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Bottom Six Fixtures


middleeastdave
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After next week we will have played 16 home 17 away........so to have 19 home and away over the 38 game season...we should have 3 home and 2 away in the split fixtures

 

However we have already played Accies/Ict/Dundee twice at FP And only played Ross Cty/Killie once......so to balance that up playing all bottom six both home and away( for us) .......would mean we would have played 18 home and 20 away

 

Think we were predicted a top six finish (ha ha ha) by the SPFL ........so the fixtures are going to be unbalanced some where along the line and can possibly see some teams playing the same team home or away 3 times

 

In 12/13 we had 3 home 1 away fixtures against Smeltic .....next season the reverse with The Arabs ....in both we ended with 19 home n away

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They always try and balance the 19 home 19 away before they balance the 2 home 2 away between clubs. The problem you have is that the 19 home 19 away only works if you have three teams in each half who are due 3 home 2 away and vice versa, otherwise one team in one half gets 20 home 18 away and one in the other half gets 18 home 20 away. Motherwell and Ross County would both be predicted to be top 6 whilst Thistle and Rangers would be predicted bottom six.

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Given the 'controversy' around the imbalance of old firm visits at the start of the season, I think the league will do its best to ensure we (and anyone else affected) finishes with 19/19.

 

Accies and Inverness away are nailed on, hopefully the latter isn't midweek.

Partick thistle ring a bell as being either the other team who got the shitty end of the stick (financially) when it came to OF fixtures? In which case they have lucked out by getting both OF at home post split, when they've probably planned for bottom 6.

 

The year we went to parkhead 3 times, we had finished bottom 6 the year before, and were told as the "unseeded" team in the top 6 we had to take the unbalanced fixtures, which is fair enough.

 

But given that, how can a team who were in the championship last year be guaranteed a home fixture v Celtic 3 weeks before the split?

 

I'm truly pissed of by the early announcement of the OF fixture, it just shits all over the rest of Scottish football, and confirms the SPFL have no interest in selling the rest of the package.

 

They were never going to send Rangers to parkhead 3 times, but it should've been a possibility. Announcing this fixture 2-3 weeks before the other 29 post split fixtures is just embarrassing and infuriating, and undermines the "sporting integrity" of the whole competition.

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Partick thistle ring a bell as being either the other team who got the shitty end of the stick (financially) when it came to OF fixtures?

 

Partick, Hamilton and Motherwell only got two while Hearts, Dundee and Inverness had four home games v the Old Firm.

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If we finish where we are now we will be playing either Falkirk, Morton or Dundee United to retain our premiership status. Not as daunting as playing Rangers, however, we would be up against a team with momentum and confidence. Hopefully, it won’t come to that and we will have just enough to avoid the play-off spot and leave that problem to someone else. What is clear it’s time to stand up and be counted. No manager, captain wants to be remembered as the one who was in charge when we were relegated. We have the personnel to finish 10th, we just need to get our arse in gear and prove it. Anyway I am sure the pundits want a Dundee v Dundee United play-off. Make it so!

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If I remember correctly it was announced at beginning that if a team lost out in a home game as we did in 2010 as had 18 home and 20 away then until all other teams suffered same fate it wouldn't happen again. This season someone in bottom 6 will only get 18 home and someone in top 6 will get 20 home. I just hope if we do get 3 at home they don't change ICT game as better away from home against them but another Accies game at home would be good .

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Dundee are technically due another 3 at home but that would take them to 20 so it's likely we'll have them at Fir Park again.

Killie will have played 16 home 17 away.........they have already played the rest of the bottom 6 twice away, apart from us,so think they will be coming to FP,so looks like they will be away to someone 3 times if they are getting 19/19 split

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If we finish where we are now we will be playing either Falkirk, Morton or Dundee United to retain our premiership status. Not as daunting as playing Rangers, however, we would be up against a team with momentum and confidence.

 

It's also worth bearing in mind rangers had to play 5 games in 14 days to get promoted.

 

If we face the 2nd placed side we could be in trouble.

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I’ve witnessed a few relegations in the past and they were not pleasant. This squad may not be the best, however, we need to back them and pray that we have enough to finish in 10th. We can do it, however, the players really need to step up a gear. We could also do with a bit of luck, as a few decisions have gone against us in recent games. It’s not going to be easy, however, we can get out of this mess.

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I looked at the 34 games played after the league cup round 1 fixtures.

 

defined acceptable defence performance as conceding 0 or 1 goal gives the defence 50% good games ( 17/34 )

 

defined acceptable attack performance as scoring 2 goals or more gives the attack 29% good games ( 10/34 )

 

Of those 10 games we have won 8 and lost 2 ( Celtic 3-4 and Aberdeen 7-2 )

 

Of course the midfield has a big influence on those numbers but its coming down to crunch time and we need to start scoring and winning. Not conceding may get you a draw here and there but we need to start getting 3 points so for me we need to take the risk and play with an attacking formation as much as possible from now till end of season.

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Do we? Really, do we?

 

I think at best we are Relegation fodder, all starts from Start of season with McGhee not bringing in players and giving contracts, to lets be honest players well past SPFL ability.

 

 

If we finish where we are now we will be playing either Falkirk, Morton or Dundee United to retain our premiership status. Not as daunting as playing Rangers, however, we would be up against a team with momentum and confidence. Hopefully, it won’t come to that and we will have just enough to avoid the play-off spot and leave that problem to someone else. What is clear it’s time to stand up and be counted. No manager, captain wants to be remembered as the one who was in charge when we were relegated. We have the personnel to finish 10th, we just need to get our arse in gear and prove it. Anyway I am sure the pundits want a Dundee v Dundee United play-off. Make it so!

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I think if we compare our squad to that of Inverness and that of Accies, I'm almost certain that there won't be many Motherwell fans who would say that our squad is weaker than either of theirs. I'd also be of the opinion that most Inverness and Accies fans would probably agree that our squad is stronger than theirs.

 

Our squad is littered with poor players, of that there is no doubt, but a squad with a spine of McManus, Tait, Pearson, McHugh, Cadden, Moult and McDonald should have enough to stay in the division...the problem for me is 3-fold though, firstly we have a good nucleus of a team, but those outwith that nucleus aren't of similar standard, Samson is a poor, poor goalkeeper regardless of what his defenders say, Jules, Hammell and Chalmers have all struggled at left-back, while we've struggled all season at left-mid and centre-mid has been an issue for a lot longer. Secondly, injuries to key players have really hampered us all year, McHugh has never had a run, Hammell and Chalmers have both been out long term, McManus and Moult are both currently out...we've never really been able to play our first pick 11, all season. Thirdly, some of the management decisions, tactically from McGhee and now Robinson are bordering on the insane.

 

I think the penny will probably have dropped with Robinson that 3 at the back doesn't work, unless you have 2 proper wing-backs and 3 central midfielders, and he'll now revert to a standard 4 at the back, with 2 up front, with three midfielders and one out and out winger. If we can get the basics right over the next 6 games, I think we'll have too much for ICT to claw us back and I think we will better what Accies do over the course of the bottom 6 games.

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