Premiership Play Offs Candidates.And Play Offs Thread.

A bit presumptuous, but if we got to the play offs final who would you want us to get?

Accies are the Premiership Dumbarton, scraping survival every season but perhaps it is their time for finally coming down, but how good would it be to see a Livi v Dundee final, and us to relegate them again, that would be so sweet i'm having a sugar rush just thinking about it. That would be the cherry on top of the icing of our unbelievable season.

Can't disagree

I'm trying to remember how this works with the 11th place side; is it played at the championships side's place first (on a Tuesday?) and then at the Premiership side's place on the Saturday?

If that's true then Ross County would be a great day out.

Dundee is the obvious choice baring in mind the history.

Would tend to steer clear of Hamilton who always seem to manage to pull out the jammy win (although we probably owe them one after they stole Andreu and Jesus from us).

With Partick although we did well against them in the early part of the season I am still conscious that they have Penrice in their ranks although amazingly he very rarely gets to play despite them stumbling from one defeat to another.

Actually looking at the fixtures potentially Ross County has a possibility of picking up two wins before the split; Partick is one at the best; whilst Dundee will likely end up pointless in my opinion.

Hamilton should be relatively comfortable although their remaining fixtures before the split are not unduely kind to them.

Looking at the Championship play offs too, looks like it's going to be;

9th. Dumbarton
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2nd. Raith
3rd.Arbroath/Alloa
4th. Alloa/Arbroath

Wouldn't mind seeing Alloa come back up, quite like going to their ground (if we don't win our play offs), or even serial Championship survivors Dumbarton staying up, again I like going to their ground (again if we don't win the play offs). Or at a push Arbroath, never been to their ground yet (and hopefully wont next season because we're going up).

Basically anyone except Raith, not one to hold a grudge but Buchanan staying down with Raith would be sweet, he could've helped us win the Championship had he stayed but showed no ambition staying down a level with Raith. If Alloa get promotion though he would prob jump ship again and sign for them, still, we'll be in the Premiership so wont have to worry about him scoring against us.

Liviforever wrote:Looking at the Championship play offs too, looks like it's going to be;

9th. Dumbarton
=============
2nd. Raith
3rd.Arbroath/Alloa
4th. Alloa/Arbroath

Wouldn't mind seeing Alloa come back up, quite like going to their ground (if we don't win our play offs), or even serial Championship survivors Dumbarton staying up, again I like going to their ground (again if we don't win the play offs). Or at a push Arbroath, never been to their ground yet (and hopefully wont next season because we're going up).

Basically anyone except Raith, not one to hold a grudge but Buchananstaying down with Raith would be sweet, he could've helped us win the Championship had he stayed but showed no ambition staying down a level with Raith. If Alloa get promotion though he would prob jump ship again and sign for them, still, we'll be in the Premiership so wont have to worry about him scoring against us.

Who????

Was going to start a new thread but maybe as well just putting it in here and hijacking this as a general play offs thread.

Dumbarton v Inverness is quite a big game for us tonight IMO, if Caley drop points they're out of the play off race and hopefully down tools for our visit next week.

I thought they were visiting us?

Yep it's a home game for us on Tues.

Looks like we need Dunfermline to get a win against ICT now then, and kill off any incentive they have coming into our game. Or QoS to get something against Utd and us beating Brechin, then who cares what anyone else does cause we'd be virtually guaranteed 2nd place.

Bertie Bassett wrote:I thought they were visiting us?

Liviforever wrote:Yep it's a home game for us on Tues.

Fact I probably won't make it must have made it an away game in my head

I'd be fairly confident of us getting a point against them in any case, but would imagine the amount of midweek games they've played would mean players would be rested if they could no longer make the play offs. Their game against Dunfermline could be a cracker.

Like LF says it doesn't matter what happens with ICT if Queens do us a favour on Saturday, even if they draw and we win there's only 3 points in it and we've got over 8 goals on them (after you take the Brechin game into it).

If we beat Brechin only United can catch us -

Now the problems start. With nothing to play for; do we rest players over the next couple of week to ensure everyone's of the best possible fitness or do we try to keep the momentum going?

Effectively Dunfermline need to get one point from their home game against Dumbarton which should be a foregone conclusion; meaning that ICT really cant make it but nevertheless they'll probably go for it on Tuesday.

The Semi finals kick off on 8/9th May with the second leg 12/13th (subject to TV rights).

If we do get through the semi I've put forward my preferred team to meet as Dundee but realistically Hamilton are in meltdown at the moment.

Start with fringe players and give the others a run out in the second half in the next two games. Or vice versa.

Keep playing the strongest team unless there are players who could incur a suspension if they get a booking. Momentum is important in play off runs.

The relegation candidate is wide open, Hamilton lost today but have had decent results, Thistle were in free fall until today, likewise Dundee. I just hope they all knock lumps out of each other between now & the play offs

I'd rest up as many players as possible on Tues, fringe players like Buchanan, McMillan, Frizzell, Mullin, Robinson, Thompson and even Keaghan could do with a run out.

Pittman and Byrne could def do with a wee rest too.

Bertie Bassett wrote:Keep playing the strongest team unless there are players who could incur a suspension if they get a booking. Momentum is important in play off runs.

The relegation candidate is wide open, Hamilton lost today but have had decent results, Thistle were in free fall until today, likewise Dundee. I just hope they all knock lumps out of each other between now & the play offs

I'm not sure I'd say one single point earned in the last seven games was "decent" for Hamilton.

Plus they've just had to release two of their better foreign players so are really struggling. Actually I think both Ross County and Partick are going to climb past them so we might not meet them in the play-off but perhaps not for the reason they'd like. However in the remaining four games Ross County only have one game at home.

Yep it has gotten really tight in the Premiership relegation battle, could still be any of 4 teams with everything changing from week to week.

Looks like Ayr Utd bottled it today, losing to Alloa, advantage Raith in the final league game.

Liviforever wrote:Yep it has gotten really tight in the Premiership relegation battle, could still be any of 4 teams with everything changing from week to week.

Looks like Ayr Utd bottled it today, losing to Alloa, advantage Raith in the final league game.

Yep - if Raith win their game then Ayr have to go through the play-off's. would be great if they missed out on promotion altogether; Somerset Park is barely a league ground let alone Championship standard.

Still think it's going to be Hamilton; did they ever get their £1 million back from that scamster?

Hadn't noticed their slump was that bad, too busy watching Dundee's descent which was arrested on Saturday. I think it's between the bottom 3 now but it is tight.

Bertie Bassett wrote:Dundee's descent

FIFY

Of course the "Glass-half-empty" side of me remembers that we still have to win the semi-final before getting there.

The likeliest two in the Quarter finals has to be Dundee United and Dunfermline. ICT have simply left themselves too much to do IMO.

United and the Pars are fairly evenly matched so its difficult to shout out who'll win through but we have the benefit of playing away midweek and at home on the Saturday/Sunday. Hopkins strategy will probably be to aim for a draw or, at worst, a loss by no more than one goal and then hit them at the 'vale.

My concern at the moment is we don't have much in the way of options up front although we will probably have Mackin back by then but I'm not sure his confidence will be up to it after the last few months with Brechin. We should also have a couple of the youngsters back by then.

Based on what I've seen at the 'Vale Dunfermline are the best defensively (by best I mean the most effective at closing down and spoiling our attack). Dundee United have Mohsni who's apparently been good playing some of the lower tempo teams but struggled against more flowing sides. They've only won once against a side above the bottom three in the past eleven games.

On the back of that and nothing else I think I'd prefer to meet United in the Semi's.

Aye there's nothing decent about Dundee, not the football team anyway.

Even if we decide to lose to ICT (which I don't think we will, not even with some fringe players playing) I can't see Dumbarton beating Dunfermline on Saturday.

The Pars seem to have the same problem with Utd that we have with them (Dunfermline), which is good news for us, so hopefully it'll be Utd that face us in the Semi's.

We should rest players on Tues and then field our usual line up on Sat, it will be another 9 or 10 days till our first play off game so plenty time to recover from Saturday's game and get prepared for it, and we don't want players getting rusty. There is a fine line between resting them between games and letting them sit around going off their stride a bit.

What a great discussion to be having. Who'd have thought.

What, that we're capable of having a great discussion on here? Don't worry it wont last.

Sooner or later someone will mention Canada and that will be Bertie off on one.

I'm a lumberjack and I'm okay
Sleep all night & I work all day...

Xausa, Xausa, Xausa, Did someone mention Canada?

Hamilton is in Ontario... Their CFL team (like NFL but slightly different) failed to make the play offs... Can Hamilton in Lanarkshire avoid the play offs here?