Next 3 games end of quarter

[Shedboy1971]

Be a good mark to see where we are, wat you think:-

Hibs v Utd - we owe these diving ba$tards one and i can see a 1-1 here
United v Motherwell - tight prob 2-2 - witH gb and me in rehab after trying to keep up tthe drink with mrsSB in hospo
Livi v Utd - again i can see a1-1 or 1-0 here so im going for 4-1 us :)

5 points would give us a nice top six after 11 games. Something I wouldnt have believed at start tbh

[shedka]

I think we will win at Easter Rd, or at least get something, gonna be a decent away support I reckon

Then as you say we have Motherwell home on 23rd,Livi away midweek on 27th then St Johnstone home 30th so a busy and difficult week that

I think we will get a decent return and be well positioned but will also depend on avoiding more injury set backs and dodgy decisions

Livi away midweek on that surface will be tricky

[BackRowArab]

I'd take 4 points right now. TBH, 3 would be great

[weegiearab]

I would hope for 3 or 4 pts. I will be happy as long as we keep the gap between ourselves and the bottom 4 teams at over 10pts. Not being relegated is our no1 priority this season and not being involved in the relegation dogfight is our 2nd biggest priority....anything above that will be a bonus and the more points on the board means that we can start to look up rather than down!

hibs- 3-0 loss
motherwell -2-1 loss
livi -1-0 win

I would be delighted if we bettered any of these predictions!

[shedka]

Wow surprised at that, of course surviving is a priority, but my only focus league wise the rest of this season is top 6 and more would be a bonus, we are right in the mix for it, not looking behind us

We go above Hibs with a win, I genuinely don't think them or Hearts are anything special and ain't writing out off that both are certain to finish above us

[weegiearab]

I think that because I see this season as a very transitional period for the club, my expectations are very low. The potential sh#te trap of us falling off a cliff is massive...I will see this season as a success if we are sitting mid table at the end of the season and we have built a strong foundation to build on for next year. We have lots of signs of encouragement but we also look a bit fragile in places.
This is a big step forward for me as I had us looking at being cut a drift at the foot if the table by Christmas...and I am delighted that I am wrong! I have recently had a chat with one of our players and was told that the players love working under TC..this was music to my ears as I thought that his lack of experience would be seen as a weakness in the dressing room. The signing of Charlie Mulgrew has helped this massively and it appears that all the players are buying into TC's vision.
I would love nothing more than us battling for a European place which is where I think we SHOULD be....but this season...progress on and off the park and a solid platform to build on will be seen as progress!

[ARAbCHNID]

Good post Weegie.
We were all settling for 10th at best weren't we?
Now our hopes have risen about 4 places.
Early days, 8/38, but I am liking what I'm hearing & seeing.

[shedka]

I get that, I felt that more last season though, survive, build a base, think we have a strong base with a good mix of experience and youth, guys who have played a lot of games for us and know the club, a manager they much prefer to MM (just listening to the Friday show on dutv they have a player each week as guest and you can tell they didn't love it under MM)

To me this is our time and season to say we are back by getting that top six position, so that we can make it a regular thing again, it won't be easy, very competitive league with a good few teams vying for maybe 1/2 places but I will be disappointed a bit if 6 teams or more finish above us

This season we have Benji, we have Fuchs etc, and stability, we should be going for it and aiming for the best we can do this season, imo we are better than a mid table below top six standard right now, just lacking a wee bit up top but otherwise looking strong

[Whitfieldarab]

I think that because I see this season as a very transitional period for the club, my expectations are very low. The potential sh#te trap of us falling off a cliff is massive...I will see this season as a success if we are sitting mid table at the end of the season and we have built a strong foundation to build on for next year. We have lots of signs of encouragement but we also look a bit fragile in places.
This is a big step forward for me as I had us looking at being cut a drift at the foot if the table by Christmas...and I am delighted that I am wrong! I have recently had a chat with one of our players and was told that the players love working under TC..this was music to my ears as I thought that his lack of experience would be seen as a weakness in the dressing room. The signing of Charlie Mulgrew has helped this massively and it appears that all the players are buying into TC's vision.
I would love nothing more than us battling for a European place which is where I think we SHOULD be....but this season...progress on and off the park and a solid platform to build on will be seen as progress!

Ye good post Weegie. Even though we are doing better than I or most people had thought points wise at this stage our displays have been a bit of a mixed bag and have probably had our best games against the uglies. Firstly we need to meet our main objective or survival then see where it takes us and top 6 would be great but I'm not too fussed,would love to be in the mix for that pre split though but we're maybe a 15/20 goal a season striker away from that.

[GUNBOAT]

When you look at our record and BTW i'm not complaining anything but however i reckon our points to goal ratio must be a Scottish top flight if not european first.How we can accumulate 14 points having scored only 5 goals in 8 games?.
Its truly amazing but there can be no doubt we have deserved the wins and draws that i have witnessed but we really need to start scoring more goals,lets just hope our new striker can finally get a forward on the scoresheet.

[japanarab]

“ I have recently had a chat with one of our players and was told that the players love working under TC.”
That’s brilliant to hear as I was worried about more experienced pros taking the p1ss due to his lack of experience at the top level. Thought it might all go a bit Cathro. The Fuchs incident has probably bought him a few extra brownie points with the players too. Let’s keep our fingers crossed Max can be a solution to our goal scoring.

[weegiearab]

From what I can gather, Mulgrew and TC were pals before Charlie signed. I would imagine that Mulgrew is acting as a conduit between player and management. I had been worried about Charlies influence on the dressing room as he is such a big character but it seems they have struck a really good balance. I reckon we will see CM taking on a bigger role on our coaching staff as he starts to age. TC apparently has very clear visions and trusts his players to go out and play the right way...and the players are loving the freedom that he is giving them! We have a happy dressing room and the players are buying into the way TC wants to play football....these are really positive signs!

[ARAbCHNID]

Can get 14 points from 3 goals in 8 games Boat.
Three 1-0 wins & five 0-0 draws.
We've actually been quite prolific! :)

[Arabdownsouth]

Can get 14 points from 3 goals in 8 games Boat.
Three 1-0 wins & five 0-0 draws.
We've actually been quite prolific! :)

Yep it's been a feckin goalfest 🤣

[bannon_ftd_83]

Only avoid relegation? Really? With this squad? Have some belief man!

Its not a transition season either. We have a strong base with some real top top quality in our team with some excellent youngsters knocking on the door. At full strength,with the exception of Celtic, Rangers and Hibs(due to their forward players) we are as good as anyone else in the league. We do need a striker or 2 though but hopefully our new boy is the missing link. Going by the Coventry fans opinion we are on to a winner with him, gives his all so will fit right in with the current team.

[Arabdownsouth]

Only avoid relegation? Really? With this squad? Have some belief man!

Its not a transition season either. We have a strong base with some real top top quality in our team with some excellent youngsters knocking on the door. At full strength,with the exception of Celtic, Rangers and Hibs(due to their forward players) we are as good as anyone else in the league. We do need a striker or 2 though but hopefully our new boy is the missing link. Going by the Coventry fans opinion we are on to a winner with him, gives his all so will fit right in with the current team.

I think we will comfortably avoid relegation and top six is definitely possible, especially with the sheep struggling. We do need to start scoring more goals though, and hopefully the new man can hit the ground running. I agree, we do have some quality throughout the team now and have nothing to fear from anyone in this league. This weekend would be a great time to finally get some luck and a decent ref for a change, we showed in the cup game that we can compete with Hibs but we need the breaks this time. Its high time their luck ran out and we need to get right into them from the off, show them no respect whatsoever.

[weegiearab]

I am struggling to see how this isn't a transitional season! We have a entirely new management team, we have an entire new spine from front to back of players and we are introducing a load of youngsters!
As for not having belief....the concept of not getting relegated as being our number 1 goal, this should absolutely be our minimum! We are just back into this league and want to build on our success year upon year, this doesn't mean that we can't aspire to be better it just means that we should be looking to consolidate our position in the top flight. You ask, where is my belief? You only believe that we can get into Europe....where is your belief?..we should be trying to win this league!
At the moment, I am happy that we are looking up the way but we have been there before where we thought we were too good to get relegated and we have seen where that left us! Finishing above the relegation places is a realistic goal, getting into Europe is an achievable goal and winning the league is an inspirational goal! We are not a finished product, we are making progress and I would have taken your hand off if you offered me that we would be in this position at the start of the season. With the final weeks of the Mellon era and the opening game of the season....I don't think you would have found many people that would have seen avoiding relegation as a success!

[japanarab]

Avoiding relegation comfortably whilst throwing in wins against The Fun, The Hun and taking something at Parkhead would be satisfactory in my book and we've already completed three of those. Bear in my mind who our manager is--first season ever at this level.

[TerryTheTerror]

I'm not so sure I'd describe this season as transitional either to be honest. We've had a lot of them in the last 5 years or so with almost entire playing squads changed season to season. We haven't had to do that for a couple of years now and, at the moment, we are tweaking the squad as you'd hope we would be going forward.

I take your point about the manager though, it's easy to argue the point on that alone.

[LSArab]

The team this season is best it has been for a while. Next season we lose Fuchs, Mulgrew will be year older etc

We need to try and achieve what we can this season

[bannon_ftd_83]

The team this season is best it has been for a while. Next season we lose Fuchs, Mulgrew will be year older etc

We need to try and achieve what we can this season

Thats how i see it mate.

Benji(Best Keeper of my lifetime), Fuchs and Levitt won't be here and like you say Mulgrew another year older. We need to take advantage of that and push for something this year.

Weegiearab I dont know what you mean by a new spine to the team. With the exception of marked improvements Levitt and Mulgrew the spine is the same then we have improvements in Scott Mcmann and Sheep pushing L.Smith and lets be honest sheep has been a breath of fresh air. The team and club has some much needed continuity with only improvements being added. Aberdeen are an example of a team in transition season, not us.

[Shedboy1971]

I trust we have plans in place. Its looking good, and dee are sh!te after all their bluster. Exceeding my expectations so far. Long may it continue.

[shedka]

I think we will win at Easter Rd, or at least get something, gonna be a decent away support I reckon

Then as you say we have Motherwell home on 23rd,Livi away midweek on 27th then St Johnstone home 30th so a busy and difficult week that

I think we will get a decent return and be well positioned but will also depend on avoiding more injury set backs and dodgy decisions

Livi away midweek on that surface will be tricky

Feel similar about this upcoming week of 3 games as a couple weeks ago, the table can really change a lot in this 8 day period for many teams with 9 pts to play for across the board

Motherwell (h)
Livi (a)
St Johnstone (h)

I feel less confident about all of these than I did the Hibs game, not to say I think we will do badly but if we come out with 4 pts minimum then that would leave us placed well

If we avoid injuries and dodgy decisions that will help

[Jim_Jam]

I trust we have plans in place. Its looking good, and dee are sh!te after all their bluster.

Rab Douglas in the Courier telling us that he predicted, at the start of the season, the Dee would finish above us.

However he thinks its still early days.

The sleeping giant will have to awaken soon.

Does DFC Thomson actually pay him to write such pysh?

[shedka]

Great to get the 3 pts from the first of the three games, livi away and st johnstone home will be equally difficult

In the 6 game form table we are top along with Sevco on 14 pts

More impressively, if you just took away game day one then we are top outright in the 9 games since losing just 4 goals (2 pens)

However something has to give, I do feel we'll drop pts this week so delighted we've got that 3 banked

If we are looking at top 6 then you usually get in with 45 pts or so after 33 games, so 15 pts a quarter, we are on 20 with one game left of first quarter

4 of our next 6 are away from home, followed by 5 out of 6 in the city, second quarter ends at dens on new year incidentally

[Mecca_Sheikh]

We can still end up with 23 points from this quarter, which is a remarkable amount, considering two defeats in the first four matches.

If we were to have good fortune with injury and suspension, maintain this form and get - say - 20 points from the remaining two thirds we could be on 63+ points. With five matches versus the Top 6 we could probably guess at 7-9 points.

So we could see this team achieve one of our highest ever point totals, if we can keep this going...

[GUNBOAT]

Great sums up the whole matchday experience for me yesterday.Our Hospo table was brilliant and the strangers we were sitting with got on so well with us that the whole table went out together at the end of our day.Great to meet up with Shed Boy and his future wife who i have got to say is on a par with Miss Bradford. :heart:
Thanks to Tam and the boys for extending my good run of Hospo results,there were times when i could not see a victory but the boys dug it out yet again.One of the guys at our table looks in here but does not post so thanks again to J and his company for making it such a good day out.

Arabest The Boat.

[stokearab]

Great sums up the whole matchday experience for me yesterday.Our Hospo table was brilliant and the strangers we were sitting with got on so well with us that the whole table went out together at the end of our day.Great to meet up with Shed Boy and his future wife who i have got to say is on a par with Miss Bradford. :heart:
Thanks to Tam and the boys for extending my good run of Hospo results,there were times when i could not see a victory but the boys dug it out yet again.One of the guys at our table looks in here but does not post so thanks again to J and his company for making it such a good day out.

Arabest The Boat.

Great stuff GB 🧡🍺

[stokearab]

We can still end up with 23 points from this quarter, which is a remarkable amount, considering two defeats in the first four matches.

If we were to have good fortune with injury and suspension, maintain this form and get - say - 20 points from the remaining two thirds we could be on 63+ points. With five matches versus the Top 6 we could probably guess at 7-9 points.

So we could see this team achieve one of our highest ever point totals, if we can keep this going...

It's great that we can look forward like this with confidence at last.

This team has a great mentality and tbh I'm not looking any further than Wednesday night. If they just keep focussed on the next 90 minutes who knows where we might end up.

[GUNBOAT]

Sorry troops meant to post my other effort on the Motherwell thread.

[Shedboy1971]

Great sums up the whole matchday experience for me yesterday.Our Hospo table was brilliant and the strangers we were sitting with got on so well with us that the whole table went out together at the end of our day.Great to meet up with Shed Boy and his future wife who i have got to say is on a par with Miss Bradford. :heart:
Thanks to Tam and the boys for extending my good run of Hospo results,there were times when i could not see a victory but the boys dug it out yet again.One of the guys at our table looks in here but does not post so thanks again to J and his company for making it such a good day out.

Arabest The Boat.

Was a great day GB we had some laughs and you were great company. We lucked out on the hospo table as they were the kindest and funniest folk you could meet. I did get a yellow card for language at one point though :)

ADS bought a birthday present (PMd my thanks mate) its a shedboy1971 united mad mug - brilliant and GB thanks too for your card and present as well.

[Arabdownsouth]

Was a great day GB we had some laughs and you were great company. We lucked out on the hospo table as they were the kindest and funniest folk you could meet. I did get a yellow card for language at one point though :)

ADS bought a birthday present (PMd my thanks mate) its a shedboy1971 united mad mug - brilliant and GB thanks too for your card and present as well.

No problem mate, glad you liked the mug which was crafted with my own not so fair hands incidentally. I've replied your message just now mate ��

FTD!

[shedka]

Ultimately 7 pts from the last four isn't a bad return, disappointing today of course as should have had atleast another point which would have seen us 3rd outright

None of the teams immediately behind gained much either, especially if you look at out leg he lay four games

We have the chance to go 3rd at worst next week with a win before the break, we are capable of getting something next week, that's them lost today, no reason they can't be beaten on their own turf