Premiership Play Offs Candidates.And Play Offs Thread.

Told you it wouldn't last, normal service has resumed.

I blame Durnford eh?

SPFL have confirmed the dates:

Tuesday 1 May, 2018 - Premiership play-off quarter-final, 1st leg
4th in Championship v 3rd in Championship
Kick-off 7.45pm

Friday 4 May, 2018 - Premiership play-off quarter-final, 2nd leg
3rd in Championship v 4th in Championship
Kick-off 7.45pm

Monday 7 May, 2018 - Premiership play-off semi-final, 1st leg
Quarter-final winner v 2nd in Championship
Live on BT Sport, kick-off 7.45pm

Friday 11 May, 2018 - Premiership play-off semi-final, 2nd leg
2nd in Championship v Quarter-final winner
Live on BT Sport, kick-off 7.45pm

Thursday 17 May, 2018 - Premiership play-off final, 1st leg
Semi-final winner v 11th in Premiership
Live on BT Sport, kick-off 7.45pm

Sunday 20 May, 2018 - Premiership play-off final, 2nd leg
11th in Premiership v Semi-final winner
Live on BT Sport, kick-off 3.30pm


Think that suits us quite well tbh, only a 3 day break for whoever we play in the Semi, and if we get through we've still got 6 days rest before the final.

Ridiculous that not 1 game is on a Saturday IMO

Alloa up 1 nil against Raith and Dumbarton hanging onto a 0-0 draw against Arbroath going in at HT.

Alloa 2-0 Raith.

Arbroath 1-2 Dumbarton wow, Sons with a 93rd min winner.

Looking good for a Dumbarton v Alloa final. Staying DOOOOON Raith.

Raith staying down would be hilarious given the money the invested in bouncing back. Funny anyway that Ayr beat them to the title.

Big game this Sat, Dundee v Hamilton, both on 33 points so could be massive for the Accies if they got a win here.
Partick Th playing Ross County on Fri too, a draw wouldn't really help either of them avoid the play offs so hoping Partick win and Dundee lose, and the gap between 11th & 10th place would be closed to just the 1 point.

I suppose the ideal thing would be for the gap to be as close between 11th spot and as many of the other sides as possible to ensure that its a battle right up until the last match

Yeah so the 11th placed team can't afford to rest any of their players. Still really wanting that team to be Dundee.

Massive win for Dundee today against Hamilton. Puts them 6 points ahead of the play off spot with 2 games left, and 9 goals better off too so they're as good as safe.

If I had to predict the remaining results:

Ross County draw with Dundee; Motherwell beat Partick Thistle; St Johnstone draw with Hamilton.
Dundee beat Partick Thistle; Motherwell beat Hamilton; St Johnstone beat Ross County.

Which would keep the table as it is as far as we're concerned, PT in the play offs and RC bottom.

Aye the results went the opposite of what I was wanting, Partick and County drawing and Dundee beating Accies. Can only hope it goes to the last game between County and Partick now, so 2nd bottom can't rest players. Hamilton aren't safe yet either and could still finish in the play offs, but I think i'd rather have Partick now, seen as Dundee are pretty safe. Would be FAF if Partick win their next game and Dundee lose theirs, then Partick hump them 4-0 in the last game to overturn their GD, oh please footballing gods, make it happen.

On a happier note, Raith got pumped again and are staying DOON. Dumbarton and Alloa in the final. I see Buchanan didn't even get a game he was left on the bench, shoulda stuck with us and had another great season.

Or maybe he'd have stunk up the place here.... I don't think he'd have scored any more than the guys we have.

Liviforever wrote:
I see Buchanan didn't even get a game he was left on the bench, shoulda stuck with us and had another great season.

Perhaps if we kept him we wouldn't have got Sir Ryan of Hardie with the freedom of Livingston!

cptn_hooch wrote:

Liviforever wrote:
I see Buchanan didn't even get a game he was left on the bench, shoulda stuck with us and had another great season.

Perhaps if we kept him we wouldn't have got Sir Ryan of Hardie with the freedom of Livingston!

Yeah maybe not. We would've had a better first half to the season though, we def lacked a goal scoring striker till Hardie came in January. And I doubt we'd have had both Miller and Hardie signed up, and both playing together up front make us a better goal threat.

Bertie Bassett wrote:Or maybe he'd have stunk up the place here.... I don't think he'd have scored any more than the guys we have.

Bit harsh, he was in a settled team here where he scored a load of goals, at Raith he wasn't number one and has suffered because of it (too many cooks spoiling the broth there), Danny Mullen def helped him out too, and unselfishly did a lot of work that helped Buchs get some of his goals.

Mullen missed a few games at the start of the season didn't he? And wasn't that impressive on his return, at least from a scoring point of view. No, I really don't see Buchanan making that much difference to us in the early part of the season. Apart from one season at Alloa he didn't have a good record at second tier level really. Yes he was a major contributor to promotion but that doesn't mean he'd have repeated it at the higher level. Didn't Raith also sign Spence to have him & Buchanan link up again as per the season the latter did well at Alloa?

Buchanan did well for us in the 2nd tier too, him and White were being chopped and changed so that wasn't ideal for either of them but both still scored a decent amount of goals. Can't be arsed trawling through it again, sure I looked it up a season ago and it was about 12 goals he scored.

Really can't agree with you that he wouldn't have made a difference for us this season if he had continued to play alongside Mullen, he'd have bagged a few goals and been enough for us to have run St Mirren a lot closer.

It has worked out better for us than him though, we've managed to get 2nd place with a shot of promotion through the play offs and Hardie has made up for losing Buchanan. Just a pity we didn't have Hardie all season though, we'd prob have won the league.

That's why I mentioned Mullen, his form wasn't that good, now you could argue that he was missing his strike partner from the previous season but he didn't exactly step up a gear when he went to St Midden.

It's all ifs & ands - there is no guarantee that either would have done any better had Buchanan stayed. So it's all up for debate. Based on their respective performances this season, we wouldn't have been trying to sign either of them.

Hardie has been a real find. Would we have won the league having him from the start? Possibly, but again it's all hypothetical.

LiviLion wrote:If I had to predict the remaining results:

Ross County draw with Dundee; Motherwell beat Partick Thistle; St Johnstone draw with Hamilton.

Only 1/3 then. Ross County 0-1 Dundee; Partick Thistle 0-1 Motherwell; Hamilton 1-2 St Johnstone

Means there are still 3 teams that can finish 11th, albeit Hamilton would need an absolute disaster (10-2 anyone?) to lose the 13 goals they have over Partick.

Dundee are 9th regardless of what happens, so they'll probably down tools and it'll be enough for Partick to get at least a point which will make sure they avoid the automatic drop (again, assuming Ross County don't win by 10 goals).

Good stuff, means Partick will have to field a full strength team and will have a day's less rest than us if we get to the final.

Just hope all goes well on Fri and we get there ok, and it isn't Ross County we face, feck having Dingwall as the final journey, would far rather it was in Glasgow.

LiviLion wrote:

LiviLion wrote:If I had to predict the remaining results:

Ross County draw with Dundee; Motherwell beat Partick Thistle; St Johnstone draw with Hamilton.

Only 1/3 then. Ross County 0-1 Dundee; Partick Thistle 0-1 Motherwell; Hamilton 1-2 St Johnstone

Means there are still 3 teams that can finish 11th, albeit Hamilton would need an absolute disaster (10-2 anyone?) to lose the 13 goals they have over Partick.

Dundee are 9th regardless of what happens, so they'll probably down tools and it'll be enough for Partick to get at least a point which will make sure they avoid the automatic drop (again, assuming Ross County don't win by 10 goals).

Actually Ross County have a vastly superior goal difference compared to Partick Thistle meaning that one point for Partick will not be sufficient; they need to win to be certain of 11th place. If they draw and Ross County win then they go into the automatic drop position.

Durnford wrote:

Actually Ross County have a vastly superior goal difference compared to Partick Thistle meaning that one point for Partick will not be sufficient; they need to win to be certain of 11th place. If they draw and Ross County win then they go into the automatic drop position.

Yep, noticed that I got their GDs the wrong way around a while ago and was just coming on to edit my post, means Thistle can't just shitfest a draw and need to go for it

LiviLion wrote:

Durnford wrote:

Actually Ross County have a vastly superior goal difference compared to Partick Thistle meaning that one point for Partick will not be sufficient; they need to win to be certain of 11th place. If they draw and Ross County win then they go into the automatic drop position.

Yep, noticed that I got their GDs the wrong way around a while ago and was just coming on to edit my post, means Thistle can't just shitfest a draw and need to go for it

Absolutely - makes for a very interesting run up to the final. Makes it even more important that we get the required result on Friday; hopefully without any more losses.

Actually I now thinking there's a real chance that we could be travelling up to Dingwall on Sunday 20th...

Durnford wrote:

LiviLion wrote:

Durnford wrote:

Actually Ross County have a vastly superior goal difference compared to Partick Thistle meaning that one point for Partick will not be sufficient; they need to win to be certain of 11th place. If they draw and Ross County win then they go into the automatic drop position.

Yep, noticed that I got their GDs the wrong way around a while ago and was just coming on to edit my post, means Thistle can't just shitfest a draw and need to go for it

Absolutely - makes for a very interesting run up to the final. Makes it even more important that we get the required result on Friday; hopefully without any more losses.

Actually I now thinking there's a real chance that we could be travelling up to Dingwall on Sunday 20th...

Well I've never been there before and it was my first visit to Tannadice on Monday too and it was a happy one, maybe it's destined to be the same next Sunday.

Last time I went to Thistles ground Buchanan was playing for them in a cup game and Dave MacKay missed a penalty for us in the pen shoot out, so wouldn't mid going there and making up for that disappointment with a play off final win.

Either way I still think we'd win, but would prefer Thistle for location.