The Relegation Run-In

[LoonsYouthTeam]

Choo choo! All aboard the Relegation Express to League Two.

With us back under way and everybody having played a few games I thought we'd take a look at how the relegation race is looking. Let's take a look at the contenders:

Think it's safe to say that the current Top 4 are absolutely safe, even if they have a collapse I can't see enough teams below catching them. Pretty sure the current Top 4 will be the same at the end of the season.

Peterhead - The big winners so far since the restart. Two great wins to resume their season before losing to Clyde, a win there would've just about had them safe. I'll be honest, before we resumed I had them down as one of the teams in our sights, but they already have a good points advantage over 9th and 10th.

East Fife - A team I would've expected to be looking up rather than down but they seem to have put in their worst performance of the season on Tuesday which keeps them in the mix. Losing Jack Hamilton is obviously a big blow. If their home form starts to dip too they could be in big trouble, should have enough to finish mid-table though.

Airdrieonians - I think most would be surprised to see them down in 7th but 3 losses from 3 games since the restart tells a story, albeit 2 of those games were against teams from the Top 4 and they had a man sent off very early against Peterhead. Should have enough but will need to stop the rot.

Clyde - A great win last night to boost their hopes. The team with most games to catch up on and also still in the Scottish Cup meaning although they have games in hand they will face the toughest physical test. Plenty of goals but concede an awful lot too.

Dumbarton - Probably the biggest losers since the restart with disappointing home defeats to Forfar and Peterhead before getting a great point at Falkirk last night. Losing their keeper returning to Hibs after his loan seems huge. Don't concede many but struggle to score.

Forfar - The favourites for relegation. Definitely would have take 4 points from trips to Dumbarton and Partick and a home game with Falkirk before play resumed. Have generally offered very little attacking threat but will be buoyed by last night's performance at Firhill. Need to keep that up to have any hope of survival.

Next Fixtures:

Thursday night football in League One!

Two big games as well with Dumbarton looking for their first home points since returning and Airdrie looking for first points of any kind, something has to give. A draw does neither team any favours but a loss would be catastrophic for The Sons.

East Fife and Clyde meeting again so soon after the Fifers won 3-1 at Clyde a week past Saturday. A win for the home team would give them a good safety net and maybe refocus their attentions on the Top 4 but Clyde may see this as a good opportunity to put some daylight between themselves and 9th place.

 

As it stands, although I oibviously don't want this, I can see ourselves and Dumbarton in the bottom 2 come the end of 18 fixtures, but with so many games between then and now there could be some big surprises and then throw in the split after this should the fixtures be fulfilled and we should have a very exciting and cut throat end to the season.

[roman_bairn]

I’d imagine all those extra games that Clyde have to play in short succession could take their toll and put Clyde firmly in the mix....

[Bridie Vision]

Whilst many teams are technically still in the mix I would say it's a 3 way fight - Bully Wee, Sons & Loons.

[The Moonster]

2 minutes ago, Bridie Vision said:

Whilst many teams are technically still in the mix I would say it's a 3 way fight - Bully Wee, Sons & Loons.

If we beat Airdrie tomorrow they are right in amongst it.

[nofixedability]

The only thing going for us is that we don’t have to play any of the top four again. Other than that our manager stacks up poorly versus Duffy and Lennon and I would think that will be important as things pan out.
 

If points gap is similar going into the split things should be very interesting.

[Bully Wee Clyde FC]

All about momentum I think. Airdrie have some negative energy they'll want to shake off. Loons and Son will hope good results on Tues kick starts their run in.

East Fife against us looked too good to get sucked in. Clyde looked so fragile at home to EF, but showed some spirit v Montrose. Away to Peterhead, we looked unusually well organised.  

So many variables...form, injuries, suspensions and, of course, luck.

[rockson]

1 hour ago, The Moonster said:

If we beat Airdrie tomorrow they are right in amongst it.

How big an if is that?

A Huge one.

[Clydeside]

Not sure how strongly we'll be able to leverage the fresh legs and full-time fitness tomorrow. Unless we pair Howie with Rumsby, we're probably looking at a centre half pairing that will've had two or three games on the trot. I'm less worried about the full-backs as they've shown good fitness levels so far and they've got points to prove.

We probably have to keep Nicoll in the middle of the park. He's about the only one that can, if not always perfectly, protect the defence and win us some possession in midfield. It will be interesting to see if he can last out so many games. We did give the boy Thomson a break on Tuesday insofar as he was subbed off early in the second half. And Cuddihy also had a bit of a rest so we can probably mix it up in there if we need to.

I think with the younger lads like Thomson, Cunningham and McGlinchey who is of course an older head, we should probably be telling them to move the ball a bit quicker even at the risk of giving it away. Someone pointed out that we weren't very good in possession at Peterhead. I remember Thomson and McGlinchey taking an awful lot of touches. Somewhat understandable as they were never surrounded by options on Tuesday. But with legs as heavy as they are, they should probably just be under instructions to launch into certain areas like Nicoll and Love sometimes do instinctively when they know there's nothing on. Jamieson's quick and can feed off scraps. So can Goodie, if he's back. I would make that trade-off because I think dwelling on the ball is more likely to catch us out more than anything else, the way we're set-up.

[David W]

3 hours ago, roman_bairn said:

I’d imagine all those extra games that Clyde have to play in short succession could take their toll and put Clyde firmly in the mix....

No doubt it's tough on us but we play a massive one game more than Dumbarton and East Fife who otherwise have the same schedule we have, with both being through in the cup.

We've given ourselves a chance by not bothering to play football in the last couple of games and playing in a scrappier fashion. I think last night shows it's too early to call which way it'll go. It would be great to pull Airdrie back into the mix tomorrow night.

[Ballboy]

Thursday is a huge game for us.  At the start of the season most of the talk has been about what we can do at the top end of the league.   Inconsistent at the start of the season and poor form the restart.   Home form has been poor for quite some time.   Wins needed from Thursday and Saturday or were in big trouble.  

[Chapelhall chap]

Thursday's results would seem to suggest that it's even tighter in that mid table chase to be in top 5 and avoid the dreaded bottom 5. Sons looked a real bet for the bottom 5 and we just about played 2 good moves and a goal. The pressure on Clyde from so many games will be a real challenge. Airdrie have 3 home games  but our form is poor at home and we have to go to Montrose!  If pressed I think it is Dumbarton and Forfar for the bottom 2 but my predictions are quiche! 

[nofixedability]

Good night for Forfar, almost certainly a three way dance now. All three clubs playing in cup tomorrow would think it may be an advantage to all to go out in terms of survival?

[The Moonster]

We've barely registered a shot on goal against 3 bottom 5 sides and our manager has admitted in the press that he's tried everything he can think of. We're doon.

[SlipperyP]

8 hours ago, The Moonster said:

We've barely registered a shot on goal against 3 bottom 5 sides and our manager has admitted in the press that he's tried everything he can think of. We're doon.

At least your manager knows you have a problem.  Ours is living in coocoo land, saying shite like 'there was a lot of positives to take from the game', this when we have had zero shots on target.

I don't agree with @nofixedability, winning in the cup will push up confidence.

[doulikefish]

Tuesday night if we beat Forfar I reckon that puts us safe and dooms them but if Forfar get a result we are in the brown stuff as our last 3 fixtures ain't pretty 

[LoonsYouthTeam]

No fixtures this weekend due to the Scottish Cup, but ourselves and Clyde progressing mean another midweek game for us each, ours likely to be Tuesday April 13th, but with Clyde already playing that Tuesday it seems likely that they will need to play another Thursday fixture of that same week.

Thursday night results:

Forfar the big winners on Thursday as both sides above them lose games they were hoping would give them some breathing space. East Fife's and Airdrie's victories means they're very unlikely to have to worry about relegation and may have 4th place in their sights. Table looks like this after these results:

A big midweek this week:

 

Full card on Tuesday with tough games for Dumbarton and Clyde. The biggest game is probably at Station park where Peterhead can make themselves all but safe with a win.

[Bridie Vision]

Really hoping Forfar have actually turned a corner and are starting to play, Tuesday night was good, as was the Scottish Cup - even if it took us until penalties.

[banditjag]

37 minutes ago, Bridie Vision said:

Really hoping Forfar have actually turned a corner and are starting to play, Tuesday night was good, as was the Scottish Cup - even if it took us until penalties.

Hadn't seen forfar for several years, family from letham so used to frequent station park when in town, but was very impressed with them v Thistle. Solid game plan, excellent motivation and some skill on show. You looked more like a promotion chasing team that relegation fodder. There was a real confidence in your play, and I thought we didn't play badly was just that forfar played an intense press on us that we never got to grips with. I wouldn't be surprised on that showing if you end up safe but like us all at this level it's lack of consistency that is the undoing.

Edited April 4, 2021 by banditjag

[LoonsYouthTeam]

Hadn't seen forfar for several years, family from letham so used to frequent station park when in town, but was very impressed with them v Thistle. Solid game plan, excellent motivation and some skill on show. You looked more like a promotion chasing team that relegation fodder. There was a real confidence in your play, and I thought we didn't play badly was just that forfar played an intense press on us that we never got to grips with. I wouldn't be surprised on that showing if you end up safe but like us all at this level it's lack of consistency that is the undoing.

Aye, we were good against Partick but that performance was an exception to a rather depressing rule this season.

I'm more optimistic now that I was before the restart, good to see we kept fighting yesterday. Jordan Allan with a very well taken strikers goal

[banditjag]

3 hours ago, LoonsYouthTeam said:

Aye, we were good against Partick but that performance was an exception to a rather depressing rule this season.

I'm more optimistic now that I was before the restart, good to see we kept fighting yesterday. Jordan Allan with a very well taken strikers goal

It's just managing to get consistency at our level seems so hard. But if JW could achieve that he wouldn't be forfar manager.