HawkeyeTheGnu

Yes, but it really is one game at a time from now.

Maybe we should have tried that last season...

Surely “He used to be sh1te, but now he’s alright”?

So you don’t think we’re winning the play offs, Mantis? ?

A spoonful of voddy helps the paperwork go down?

Not up on SFA website yet.

We don’t. If we win all our games, we finish no lower than fourth. Whether we are able to do that is a completely different matter.

Yup. Entirely in our own hands.

If we win all our remaining games, we will have 59 points. Dunfermline can then only get to 58, Morton to 56 and QoS to 52 (as we have to beat both Dunfermline & Morton to win all our games) and we would finish at least 4th, irrespective of what Dundee Utd do. So it’s entirely in our own hands - not that it will be easy.

Shinnie and Meekings - -at least - were offered the opportunity to extend their contracts, but chose not to. If we had cashed in on Shinnie when we could, I doubt we’d have won the cup. I’m not sure if this is still the case, but players on a four year contract could leave for free at the end of year 3 - Andy Webster used that to leave Hearts. The key is to try and make sure younger players don’t have contracts that expire after the cut off point for development fees. All of this is easier said than done though. Players know the rules, and if they can move for nothing, that means there is more in the pot for signing on fees and wages. And if you sign a player to a longer contract, you may end up paying over the odds for a dud.

You can say that again.

Seems like St Mirren are trying to win on penalties.

Over the last 10 seasons, as little as 49 and as many as 62 have been needed for 4th. This is slightly skewed by the fact that 4th has only been a play-off place for the last 4 of those, and 52 is the low water mark in those. Looking at the table, and the fact that not everybody can drop points every week, mid 50s feels like it would be needed, which is 7 wins (maybe 6 if we are lucky) from 9 games, which feels like a challenge. And we can’t afford any slip ups against the teams above us from 2nd to 6th - those are real ‘six pointers’.

??

I actually feel sorry for Dumbarton. But I hope that’s an omen for the rest of the season!

I really don’t believe that. If one man deserved that it was Tremarco.

No right back. No penalty taker. No clue. We are fecked.

Yup. Red all day long.

I don’t think we’re trying to get into the one at the top any more...

Brechin won’t save us from the playoffs. The real worry for me is that back to back wins for Dumbarton creates the feeling of a winning run for them, increasing confidence and leading to better performances in games that they may not have been expected to pick up points in. We, on the other hand, do not appear to know where our next points are coming from. We need to win the game with Brechin and the two with Dumbarton. That would take us to 39 points. The most points that has ended up in the playoff is 42. I’m not sure where any other points are coming from unless we find a serious upturn in form.

We are really suffering from not having a right back, and the general lack of depth in defence. McKa6 and Donaldson looked pretty good as a pairing.

We had been as high as second in the league and reached the league cup semi final in the season that Butcher left. There’s no telling how that could have finished if Butcher had stayed. Whilst you can’t ignore losing quality players, and the injuries that occurred, the fact remains is that Hughes recruitment was generally poor. You can only sign what is available, but maybe it’s better to keep some of the budget rather than sign lots and lots of midfielders, when we were clearly still short in both defence and attack. I understand that. The trouble is we tended to hurt ourselves when we had the ball by trying to retain possession too close to our own goal and then making a mistake. That season, we weren’t generally ekeing out points, we were trying to hold onto a lead and often failing. I don’t dismiss the winning 4 out of 5, I am just saying that it made the season look better than it probably was. Surely an experienced manager would have clarified the budget? The style could have been successful for years to come, but only with the right players. I would question Hughes’ ability to find and recruit those players.

About a month ago, I’d have agreed we’d stalled this season, but I’m starting to think we are accelerating into the abyss.

The decline started as soon as we won the cup pretty much. That heralded the breaking up of a squad largely put together by Butcher. Yes, we didn’t replace quality players, but Hughes has to share part of that blame as he was the one recruiting players. Even if funds was the issue, why sign loads of midfielders when other positions needed attention too? The treatment of Raven was pretty shoddy too. As for Hughes style of play - yes it was pleasing to the eye at times in the cup winning season, but in the season he took over we tended to either bore teams to death for a 0-0, or get walloped. In his final season the football was eye-bleedingly bad at times - Dundee at Dens in Feb nearly put me off football for life - and only winning 4 out of 5 after the split put a gloss on the season. Since Hughes left, the decision making at the club has ranged from the questionable to the outright laughable. While I agree that our current situation cannot be laid solely at Hughes’ door, is is at least partially culpable.