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Settle for 3rd or aim for 2nd?


BigColin08
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He'll be lucky if it was just a booking he got. I'd hope McCall booted his arse after the game for an embarrassing dive.

 

 

I cringed yesterday when he went down, worst dive I've seen in a while and a deserved booking. Hope we don't see him doing it again as I hate to see strikers take a dive, its the one thing I hated about McDonald.

 

PS were nowhere near being close to securing 3rd.

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Yeah I wouldn't come out publicly, but I'd certainly hope Ojamaa was told in no uncertain terms that you don't do that at Motherwell.

 

He can beat players with his skill and touch, he doesn't need to resort to unsporting play.

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PS were nowhere near being close to securing 3rd.

Very true.

 

However, with upcoming games being away to Dunfermline, home to Aberdeen & away to Killie we could be in pole position to do just that by the time we meet Rangers at Fir Park.

 

In fact, if Rangers drop some points between now & our meeting it would be nice to see us looking for a win over them to move into 2nd. Not likely, I know, but it would be nice.

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Notice St.Johnstone & Dundee Utd players in the paper today saying they are aiming to overtake us & clinch 3rd. With the possibility of 3rd this year getting you into the Champions League depending on the Rangers situation then if you are ever gonna finish 3rd then this is the season to do it.

Massive game against Dunfermline where 3 points are a must just to get back on track & to let the teams below us know that we aren't giving up 3rd place easily & with games running out they can fight each other for 4th.

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Notice St.Johnstone & Dundee Utd players in the paper today saying they are aiming to overtake us & clinch 3rd. With the possibility of 3rd this year getting you into the Champions League depending on the Rangers situation then if you are ever gonna finish 3rd then this is the season to do it.

Massive game against Dunfermline where 3 points are a must just to get back on track & to let the teams below us know that we aren't giving up 3rd place easily & with games running out they can fight each other for 4th.

 

Yes, Saturday's game is massive for us. I'd like to think we can take a good support to EEP.

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I think since the weekends results the goalposts have changed slightly.

 

Rangers: They are a wounded animal, but they do seem to have a good team spirit behind them as was seen in the thrashing of ICT. I think if Rangers keep their current squad then they should get 2nd, but if there are some major player cuts then I think they might drop a god few points between now and the end of the season.

 

 

Motherwell: Saturday was a wee blip but not unexpected. A win at Dunfermline would see us back on track.

 

A Dunfermline (Win)

H Aberdeen (Win)

A Kilmarnock (Draw)

H Rangers (Loss)

A Hibernian (Draw)

 

That would give us 8 points going into the split and put us at 56 points and hopefully we would still have a decent cushion of points in third place.

 

Hearts: They seem to have lost their way big style and have only got 1 point in 15. One more defeat and I think we can count them out of the race.

 

St Johnstone: A bit of a dark horse. Have been poor over the last few weeks, but maybe their win against Dunfermline will push them on a bit. But I think we should hopefully be at least 6 or more points ahead by the split.

 

Dundee Utd: For me these guys are the biggest threat. Looking really strong right now and have the momentum. They also have a decent run in so could grab a few more points. The huge bonus for us is that we are currently 11 points ahead of them so if we can keep that cushion going into the split we should be fine.

 

Aberdeen: Not a threat, but could make the top six ahead of Hearts going on current form.

 

Bascially I think the games against Dunny and Aberdeen are huge and if we win these it will go a huge way to sealing third spot.

 

Long long way to go though.

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Been bored this morning so taking a look at the futures up to the split to make some daft predictions. I think I'm right in saying that such useless predictions always turn up here on the run-up to the split so I'm going for:

 

Rangers:

Hearts (H) - 3 points

United (A) - 0 points

Celtic (H) - 0 points

Motherwell (A) - 1 point

St Mirren (H) - 3 points

Total: 61 points

 

Motherwell:

Dunfermline (A) - 3 points

Aberdeen (H) - 1 point

Kilmarnock (A) - 1 point

Rangers (H) - 1 point

Hibs (A) - 0 points

Total: 54 points

 

United:

Inverness (H) - 3 points

Celtic (H) - 0 points

Rangers (H) - 3 points

Hibs (A) - 1 point

Dunfermline (A) - 3 points

Aberdeen (A) - 1 point

Total: 48 points.

 

St Johnstone:

 

Kilmarnock (A) - 1 point

St Mirren (A) - 1 point

Hearts (H) - 3 points

Inverness (A) - 0 points

Celtic (A) - 0 points

Inverness (H) - 3 points

Total: 47 points

 

Hearts:

Rangers (A) - 0 points

Hibs (H) - 1 point

St Johnstone (A) - 0 points

Aberdeen (H) - 3 points

Dunfermline (A) - 3 points

Total: 43 points

 

 

I'm being harsh on our own chances as I think we will take more than 6 points from the next 5 games and United will be doing very well to pick up 11 from 6 - so I'm edging on the side of caution.

 

Even still, this would see us 6 points clear of United with 15 points to play for. I would like to think we can at least match their points haul after the split. Also factored in my predictions is the fact that Rangers will be letting players go this week.

 

If wee rumours of them being liquidated this week are true - and this seasons results of their games are void - St Johnstone and Hearts would lose 1 point each and while United and us haven't taken a point from them yet.

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3rd place by no means wrapped up..............BUT........... we do have a good oportunity to wrap it up by the split. Not saying we will but definately we have earned the chance to do that

 

we play the bottom 2 teams away

 

we play 2 teams probably not making the top 6

 

we play rangers at home.

 

I thought a while back that 60 points would win 3rd. If we can win the 4 games against Dunfermline, Hibs, Killie and Aberdeen ( not an easy task but certainly not fantasy stuff ) we will be on 60 points at the split. I do not believe that any of the teams under us will manage to get to 60 points by the end of the season.

 

That would set us up to have a go at second place with all guns blazing if Rangers are still within our grasp and they have a tough run in to the split.

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3rd place by no means wrapped up..............BUT........... we do have a good oportunity to wrap it up by the split. Not saying we will but definately we have earned the chance to do that we play the bottom 2 teams away we play 2 teams probably not making the top 6 we play rangers at home. I thought a while back that 60 points would win 3rd. If we can win the 4 games against Dunfermline, Hibs, Killie and Aberdeen ( not an easy task but certainly not fantasy stuff ) we will be on 60 points at the split. I do not believe that any of the teams under us will manage to get to 60 points by the end of the season. That would set us up to have a go at second place with all guns blazing if Rangers are still within our grasp and they have a tough run in to the split.

The only note of caution I would add to this is that relegation settled teams are very dangerous at this stage of the season. We are more than capable of getting maximum points from those games but this Motherwell and we could end up losing all 4. Personally I think we will get around 6-8 points from these games. I think we will beat Rangers in March 31 (don't ask why, I just think it's scripted that way) which will give us 57 points before the split, which was enough to secure third place the last time we got it. All in all I see us finishing the season with 65 points and that will be good enough for at least 3rd place.

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I may be mistaken, but haven't United picked up a habit of dropping points the game after Houston is away on international duty? With also CMS away with the Under 21's it could be a tough game, getting anything from Inverness - as Butcher will get them fired up so they won't enter the late relegation battle. As we know, a team for nothing to play for can be easily dragged into it after the split (like us under Malpas where we missed out just on a top six... and ended up just surving)

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I may be mistaken, but haven't United picked up a habit of dropping points the game after Houston is away on international duty? With also CMS away with the Under 21's it could be a tough game, getting anything from Inverness - as Butcher will get them fired up so they won't enter the late relegation battle. As we know, a team for nothing to play for can be easily dragged into it after the split (like us under Malpas where we missed out just on a top six... and ended up just surving)

 

Yeah, United tend to have a mare after Houston's travels but given the game isn't until Monday, they have a wee bit more breathing space this time.

 

On current form, united are our main threat but I'd be confident of us beating them if we met in a crunch game post split.

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On current form, united are our main threat but I'd be confident of us beating them if we met in a crunch game post split.

 

Thats a good point. This season we have played them 3 times and are unbeaten - we certainly shouldn't fear them.

 

Anyway I think two more wins and we will be too far in front.

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I think since the weekends results the goalposts have changed slightly.

 

Rangers: They are a wounded animal, but they do seem to have a good team spirit behind them as was seen in the thrashing of ICT. I think if Rangers keep their current squad then they should get 2nd, but if there are some major player cuts then I think they might drop a god few points between now and the end of the season.

 

Maybe this is verging on the conspiracy theory side of things but I couldn't help notice that before Rangers went into administration they sent a lot of players, especially younger players, out on loan.

 

Perhaps a way of saying to administrators, our younger players are out on loan, therefore we need more senior pros to be retained until the end of the season to have a viable playing squad.

 

But I don't know the legal situation in terms of the administrators being able to break loan deal agreements and call back players at other clubs.

 

Just a thought!

 

Rangers currently have 7 players on loan at other clubs.

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Get after 2nd place, third will take care of itself that way. Just need to keep focused on one game at a time. Think the manager will take care of this as he has displayed a real ability to adapt in recent weeks which was missing thru november december.

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For all we have a smal squad it seems to be now that if someone is out or having an off day somebody else steps up. eg craigan suspended....clancey in............daley off day ............hump steps in........let's hope we can kee that going through some of the suspensions.

 

With the financial rewards it carries, we have to be aiming for second. but fully agree with previous post that we focus on one game at a time. Although the financial rewards are there it would just be soooooooooooooooo great to see our name in second spot in the league table!!!!

 

COYW

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