While we are battling away at Ibrox, Livingston face Dundee United at Tannadice. Livingston picked up a valuable point last weekend and United’s reaction to a new manager will be intriguing. Will they have a new man in place by then or will a caretaker lead them?
Dundee United then have another massive home match when Partick Thistle visit them on the 26th. On the same day, we take on Livingston at Fir Park. It would not be unfair to say that this will be the biggest weekend of the season so far. Dundee United are second bottom just now but they will be hopeful of picking up points from two home games. If they don’t, Livingston will skip them and the Arabs will be firmly installed as relegation favourites. As for us, we have picked up an abysmal two points out of twelve from home matches against Thistle, Hibs, Dundee and Aberdeen. That is relegation form and a win against Livingston would give our flagging confidence a massive boost.
In the following weekend there is one big game when we travel to Partick Thistle. When the two teams last met, many fans and media people believed they would be watching a dire struggle between the clubs who would finish eleventh and twelfth. This may or may not turn out to be the case but neither club will be a million miles away from the relegation zone. Past form suggests that the away side does better in this fixture – let’s hope that doesn’t change!
The next weekend has the last of the big matches for a while. We take on Kilmarnock at home but there could be a six-point swing at the City Stadium when Livingston play Thistle. It is important to get as many points as we can from all games but it is vital to win matches against teams around us. If we can take four points from the games against Livvy and Thistle, we’ll be looking good. A small slice of luck from the other games could see us being nine or ten points clear of the bottom spot.
The season is a long way from over and even if we are in a bad position at the end of this series of games, the situation will still be salvageable. It is important that the fans get behind the team in the next few weeks – this could quite easily make our season.