Games until the split

[Tichy_Blacks_Back]

Even with the recent results we have still have managed to cling onto 5th spot but are under a bit of pressure to get a top 6 place with several teams in the hunt. You have to think that Celtic, Rangers, Hearts and Killie will get 4 of those. Dundee United have several games in hand on the others and Motherwell, St.Johnstone and Aberdeen are all also in the hunt along with ourselves for that more lucrative top 6 spot.

There are nine games to go:

February

St.Mirren (A)

St.Johnstone (H)

Hibs (A)

March

Motherwell (H)

Dundee Utd (A)

April

Celtic (H)

Kilmarnock (A)

Hearts (H)

and a home game against Dundee United to be rearranged. So that is 5 Home and 4 Away to go and after the 3 February games out of the way we will be finishing with 4 Home and only 2 Away games. With our recent home form I am not sure if that is a good thing although I am hoping it will be.

Top 6 is still a possibility but a good points haul in the next four games is critical.

[Alex MacLeod]

Every one of those games are winnable

[ICTPaisley]

I was looking at the table and thinking the same. Given Dundee Utd have 4 games in hand on us and are level on points they have to be favourites to gain that 4th or 5th spot. That leaves us, St Johnstone, Aberdeen and Motherwell for the 6th place and that is very much still do able. St Mirren is a must win game and if we are serious about the top 6 then we need to beat the other saints the week after also. After that we have some pretty hard games coming up ( I know hibs are dreadful but they are surely going to get good at some stage this season even if it is for only a handful of games)

[lukemackay]

no reason why we cant make the split

[Tichy_Blacks_Back]

The recent issue about match congestion may also work in our favour - it's definitely going to be an interesting run in

[Tichy_Blacks_Back]

With the rescheduling of the United game the run in is now as follows:

February

St.Mirren (A)

St.Johnstone (H)

Hibs (A)

March

Dundee Utd (H)

Motherwell (H)

Dundee Utd (A)

April

Celtic (H)

Kilmarnock (A)

Hearts (H)

Unlike other teams all these games are Saturday matches except for the rescheduled United game which will be on a Tuesday evening.

[Tichy_Blacks_Back]

4 points from the first two - 3pts at Easter Road next week would make it a decent month

February

St.Mirren (A) 3-3

St.Johnstone (H) 2-0

Hibs (A)

Edited February 19, 2011 by Tichy_Blacks_Back

[Glen Mhor]

4 points from the first two - 3pts at Easter Road next week would make it a decent month

February

St.Mirren (A) 3-3

St.Johnstone (H) 2-0

Hibs (A)

Without being over confident, absolutely no reason why we shouldn't come away from Easter Road next Saturday with all three points.

[Alex MacLeod]

And 4th is still very much within our grasp

[+DoofersDad]

And 4th is still very much within our grasp

Don't get carried away, We've got a very difficult run in and whilst 4th is still possible, 6th is still a very challenging target.

The win today was really important and will have boosted confidence no end. The next four games are absolutely crucial - we probably need to see the game at Hibs as a must win because after that all our games are against sides we might expect to end in the top 6. Two games against Dundee Utd and one against Motherwell will be games we can't afford to lose and we realistically need to win 2 of those. With teams behind us having games in hand we probably need 10 points from the next 4 games. If we don't, we will need to beat Hearts and/or Celtic later on and hope other results go our way.

Kilmarnock are certainly stuttering and might drop out of the top 6, but on the other hand I wouldn't rule Aberdeen out.

[Yngwie]

Sensible comment Dad.

Looking at things from the "we must avoid relegation" perspective, I'm pretty sure that with 33 points now we could lose all our remaining games and still stay up.

[Tichy_Blacks_Back]

4 points from the first three games - not quite as expected but hey....

February

St.Mirren (A) 3-3 D

St.Johnstone (H) 2-0 W

Hibs (A) 2-0 L

As well as an important cup tie March gives us two games against United (H and A) and a home visit from Motherwell:

Dundee Utd (H)

Motherwell (H)

Dundee Utd (A)

As they are both contenders for the remaining top six places it is safe to say that these games will decide whether come April we are still challenging for a top 6 place or fallen back into the bottom half needing to win all games in April to have a chance of making it.

I personally think these games are all winnable - ok 9 points is a big ask but I would be happy with 7.

What is important will be the home support for those two games - maybe the club should consider something for the Motherwell game to try and increase the attendance further and give the team an additional boost - just an idea as others seem to be looking at similar initiatives.

The last three games in April before the split are all tough matches so the club needs to be well placed prior to going into those. The good thing though is this season there are still so many teams chasing the remaining top six places (who would have thought the split could be so interesting) and we are still one of them.

[Tichy_Blacks_Back]

Just noticed that Hibs do not play a Home game in March - all 3 are away - of their 6 games remaining before the split only 2 are at home whereas we are the reverse 4 Home 2 Away....

Just looked at the others:

Dundee United - 5H 4A

St.Johnstone - 4H 3A

ICT - 4H 2A

Kilmarnock - 3H 3A

Motherwell - 3H 3A

Aberdeen - 2H 4A

Hibs - 2H 4A

United have fixtures on 7th, 10th, 13th, 16th and 19th March as well as 2nd, 6th and 9th April - on top of that they have another game to be rearranged - also what would a cup replay do to that....

It seems that the SPL are still waiting on Rangers to see what the other rearranged fixtures will be - affects a few clubs....

[Alex MacLeod]

For me the next two games. both at home, against DU then Motherwell are the important ones. Win these and we stay in top six.

[Yngwie]

At the moment I can see our season ending in a battle for 10th place with St J.

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

The bottom line is that if we get back to 100% and play to our strengths we will be 5th or 6th - and lets stop looking at other teams fixtures - we put a winning run on and that is it - SIMPLES

[Alex MacLeod]

At the moment I can see our season ending in a battle for 10th place with St J.

Oh ye of little faith.

Looking at the fixtures for all teams I believe we can stay wjere we are. We need to re-establish Fortress Longman and I think if we get the injured back into it we can. Aberdeen, Hibs, DU and St Johnstone will all trip each other up and we are capable, on our day, of taking points from Motherwell and Kilmarnock.

Being the eternal optimist that I am I see no reason to to worry at the moment.

My predictions of the points share around us are:

St Johnstone 9

Aberdeen 9

DU 10

Hibs 10

ICT 8

We will finish on 41 pts with DU but with a better GD advantage so just pip them to the sixth spot.

[12th Man]

After doing a few calculations I'm pleased to say that things arent looking that bad for us, excluding the matches involving the top 3 teams there arent that many points available for all the rest of the teams to pick up.

Regardless of top six or not,I have enjoyed many games so far,relegation is a distant memory, we are still in the cup and still have the hope of a top six finish and finishing as high up the table as possible, without the pressure of expectation.

[Johnboy]

Being the eternal optimist that I am I see no reason to to worry at the moment.

My predictions of the points share around us are:

St Johnstone 9

Aberdeen 9

DU 10

Hibs 10

ICT 8

We will finish on 41 pts with DU but with a better GD advantage so just pip them to the sixth spot.

We've got Dundee Utd (twice) Motherwell, Celtic, Kilmarnock & Hearts.

Where do you see these 8 points coming from?

.

.

Edited February 27, 2011 by Johnboy

[Pele_Is_God]

If we play like we did yesterday we will get 0 points. Some people on here don't have talk crap!

[Alex MacLeod]

Being the eternal optimist that I am I see no reason to to worry at the moment.

My predictions of the points share around us are:

St Johnstone 9

Aberdeen 9

DU 10

Hibs 10

ICT 8

We will finish on 41 pts with DU but with a better GD advantage so just pip them to the sixth spot.

We've got Dundee Utd (twice) Motherwell, Celtic, Kilmarnock & Hearts.

Where do you see these 8 points coming from?

.

.

Lose to Tic and Hearts. Home win DU. Home win Well. Away draw DU. Away draw Killie

[bishbashbosh]

we will do well to finish 10th. top six what a joke

[+DoofersDad]

If there is one thing that is predictable it is that the results are going to be unpredictable. This week in the Predictor league only 8 out of 126 predictions got the correct score - thats about 1 in 16 being correct. Given that there are only 16 possible scores where neither team scores 4 or more it just goes to show that thecollective wisdom of the pundits in the predictor league is no better than choosing scores at random.

At the start of the season I said I'd be happy for us to finish 11th. I'll stick my neck out and predict we'll finish somewhere between 4th and 10th. That means that as far as I'm concerned, taking the season as a whole its been a good season.

[super1ct]

At the end of the day this season is already been a huge success and just staying up is a huge achievement for the club. We went on such a blinder of a run at the start of the year that I think a few people have maybe set the expectations a bit too high. Yes I hope we finish in the top and yes i believe we can do it but just remember where we where this time two years ago!

[TopSix]

I wonder if the cup will prove to be a distraction to league form.