Kmcalpin

I can envisage us picking up a draw or maybe two at home but nothing from the away games, going on recent form. St Johnstone will be really fired up while they still have a fighting chance in the first game. Killie have our number although their away form is not great Tynecastle is a hard ground to pick up points. We have taken a mere point from Ross County in 3 games and Dundee have beaten us twice. Obviously a win against St Johnstone or Kilmarnock will settle our nerves but it won't be easy.

That might be true, but it only evened out an earlier 18/20 split. A very subjective and controversial approach.

I reckon it'll be between ourselves and Ross County for the play off place. It'll be tight. I'm confident that we'll finish 2 or 3 points above St Johnstone though. Its hard to see where a win is going to come from.

100%. When we were awarded only 18 home games in the past, we were told that it was because we finished in the wrong half of the table. In the interests of consistency that should also have applied to Hearts. Shafted! Also typical that we get St Johnstone first. Thats the one game we didn't want.

St Johnstone seem to be suffering from a number of defensive injuries (not as bad as us though) and Dundee fans moaning about their chances after today's crushing defeat in Leith. The exact post split fixture list will be influential in results.

I'd add Robinson to that list, once he's fully recovered.

Seeing it is you, we'll let you off!🤣

Agreed but that's largely down to our catastrophic injury list this season. The worst I've come across in over 60 years. Quality is another matter entirely.

Not St Johnstone just after the break please.

A disappointing performance today, but a very good result. We also achieved a rare clean sheet, although we couldn’t manage a single shot on target. I thought Casey, Koutroumbis, and Slattery were the pick of the bunch, despite the latter two being played out of position. I had an inkling that one of our central defenders would get injured today and so it proved. Neil Critchley said that our set up caught him by surprise. Not sure what he meant by that but assume that he expected a high press game. At no time did I expect our approach to live up to the pre match hype. it certainly wasn't a high press as we sat off Hearts and played quite narrowly. They looked fitter and better organised than us and their off the ball work rate, when not in possession, was far higher than ours. I felt a bit sorry for TJ and Watt as they were starved of decent service. TJ proved a bit lightweight and isolated and aerial balls aren’t his forte. For long spells I completely forgot that Watt was playing, he was so anonymous. Again, Lennon Miller was very subdued apart from from the odd flash of skill. Hearts had done their homework and learned from St Mirren and Kilmarnock that "industrial" tactics do pay dividends against us. They knew beforehand that we don't like it up us. I still don't get Balcombe being preferred to Oxborough but there will be a reason for that. Injuries continue to crucify us and I just hope that the likes of Gordon, Kaleta and Seddon are available after the break.

I think that if a team finishes in the predicted half of the table (based on the previous season's final league placing) then they are guaranteed an equal split of home and away games. That being the case, both Hearts and Kilmarnock might well be the ones to lose out.

Assuming that Dundee lose tomorrow, then surely if we win one more game, then they "only" need to win 3 games, as we'd be 8 pts ahead of them no?

Very pleased with the result but not with the performance. My expectations pre match were very modest. I had completely discounted a top six place so our failure to achieve that didn't bother me. I simply couldn't see us taking anything from the game so a point was very encouraging. Ross County, St Johnstone and Kilmarnock all losing was the icing on the cake for me. If Hibs beat Dundee tomorrow that will top off my weekend. It's all to play for, of course, but we've got an excellent chance of avoiding 12th place and a good chance of avoiding 11th spot. After the split, it'll be dog eat dog,which will benefit us. 3 home games will also benefit us.

Came on later on today and hardly noticed him.

Casey for me. Slattery and Koutrombis also in the running though.

I'm not totally sold on Andrews. Many rate him highly, but anytime I've seen him he's failed to make an impression and the game passed him by. A young player though.

I can see us losing a goal or two today so I hope we start out with a positive attitude and line up. Lets go for it and score more than Hertz do. If we lose today lets do so all guns blazing.

It does and badly so. However, I believe he's being signed as a much needed defensive midfielder, although he can play in several positions.

Justice has been done but the damage was done on Saturday through no fault of our own. That won't be rectified. Killie benefitted once again, possibly through downright cheating.

Excellent comments. Thre's far too much cheating going on in the game, and we're not blameless ourselves. However the SFA ought to be taking an active interest in Armstrong and his manager given that he's been involved in at least two unsavoury and similar incidents this season. Such behaviour has implications for the offended party; their family; and club in terms of loss of earnings and availability. A polite, but stern, letter from the beaks to the Killie Chairman warning him that they're watching Armstrong and McInnes wouldn't go amiss. Will that happen - No. Its also up to the media to call this out - will that happen - No.

This is 95% on Kettlewell and the players, but yes, MW isn't completely blameless. I don't get playing loanee Balcombe in preference to the Ox; and fielding only one striker on Saturday. Yes, our shape is also wrong. All that said, St Mirren, Aberdeen and Kilmarnock sussed out that playing an "industrial or agricultural" midfield would be enough to knock us completely out of our stride. We need to adpat an change PDQ.

I believe so. Prior to yetserday's game, the Official Site reported that he was "being assessed", whereas the BBC said that he was out. Thats all I know. If both he and Balmer are unavailable we either go with a central back two of O'Donnell and Casey or draft in Koutroumbis (???) to the middle as well.

We have to pick a more positive team for next week. Armstong is a target man not an out and out striker. Plange is too lightweight so that leaves us some combination of Watt, Ebiye or Maswhanise behind/beside him. Defence could also be problematic if Gordon is still unwell and Wilson is unavailable. Fingers crossed no more injuries in training this week! As far as I'm concerned, next Saturday is a free hit. The crunch games come after the split (expecting 3 home games).

I would say the next 6 games. MW needs to know the squad and its limitations. Aberdeen helped him do this as are Killie today. I don't think the team we fielded today was our strongest but at least its its letting him see the full squad in action. We can write off next week but really need to pick up a point or two after the split.

Short term pain long term gain.