ICT PREVIEW

I hate playing for draws. In fact I’d almost be happier if we needed a win! I say almost because the prospect of us being 1-0 up on 89 minutes is a lot less nerve-wracking if you only need a draw!

Any one of three teams could be relegated on Saturday – us, Livi or Dundee. Of the three only Dundee need to win. A draw would do Livi, and us. I’ll try and explain…

Here’s the table as it stands:

9 Dunfermline 37 -22 34
10 Livingston 37 -27 34
11 Dundee Utd 37 -19 33
12 Dundee 37 -34 32

A draw would do United for the following reasons:

If we draw we would be on 34 points, the same as Livi now. Therefore no matter what happens in the Livi v Dundee game we’d be safe. If Dundee win, we’d be the same as Livi on 34 with a better goal difference. If the Livi v Dundee game ends in a draw, we’d still be ahead of Dundee on goal difference even if we lost, and if Livi win, we’d obviously still be ahead of Dundee on points – even if we lost.

Only in the event of Dundee winning do we need a draw, which if we got would see us finishing ahead of Livi on goal difference but behind Dundee. If Dundee don’t win they are down no matter what.

I’d be surprised if any fan of either Dundee club has had a satisfying night’s sleep this week, I know I haven’t.

I hope our players are on their game and there’ll be no-one feeling they can’t be bothered and walking off and that kind of thing. We need all our players on their game and 100% up for this. I hope we run at them, I hope we play an up-tempo attacking game – forcing chances, corners, and hopefully goals, from the first minute to the very last.

I hope we don’t sit in. How many times have we done this and lost late goals? There is no way on earth any team is gonna score from their own half, and that’s where the bloody ball should be for the last five minutes of this (in fact every) game. Too often do we let teams come at us late on, and too often does it end in heartbreak. Well not this time United please. We must attack them. We must get forward quickly, and we must play an up-tempo all-out attacking style.

At the back we must be alert, swift, safe and ruthless. If in doubt – kick it out the stadium.

I’ve maybe been slightly patronising above, and I say this in my defence, because I know that we have some excellent players, and even those players that get occasional stick from the fans have shown us time and time again that they can be heroes on their day. They’ll get no better opportunities for creating hero-worship for themselves than the coming two Saturdays.

It would be terrible going into the cup final having been relegated – it really would. But our lads must not think of that – they must be 100% focused on Saturday, and not getting beat by an ICT side that have nothing to play for. It’s the last game of the league season, and a very mixed season it’s been. Let’s not finish on the ultimate low, let’s show Inverness Caley that we can play, and just as importantly, stop them playing. And let us show the presence of mind to win this game, and let others worry about the drop and it’s myriad implications.