PerfICT

I'm afraid that's bye bye to top six and this is now a relegation battle. Sadly, this has been a train wreck waiting to happen: you cannot go into a season with no strikers and no retention policy. Flu, injuries and red cards happen and you need more than just a team of 11, most of whom are midfielders! A draw would have been acceptable, given the circumstances, but a loss, with a stack of suspensions around the corner could be catastrophic. Hamilton on Saturday is now an absolute must win and we'll barely be able to field a team. Where's the entertainment????????

Ah - OK. However, he might yet make it for tonight: he's obviously close. Maybe not for a starting position, but he might provide an option later in the game if fit.

Nobody think Meekings might be in with a shout to start at right back? He was on the bench on Sunday. I don't really thin that's his best position, but given Raven's absence, he might be the best we have there!

Getting caught offside is not always the striker's fault - an extra touch from the passer can be enough to make a good pass into an offside. I'm not excusing Storey completely, but our unpredictable tactics in midfield and at the back must have been difficult to read for our own players! "Is this going to be punted into the channel?...no -square again....now? Nope. Must be this time.....I'm going, aaaaggggghh, he's taken an extra touch and I've gone too early!" The opposite argument is that his runs are too straight: Bending his run gives a split-second more leeway should the pass be delayed. There again, he's a pro footballer and I haven't really got a Scooby - just repeat what some pundit says!

Agree whole-heartedly with RiG. That was embarrassing for long periods today. When Hibs scored, I was almost relieved that football was winning the day - whatever we were playing, it wasn't football. One shot on target ffs?! We are simply the most boring outfit to watch. Possession for possession's sake is tedious and ultimately dangerous. Today's tactics seemed to be a horrible mix of keep the ball at the back until the Hibs defence was organised and then thump it long for Roberts or Storey to be caught offside! Don't get me wrong - delighted to be in the draw, but Hibs were mugged - we played well for 10 min at the start and 5 min around our goal. Otherwise, without Draper's energy we would have been thrashed. This style of football is doing my head in! Football is about creating chances and scoring goals and we do neither. One thing is for certain - employ those tactics in a relegation dogfight and we're gone. Get it sorted.

So, we took 4 points from our last four games against Aberdeen (h), Celtic (a), Dundee (a) and Hearts (a) - I think that's pretty much what you might have expected? - you could even argue that 1 point away to Dundee might have been all we'd have got from these games. No need to panic yet. Top 6 is definitely still a possibility - the home games against Motherwell and Hamilton are crucial, followed by the away game at RC; with any luck DU's race will have been run by the time we play them too. Hearts (h) and St J (a) are our bonus (in-hand) matches. Looking at that fixture list, you have to think that we should get 7-10 points. 10 points would almost certainly be enough for top 6. Frankly, if we don't get at least 7 points, we deserve to go down.

Well, at least we can't just try and hang on for the whole of the second half......

Here's a really speculative stab at what I reckon each of the teams in the mix will score at the split, based loosely on form and remaining matches: St J 43 Dundee 41 ICT 41 RC 41 PT 36 Mot 36 Killie 32 Ham 31 DU 30 I doubt this is in any way accurate: form is temporary, particularly with these teams at the moment, so anybody could go on a good/crap run and turn this on its head! Goal difference might well be a decisive factor (and ours is pretty good). Still think that 36 will be good enough to avoid 12th at the end of the season and 40 to avoid 11th. 40/41 should be good enough for top six at split this year IMO.

Both good keepers. Brill would possibly edge it for me BUT I don't think we can take the risk on his injury, so would settle for Fon Williams. Wouldn't be disappointed if either stayed, but would be disappointed if they both left!!

Agree with Alex MacL. This was a must not lose game, not a must win. Job done (just). The games we need to win for top 6 are Hamilton and Motherwell at home. Any points from the two Hearts games in hand are a bonus. Don't lose to RC and St J away and we'd be on 40-odd points which would be enough! Relax!

Sounds like we tried to hang on for second half after putting in a good first half performance - not a great idea, given our habit of conceding late goals. That's 10 points chucked away to late goals I think. Still, I had this down as a draw, so we're still in the mix for top six. An unlikely win away at Hearts could take us up to fourth!

Nobody doing us any favours: Hamilton taking a point from Celtic doesn't help. Up to us to do it for ourselves....starting with Dundee tomorrow. This is starting to look twitchy.

I really like Brill, but his injuries are a worry. If I remember correctly, it was the opposite knee that went the second time, which is either really bad luck or a fundamental issue. On balance, I'd suggest that Brill would be more of a risk.

..;..and now Fon Williams is virtually begging for a contract in the Courier! Have any of our out of contract players been offered a contract at all? Are we planning to enter a 5-a-side team? Raven, Polworth and Fon Williams all indicated they want to stay - get them signed ICT - they are all first team regulars and good players: what are we waiting for? Has JH put in a bid for Messi that has blown the budget or something??

Not sure Hughes encourages crossing, tbh. From what I've seen this season, he's much keener to play narrow and for the wider players to cut-in and retain possession rather than go on the outside and hit a cross (presumably becuase that gifts away possession more often than not). I don't subscribe to that philosophy because good crosses can creat goals (Tremarco against Motherwell, Roberts against Aberdeen, Williams against DU, as stated above). you need a bit of both to keep the opposition guessing. Vincent is a really importnat player for the style of football that Hughes plays - you need loads of movement to always have an out-ball and Vincent does that fantastically. His workrate is the highest in the team and it creates space for others. This has been missed when he is absent. That said, he has spent a lot of time on the treatment table, which is never attractive to managers. I still think (no evidence) that Hughes' comment about playing through knocks was aimed at Vincent; if the player thinks the same, a parting of the ways was inevitable.

Echo both parts of this. As I've said elsewhere on this forum, I really don't get our retention policy this year. Granted, we don't know whether these two were offered contracts or perhaps they even wanted to leave, but there are at least two others who have pleaded in the press to be offered a contract. I say again - whoplesale rebuild in the summer is very risky for next season. If we've lost these two, then so be it, but they will be missed and this needs to be an incentive to get the others that we need to sign (starting with Raven and Polworth). What about a goalkeeper? Perhaps Ryan Wiliams is seen as a replacement for Vincent or Williams - if so, let's see what he can do and get him signed, if up to it. Would like to see what Liam Hughes can do too.

...that miss by Gary Warren....Oh my! Think he must have closed his eyes and it came off the side of his head! Did it go for a throw in? He'll be having nightmares about that one for weeks! Always difficult to judge a game by the highlights, but it looked like we had as many good chances as 'tic. The difference was that Griffiths's finishing was unbelievable. Both of his goals were laser-guided missiles - nothing you can do about that.

It's all about goals. 3-0 sounds like a gubbing, but seemingly a good account from ICT. At one point it looked like we'd just drop the one point against everybody, but late goals didn't help our top 6 chances.

I'd take 5 straight draws in the fixtures on Saturday. 14-1 might be worth a punt, though! 1/6 for Leigh Griffiths to win??? Evens for the rest of the Celtic team to follow suit?

....saw it happen at the cup semi against Celtic at Hampden. Completely nuts!

If it ain't broke, don't fix it! I would prefer Raven to Horner if fit, but otherwise go with what we had against Aberdeen, with Mutombo coming on for the last 10 to spice it up a bit.

A few interesting ideas on this thread... IMO, there should be a distinction between the Scottish Cup and the League Cup. I'd be open to the idea of the league cup semis involving 2 legs, but not the Scottish Cup - it should remain as striaght knockout, possibly without replays. November completion for the league cup is a good idea. I agree that Hampden should be kept for finals only. This is probably a hangover from the times when Celtic and Rangers regularly made it to semis and theerfore only Hampden was big enough, but I think there should be some latitude for common sense decisions over semi-final venues. There is a chance, for example, that we could get through the quarters to face Ross County, Brechin, Dundee or Dumbarton - any of these games at Hampden would be laughable.....but it is the SFA!

No compliance officer involvement over the Draper penalty incident, so no dive. McInness can get back in his box!

No doubt that play off place is still a risk, there are now only 6 points from 4th to 11th. Monday night's result now looks even more important, especially with Celtic away to come. It's a dogfight! I'd prefer to think we're only a point off 4th, with games in hand!

I know you should beware what you wish for, but Hibs without Cummings is not a bad outcome! Shame The Rangers snuck through.