouldnt be a surprise. Realistically 9 points from that 18 would be a good haul going into the split.

Our remaining 11 fixtures will all be difficult! 6 of them are against the top teams in the country (Celtic x2, Aberdeen x2, Dundee United x2).

And Partick away remains the 'missing link' in our 'full set' of home-and-away' wins against top-flight opponents in the league.  

Motherwell away on Saturday is still a hard match, despite their difficulties - we don't have a great recent record there, losing 10 of our last 14 at Fir Park.

I think I had Motherwell down for a euro spot before the season started! I'm away to find that pre-season thread where Kingsmills asked us to forecast the finishing positions - I hope I can still edit it!

It's tough at the top! By definition, being in the top 6 means we'll have a hard set of fixtures coming up - the fact that we end the pre-spit fixtures with United, Aberdeen and Celtic just adds spice to the mix. What it means is that where we finish is entirely in our own hands - win them all and we might well be champions!

DU home to Partick, away to us and Celtic, home to County then a derby and home to Hamilton. Going on their current form I can see them only picking up 8 pts from those games.

 

ICT away Motherwell, home DU, away Partick, home Dundee, away Aberdeen, home Celtic. Realistically I see 8 pts from these which would put us into the split still 7 above DU.

 

For me third is what we hold onto and anything else is a bonus.

Sorry but we have the clear capability to come third and get to the Cup Final dependent on the draw. BUT does our meagre squad have the stamina to last the course. They are giving their all at the moment and have been for weeks. And lo and behold that means trying to avoid injuries at training etc. and being disciplined (both on and OFF the pitch).

Would love to see the stats for cards month to month this season - perhaps I am wrong. Perhaps we are trying too hard ?

I mentioned this in a another thread but Dundee UTD will miss two weeks with cup commitments. Now we will also miss those weeks because of the cup and the fact we were supposed to play them when they face Celtic at Hampden but they have to face them three times. If they take a battering in any of them then there morale is going to be shot especially if it is in the cup final. The weekend we should have played them we won't be involved and so from Raith a week sat we get a two week break so if the players are feeling fatigued then it may be a nice break for them to recharge the batteries. We then then face Partick who we know are our bogey side but if we can perform like in the cup and this time actually kill it then Utd face Celtic at Parkhead same day so we may go further ahead.  They have to travel north in that rearranged fixture so although we worried that we may burn out and miss out on Europe we still hold all the aces and we still remain unbeaten. I did see one post on another thread that said we may not get by the first qualifying round so it may not be a bad thing to miss out. Maybe we will get knocked out but we are the same if better that St Johnstone and they have had a few mini adventures so we cant we. It may at a cost if we get some obscure eastern team but it may help us attract players and it raises the profile of the club to be involved in Europe. And aside from Europe we get more money from finishing 3rd than 4th so for me its a no brainer. Unless we pull far away it will be a nerve wrecking final run but we can do it and lets get fully behind the boys.   

If we draw with Raith the replay would need to be fitted in before the Partick game, but that would still give about 10 days without a game.

3 league games in a month and then 3 league games in a week - that is about right from the powers that be ;-)

Don't think that will stop us though :-)

Sorry but we have the clear capability to come third and get to the Cup Final dependent on the draw. BUT does our meagre squad have the stamina to last the course. They are giving their all at the moment and have been for weeks. And lo and behold that means trying to avoid injuries at training etc. and being disciplined (both on and OFF the pitch).

Would love to see the stats for cards month to month this season - perhaps I am wrong. Perhaps we are trying too hard ?

 

 

Sorry but we have the clear capability to come third and get to the Cup Final dependent on the draw. BUT does our meagre squad have the stamina to last the course. They are giving their all at the moment and have been for weeks. And lo and behold that means trying to avoid injuries at training etc. and being disciplined (both on and OFF the pitch).

Would love to see the stats for cards month to month this season - perhaps I am wrong. Perhaps we are trying too hard ?

 

 

Sorry but we have the clear capability to come third and get to the Cup Final dependent on the draw. BUT does our meagre squad have the stamina to last the course. They are giving their all at the moment and have been for weeks. And lo and behold that means trying to avoid injuries at training etc. and being disciplined (both on and OFF the pitch).

Would love to see the stats for cards month to month this season - perhaps I am wrong. Perhaps we are trying too hard ?

Totally agree IHE.

 

On the subject of bookings, I feel we have been on the end of some really poor refereeing decisions especially for cautions. haven't seen the United game so cannot comment on the cautions we received there but standard of refereeing is definitely worsening in Scotland.