Sixth Place IMPERATIVE

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

Well I certainly do not want to be in the bottom six after the split as that could be real bum twitching stuff. Still nine teams in the mix as well. We really need to be picking up points asap. Aberdeen followed by away trips to Cellic, Hearts and Dungdee is a big ask. Reckon we need another 15 points and that equals five home wins ??

[PerfICT]

15 points before split for top 6 or 15 points by end of the season to avoid 11th?

Either way, getting in the top 6 is THE way to avoid squeaky bum syndrome. I was hoping for Killie to be adrift by now, but it hasn't happened, so we need to get the finger out ourselves. On the positive side, 4th is still not impossible! The key fixtures for me are the two home games against the Lanarkshire sides and the two away against the Dundee teams. 8 points from those four games is essential - a few scraps from our games against the top 3 would probably see us safe and then the games against RC and St J might determine top 6 or not! It's the order of events that's the concern for me - would prefer points in the bag to games in hand v Hearts!

Edited February 15, 2016 by PerfICT

[Caley Mad In Berks]

Five home wins before the split will be difficult, as only 4 of our 10 games before the split are at home, if I've looked at the fixture list properly!  Starting tonight we have a really difficult run.  On paper though the last 4 games currently on the list (not knowing when Hearts (H) and St Johnstone (A) will be rescheduled, look like possible wins.  They are Hamilton and Motherwell at home and County and Dundee Utd away. As PerfICT has said the County match could even be a top 6 decider, and I'd fancy us for that.  The other 3 should be wins, otherwise we our top 6 aspirations will likely be shot away.

But enough of the 'ifs and ands'.  Lets start it all off with a good win over the Dons tonight.

Onwards and upwards!

[Kingsmills]

Top six would obviously good but I regard that, as always as a bonus rather than being imperative.

What is imperative is to stay out of the bottom two places. We did well to bounce straight back up last time but even then the financial toll was considerable.

We are now an established top tier club with all the financial commitments of one. The imperative thing is to keep it that way. Anything more than that, as I said, is a bonus.

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

It always has and always will be a bonus but we need to avoid it this season. There is no reason why we can't. The best way of avoiding being in the bottom two this season is NOT being in the bottom six. 

[Sneckboy]

Points attained at the 33 game split, since its incorporation in 2000/01:

There are many ways of interpreting the data!
But, after 15 years of results, the averages are probably the 'safest' bet....

40 points is the average of the team just-missing-out...which also 'tallies' with 41 being the fewest points total of any team 'getting in'.
So 41 has to be the absolute minimum target.

But, the average Top 6 place requires 44 points - and, although this was attained once before with the team still missing out, this season's total requirement will almost certainly be less than that. with there being so many clubs in the bunch, taking points of each other every week - It should be considerably lower than 44.
That said, It's simply got to be the 44 point target - and we'll be safely in the elite.
So, as IHE hypothesised, we should be targeting 15 points! We're on 29 now and 15 more would see us on 44 and retaining our place as a Top 6 club.

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

12 to go 

[bdu98196]

1 point of 4th, just behind county and dundee who are 2 teams this season who have recieved media praise for their good seasons thus far. We have been inconsistent, injury hit and in some ways much poorer than the last few years yet are still competing around the area of the table we expect. While not far from relegation what does this tell us about the spfl?

[Kingsmills]

29 minutes ago, bdu98196 said:

1 point of 4th, just behind county and dundee who are 2 teams this season who have recieved media praise for their good seasons thus far. We have been inconsistent, injury hit and in some ways much poorer than the last few years yet are still competing around the area of the table we expect. While not far from relegation what does this tell us about the spfl?

I believe what it tells us is that, despite those pundits and journalists who love to knock our domestic game, the Premiership is a highly competitive and entertaining league faring well despite being undervalued by SKY and the BBC and continuing to have no representation from Govan.

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

Looking forward to the bottom six finale and clinching 10th place on the last day of the season. Now "That's Entertainment" 

[Kingsmills]

Relegation battles are entertaining. If we had beaten or even drawn with Falkirk in ours the cheers at the TCS would have been just as loud and heartfelt as the magic afternoon we beat St Johnstone to secure our first promotion to the SPL....Not that any of us were certain that we were going up that day...

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

Opening line of opening post = "Well I certainly do not want to be in the bottom six after the split as that could be real bum twitching stuff."

[Yngwie]

Updating a stat I showed a few weeks ago, we have taken a remarkable 60% of the available points against Top 6 sides, but only 33% of points against the bottom 6.

We are actually unbeaten against the sides in 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th, winning 5 of those 8 games.

We've done very poorly against the weakest sides, though, with only 3 wins from 14 games against the bottom 6, including a mere 1 home win from 7. 

[Caley Mad In Berks]

21 minutes ago, Yngwie said:

Updating a stat I showed a few weeks ago, we have taken a remarkable 60% of the available points against Top 6 sides,

Therefore, we should get 1.8 points on Saturday.   That 0.8 of a point might make all the difference at the split.

[Kingsmills]

49 minutes ago, Caley Mad In Berks said:

Therefore, we should get 1.8 points on Saturday.   That 0.8 of a point might make all the difference at the split.

I'd settle for 1.8 on Saturday...

[PerfICT]

3 hours ago, Yngwie said:

Updating a stat I showed a few weeks ago, we have taken a remarkable 60% of the available points against Top 6 sides, but only 33% of points against the bottom 6.

We are actually unbeaten against the sides in 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th, winning 5 of those 8 games.

We've done very poorly against the weakest sides, though, with only 3 wins from 14 games against the bottom 6, including a mere 1 home win from 7. 

I'm not surprised by this. We really struggle to break teams down when they come and sit deep. Last night showed how good we can be on the break when teams have a go....and how sound we are in defence.

[Kingsmills]

I think with their comprehensive defeat by Motherwell tonight, Dundee United have been effectively condemned to automatic relegation but boy does it liven up the battle to avoid the play off place.

Nobody from fourth place down is more than a bad run of three games away from eleventh place. Every game for every club bar the Arabs between now and the split is vital. The Scottish Premiership is alive and vigorously kicking.

 

 

[Charles Bannerman]

12 minutes ago, Kingsmills said:

 The Scottish Premiership is alive and vigorously kicking.

That's Armageddon for you!

[Robert]

8 hours ago, Kingsmills said:

I'd settle for 1.8 on Saturday...

Even 1 would be good!

[PerfICT]

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!

[+HawkeyeTheGnu]

20 hours ago, PerfICT said:

I'm not surprised by this. We really struggle to break teams down when they come and sit deep. Last night showed how good we can be on the break when teams have a go....and how sound we are in defence.

Against the better teams we don't seem to need to earn the right to play, which seems to suit our style of play. 

Against the poorer sides, we don't seem to either have the stomach for, or be able to, fight to impose ourselves on the game so that we can play our game.

Yngwie's stat would seem to bear that out. 

[+HawkeyeTheGnu]

15 hours ago, Kingsmills said:

Nobody from fourth place down is more than a bad run of three games away from eleventh place. Every game for every club bar the Arabs between now and the split is vital. The Scottish Premiership is alive and vigorously kicking.

The one good thing is that we are nearer the top of this pile than the bottom, and with there being so many teams involved they can't all win every week. 

Having said that, we simply have to start doing better against the teams below us if we don't wish to get dragged back. 

[Alex MacLeod]

5 hours ago, HawkeyeTheGnu said:

The one good thing is that we are nearer the top of this pile than the bottom, and with there being so many teams involved they can't all win every week. 

Having said that, we simply have to start doing better against the teams below us if we don't wish to get dragged back. 

With nine games till split six are actually against teams above us

[PerfICT]

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.

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

On ‎16‎/‎02‎/‎2016 at 10:59 AM, IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER said:

Opening line of opening post = "Well I certainly do not want to be in the bottom six after the split as that could be real bum twitching stuff."