Dezz

Been bored at work today so been looking at the fixtures ahead for us, Accies, Killie and Partick who I feel will be the teams fighting it out to avoid the play off place. Motherwell - Partick (H), Accies (A), United (H) Accies - Celtic (H), Motherwell (H), ICT (A) Killie - Hearts (A), County (H), Aberdeen (A) Partick - Motherwell (A), St J (A), Hearts (H), Aberdeen (H), Celtic (H) There's no doubt that over the next month or so we have the easiest run of the 4 teams trying to avoid the playoffs. For me, it's absolutely vital that we pick up at least 5 points from the these games. If we can do that and maybe nick another point or two from the other fixtures before the split I would be quite confident of picking up 4-7 points after the split which should see us safe. Based on the fixtures above I predict us getting 5 points, Accies 1 point, Killie 3 points and Partick 3 points. This would leave us on 34 points, joint with Partick who have games in hand, 3 ahead of Killie and 4 ahead of Accies. 8 points from the final 8 games should see us safe...I think. A very long winded way to say it but the next 3 games really are make or break time! I've been pretty positive all season that we won't end up in 11th but if we take anything less than 5 points from these games and the fear will really set in. FWIW I think it'll be Accies that finish in 11th.

This beyond a joke now!!

Agree with pretty much all of this. Good post. Although, I'd argue Clark's rep down south has taken a bit of a battering recently with his jobs at Birmingham and Blackpool, but I think even Pep would have his work cut out there with the state they're in!! However, he's exactly the type of rabble-rouser who could give them a 4-5 game bounce which would see them safe this season.

I follow this guy on Twitter too. He actually post up some interesting stuff on league table permutations, attendance statistics etc and actually does quite well to deal with all the shite he gets from old firm fans.

This is very true and would be the idea scenario. Bit extra cash and no squeaky bums like last season.

Although we're only 4 points off 4th, assuming we finish bottom 6 we only have 3 games left against teams in the top half as the table currently stands. Celtic, Aberdeen and Inverness. On that basis, you would like to think 15 or so points from the remaining games would be do-able.

For anyone at the game, how did Louis Laing play last night? Was surprised to see him come into the starting 11 as he seemed to be well put the picture. From the highlights it looked like he had 1 or 2 small errors that luckily weren't punished by Utd but would be interested to hear how he fared?

I said earlier I would take 10 points from the 4 above and tonight game, and what a way to start this run of winnable fixtures...Away win, 3 goals and a clean sheet Hopefully that gives us a confidence boost going into playing St J who appear to be in free fall at the minute. Feet on the ground though after last seasons false dawns against Accies and St Mirren and the fact we're still only 2 points ahead of Killie in 11th.

Just said this to my flat mate. Absolutely baffling! Race to avoid the playoff is going to be what to watch in the spfl this year!

Any got any idea what formation we are playing tonight then?!

That's actually much better than I expected too...and would a hell of a lot better if the Thistle and Dundee games had finished 2 minutes early!! There's a reason Dundee Utd have only won 3 games all season - let's add another W to that list!

Will be a difficult one tonight but one we should be looking to take points from. We are the lowest away scorers in the league with only 9 goals all season but our goals conceded away from home isn't actually too bad - better than Dundee, St J and Accies and only 1 goal worse than County, Inverness and Killie. That obviously takes into account the 6 that Hearts took off us too. I think that shows that what the manager and some of us have been saying has some merit- that 'we're not too far away' from clicking. If we can improve in front of goal away from home and cut out the silly mistakes (Thistle game) and get a run of the green (Dundee game) then we should be confident of picking up points tonight. For tonight I would replace Kennedy with Hall at CB. Johnson, Lasley, Gomis and Cadden in midfield and Moult and McDonald up top. I'll go 1-2 to the good guys. Moult (pen) and McDonald with the goals.

Agree that the next 5 games are massive, particularly as its against teams around us in the league. If we take atleast 9 points from those games I'd be reasonably confident of us picking up another 7-9 points from the other 3 pre split and 5 post split fixtures which would leave us on 42-44 points come the end of the season. I would think/hope that'd be enough to see us clear of the relegation/playoff places. I still believe we have better players than the likes of Accies, Thistle and Killie, it's just a case of getting them playing to their potential and finding a system that suits us....easier said than done. I agree with some of the posters above though, whoever finishes in the playoff place has a very tough ask to stay up this year.

He looked the business when he broke through at Tranmere. Remember him scoring a hat-trick in one of his first games and got snapped up by Bayern after only a couple of months of first team football. BBC sport (I think) did a feature on him over in Munich and he seemed to be doing pretty well but I think he had bad injury problems before coming back to England.

Definitely fits in with our new signing/transfer philosophy. I don't know much about him but he seems to score for fun for the Pars. A good wee story too, he only started playing 11-a-side football about 3 or 4 years ago as well.

I like the sound of our new LB in that line up haha

Having not seen the game or watched the highlights yet I'm not sure how at fault ainsworth was, but to single one player out for criticism in the press and then send him out to do media duties doesn't seem right to me. I'm sure it's discussed in every dressing room up and down the country how goals are lost and who is at fault but for me it should stay in the dressing room. The only reason I can see for McGhee doing this is if Ainsworth is the type of player to be motivated by criticism and he'll aim to prove everyone wrong and get the managers trust back. If he's not, and is one of those guys that will lose confidence and go into his shell, then it seems a very odd thing to do. Hopefully McGhee is a good judge of character/personality and has made the right decision!

Danny Swanson has agreed an 18 month deal to go back to St Johnstone. No idea if we were looking at him or not.

No one else in tonight according to Flow on Twitter. Waiting on a couple of things to fall into place apparently so it looks like it'll be out of contract guys. Swanson maybe?

Alan Burrows has said he can't play for a club in Scotland having already played for 2 English clubs this season, Sheff Utd and Oldham. Something to do with international transfer rules. So it'll have to be another club in England for Higgy.

Happy with that! Solid signing and exactly the type of player we need.

I'm in favour of more video technology but I don't agree with implementing a challenge type system. Imagine if we were losing 1-0 with a few minutes to go and the other team used 3 'challenges' that they knew fine we'll try were going to lose as well as a couple of time wasting subs. It would completely disrupt the flow of the game and would be used as a time wasting tactic rather than to genuinely challenge certain decisions.

3 points today would be great with Partick vs United and Killie vs Accies. I like Dundee's forward line with Stewart and Hemmings and Loy from the bench but don't think they are up to much defensively. I fancy goals in this one and will go for a 2-2! Moult and Johnson for us, Hemmings and Harkins (who always seems to play a blinder against us) for them.

He's been very good the 3 or 4 times I've seen him. Would be a good signing. However, it was all over the paper 2-3 days ago that he wanted to stay at Thistle and they were in advanced discussions about a new contract.

With Clarky away and I suspect Reid will go out on loan too that'll mean we'll lose 6 bodies (assuming Faddy also leaves next week) this window. Surely that gives us scope to bring in 2, perhaps 3, players.