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The Relegation Battle - Season 19/20


W6er

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I couldn't see a thread devoted solely to the relegation battle, so I have taken the liberty of creating this one.

 

631704767_RelegationbattleFeb12.jpg.2924f8acdfcfa81ca8af1f1ead24de21.jpg

 

As people have stated in tonight's match thread, it's looking like a four-way fight at the moment between ourselves, Ross County, Hamilton and Hearts.

Form is obviously crucial, and the above table indicates that over the last five games Hearts have amassed the most points. Furthermore, in those five games they have played the Old Firm and a revitalised Kilmarnock.

Hamilton have obviously had the worst run of form, and my money would be on them to be relegated. They looked good against us, however, and I think Templeton is a great signing. Their next two games are away to Hearts and then home to Motherwell, both of which will be a tough test for them.

Both ourselves and Ross County have picked up a measly three points in the last five games. Our game against Hearts will be massive, especially given that we will play both the Old Firm in March. Unfortunately I think we have the toughest schedule of them all, and I would be delighted if we're in this position at the start of the split. I would be happy for us to grind out draws against St Johnstone, Motherwell and Hearts, although obviously I am hoping we snatch a win. 

This will be an interesting end to the season.

 

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16 minutes ago, St.Ricky said:

Interesting is one way to put it. Good thread to start though. 

I'll have no fingernails left! 

 

Remaining pre-split fixtures:

 

Hamilton

Hearts (a)

Motherwell (h)

Rangers (a)

Kilmarnock (h)

Ross County (a)

Hibs (h)

St Johnstone (a)

 

Hearts

Hamilton (h)

St. Mirren (a)

Hibs (a)

Motherwell (h)

Livingston (a)

Ross County (h)

Aberdeen (a)

 

Ross County

St. Johnstone (h)

Aberdeen (a)

Motherwell (a)

Rangers (h)

Hamilton (h)

Hearts (a)

St. Mirren (h)

 

St. Mirren

Motherwell (a)

Hearts (h)

St. Johnstone (h)

Celtic (a)

Kilmarnock (a)

Rangers (h)

Ross County (a)

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Hearts will definitely close the gap on us.

Hamilton will find the going as difficult as us.

Forget Ross County, or anyone else above us.

I don't see us getting any better than second bottom by the time of the split.

JG just hasn't got the mindset to know how to attack teams.

There is a reason we're the lowest scorers in the league.

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RC are in it, they are closer to us than Hearts are. Do you think Hearts fans are saying we are out it ? As for the post above about grinding out draws, that's why we are in the battle. We simply have to win some games, draws here and there won't be enough.

Hearts will definitely close the gap on us.
Hamilton will find the going as difficult as us.
Forget Ross County, or anyone else above us.
I don't see us getting any better than second bottom by the time of the split.
JG just hasn't got the mindset to know how to attack teams.
There is a reason we're the lowest scorers in the league.
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I posted about our fixture list last week when we had 13 matches left, 8 of these are away and in our 13 away games so far we have picked up the grand total of 5 points so realistically we are looking at home matches to save us.

1 of these is against Rangers so really only 12 points available to us that we could get.

If my memory is correct think we have won only 4 times away in last 2 seasons.

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Ross County are in the picture. Their goal difference is much worse than ours which is the best in the bottom five. There are two ways of looking at how tight the league is in the bottom five and worry and the other is to enjoy the ride. I intend to do the latter. There's little doubt that a team in there who can string two or three wins together can move up quickly. That, surely, must be our aim. Bring it on. A nervous but exciting season. 

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Bottom 5 ? Only 4 teams in this now.

Ross County are in the picture. Their goal difference is much worse than ours which is the best in the bottom five. There are two ways of looking at how tight the league is in the bottom five and worry and the other is to enjoy the ride. I intend to do the latter. There's little doubt that a team in there who can string two or three wins together can move up quickly. That, surely, must be our aim. Bring it on. A nervous but exciting season. 
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8 hours ago, W6er said:

Hamilton - 5 points

Hearts - 8 points

Ross County - 4 points

St. Mirren - 5 points

Current Points............Predicted Points

Ross County 25......... 29

St Mirren      22...........27

Hamilton.     19............24

Hearts.          18...........26

A lot depends on our game v Hearts

A lot depends on our game v RC

Already booked my hotel for that one......... Their GD is Minus 28 and ours is Minus 14.

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1 hour ago, Ayrshire Saints said:

RC are in it, they are closer to us than Hearts are. Do you think Hearts fans are saying we are out it ? As for the post above about grinding out draws, that's why we are in the battle. We simply have to win some games, draws here and there won't be enough.

I was referring specifically to the pre-split fixtures:

Quote

St. Mirren

Motherwell (a)

Hearts (h)

St. Johnstone (h)

Celtic (a)

Kilmarnock (a)

Rangers (h)

Ross County (a)

I suppose Motherwell are there for the taking, having lost their last three Premiership fixtures, though realistically I only expect a draw at best. BTW, am I alone in preferring we win the cup tie against them, rather than the league game?

Hearts home I think will be a very tough game, and again I would be happy with a draw.

St. Johnstone have picked up ten points from their last five games, and again I would take a precious point.

Kilmarnock beat Rangers last night and have looked particularly impressive in their last three games. A point would be a good result against them, too.

Ross County is definitely winnable, but they are fighting for their lives and I think this will be a tough game.

Then we have the two Old Firm fixtures!

631704767_RelegationbattleFeb12.jpg.2924f8acdfcfa81ca8af1f1ead24de21.jpg

 

Hopefully we can get a win or two from our remaining pre-split fixtures. Looking at the league table we are averaging less than a point per game thus far, and yet we are still not occupying one of the two bottom spots. Therefore every point is precious and we need to be difficult to beat and grind out draws.

Edited by W6er
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2 minutes ago, W6er said:

I was referring specifically to the pre-split fixtures:

I suppose Motherwell are there for the taking, having lost their last three Premiership fixtures, though realistically I only expect a draw at best. BTW, am I alone in preferring we win the cup tie against them, rather than the league?

Hearts home I think will be a very tough game, and again I would be happy with a draw.

St. Johnstone have picked up ten points from their last five games, and again I would take a precious point.

Kilmarnock beat Rangers last night and have looked particularly impressive in their last three games. A point would be a good result against them, too.

Ross County is definitely winnable, but they are fighting for their lives and I think this will be a tough game.

Then we have the two Old Firm fixtures!

631704767_RelegationbattleFeb12.jpg.2924f8acdfcfa81ca8af1f1ead24de21.jpg

 

Hopefully we can get a win or two from our remaining pre-split fixtures. Looking at the league table it would appear that we are averaging less than a point per game thus far, and yet we are still not occupying one of the two bottom spots. Therefore every point is precious and we need to be difficult to beat and grind out draws.

Motherwell will be pivotal in our season both in the league and the cup. We still have a poor away record and Motherwell have only Dr awn twice this season. 

If pushed.. I'd take a win in the cup but be greedy and go for a draw in the leauge.

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Don't what the odds are but its Hearts for me, they have had one result against a Sevco team, with new manager, that constantly show they have no bottle, Fakes battered them, Falkirk were so unlucky, Killie 3 up at Tynecastle ?

Accies are battle hardened , Jury out on us, we are not a bad side but just really lack Kyle in the middle of the park, our defending yesterday was totally exposed...

Hearst have won 3 matches in the league and one of them was against us, Hibs and Sevco, so that means, bar us they have not won against any of the bottom 6...

Shocking appt by them, nice ground but I feel it will grace the championship next season...……………. hopefully we can squeak 9th or 10th but Jim must be questioning how last night we were poor going forward and at the back, key injuries may well play a part yet

 

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W6er would be happy to nick a point here and there. That’s pretty much our aim all season mate. We seldom win and our teams is a boring watch sadly. As for Kyle he wasn’t having a good season by his standards although he looked like he was on way back before injury. It’s pathetic that teams about us at Th e break have kicked on and yet again we toil. Livingston 6 home wins in a row? We’ve not won six games all season. Look at Kilmarnock they were well beat at Paisley yet when it comes to it they beat county hearts and rangers. In an unbelievable turnaround. Look at st Johnstone too and then look at us ? Jim’s tactics are piss poor at times Hamilton at home for instance ?? I mean I’m all for being hard to beat but we look scared to win. We’re bottom 2 all day long mate time to wake up 

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A lot of fear is rippling through this forum. As Saints fans, given our history, it is understandable.

However, if we win a couple of the next 3 games, we will suddenly have a decent cushion AND a bit more belief.

We need to tighten up in Central defence, LB and midfield, then start scoring more goals - simple really !   Ha Ha . . .:ninja

These games are where we need to stretch the gap - it would be like a double kick at those below us and RC too...

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9 minutes ago, Sweeper07 said:

A lot of fear is rippling through this forum. As Saints fans, given our history, it is understandable.

However, if we win a couple of the next 3 games, we will suddenly have a decent cushion AND a bit more belief.

We need to tighten up in Central defence, LB and midfield, then start scoring more goals - simple really !   Ha Ha . . .:ninja

These games are where we need to stretch the gap - it would be like a double kick at those below us and RC too...

Fear in the forum seems to be the present default position. Those of us who present differently are probably thought of as Happy Clappers.

If someone had asked me at the beginning of the season if I would like to have 10 more points at this time compared to last season then I would have said.. Yes please! We have and the league is fascinating. 

True, I'd prefer to be in the position that Livvi are in right now but every game is meaningful. If you have the stomach for the fight then this is a great time to be going along to the games. 

We are not a bad side. But, there are no thoroughly poor teams in the league this year. Surely something to celebrate rather than moan about, especially when admission prices are a hot topic. 

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I disagree with almost every point you make.

Yes we have 10 more points that is a fact but we are not a good team.

You said there are no poor teams again I would disagree I would say there are 11 bad teams this season has saw the worst Hibs, Hearts, Aberdeen and St Johnstone in quite a few years you could add Kilmarnock from last 2/3 seasons too.

Yet here we are still messing around the bottom scraping the odd draw here and there, we have 1 away win all season, we play 1 tiny striker against the one team we could actually beat, we have a manager who says the same rubbish after every defeat but doesn't ever change anything.

Some fans on here you included seem to think win 2 from 2 or 2 from 3 we will be OK we have only won 5 from 26 and as far as I am aware we haven't won 2 from 2 or 2 from 3 pre split for around 10 years.

We have to defeat Hearts forgot the other games before as that is then a 6 point turnaround.

If Hearts beat us i'm expecting to be in 11th as I expect them to defeat Hamilton and Motherwell to beat us.

Fear in the forum seems to be the present default position. Those of us who present differently are probably thought of as Happy Clappers.
If someone had asked me at the beginning of the season if I would like to have 10 more points at this time compared to last season then I would have said.. Yes please! We have and the league is fascinating. 
True, I'd prefer to be in the position that Livvi are in right now but every game is meaningful. If you have the stomach for the fight then this is a great time to be going along to the games. 
We are not a bad side. But, there are no thoroughly poor teams in the league this year. Surely something to celebrate rather than moan about, especially when admission prices are a hot topic. 
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26 minutes ago, Ronnie said:

I disagree with almost every point you make.

Yes we have 10 more points that is a fact but we are not a good team.

You said there are no poor teams again I would disagree I would say there are 11 bad teams this season has saw the worst Hibs, Hearts, Aberdeen and St Johnstone in quite a few years you could add Kilmarnock from last 2/3 seasons too.

Yet here we are still messing around the bottom scraping the odd draw here and there, we have 1 away win all season, we play 1 tiny striker against the one team we could actually beat, we have a manager who says the same rubbish after every defeat but doesn't ever change anything.

Some fans on here you included seem to think win 2 from 2 or 2 from 3 we will be OK we have only won 5 from 26 and as far as I am aware we haven't won 2 from 2 or 2 from 3 pre split for around 10 years.

We have to defeat Hearts forgot the other games before as that is then a 6 point turnaround.

If Hearts beat us i'm expecting to be in 11th as I expect them to defeat Hamilton and Motherwell to beat us.
 

I wasn't asking you to agree. My core point is that we are in a better position points wise than last year. I would say that is an improvement. How else would you describe that? 

It's a tough league and I won't disrespect other teams who are in there competing with us and making the league so interesting. 

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