DC92

Football is a great outlet for middle managers on £35k to posture about "elite mentality".

Sorry.

In the Livingston example there were two passes between the foul and the shot at goal, then the ref blew the whistle. The foul was just outside the box since that apparently makes a difference.

I don't see how it being in or out of the box is relevant.

Can remember it happening a couple of times in Hearts games. This Vargas one: Also happened against Livingston last week where Cochrane was pushed over and the referee waited a few seconds until Gordon made a save with his legs before blowing the whistle. Not on the YouTube highlights but I'm pretty sure Sportscene had it. I don't get the sense it's applied remotely consistently, mind.

If you say something is falling apart and then it doesn't, you were wrong all along.

I've no idea what you're talking about but I am 100% serious.

I did have to double check after your post.

But we can't finish 5th.

According to the commentator our win yesterday "goes some way" to securing Europe next season. We're 19 ahead with 15 to play for so you wouldn't think it was that hard to figure out Europe is already done.

Baz McKay haters in the mud. Your reign of watching Alan Forrest charging about with his head down is over.

That's all covered in the last line of my post where I say they need to avoid defeat and for Dundee to at least match their tally before the split. If they beat Motherwell, they need Dundee to win one of their next two. If they draw, they need Dundee to pick up at least a point in their next two.

Hearts can clinch their second Diddyship in three years with a win over Livingston this weekend. St Mirren's defeat on Saturday means they're officially out of the running. They trail by 10 points with only 9 available. Kilmarnock are hanging on by the skin of their teeth. They need to win all four of their remaining games and hope Hearts lose all four of theirs. Dundee will rule themselves out if they defeat Rangers tomorrow night or Aberdeen on Saturday. Their hopes will also be ended if they draw either of these games and Hibs fail to beat Motherwell. Hibs also just about remain in the hunt. They will be ruled out if 1) they lose to Motherwell this weekend, or 2) Dundee fail to at least match their points total over the next week.

The 19/19 split is predicated on the right combination of teams ending up in each half (i.e. 3 teams who have played 16H/17A and 3 teams who have played 17H/16A prior to the split). If that doesn't happen, it's an unavoidable reality that at least one team will lose a home game and another team will gain one. It's happened quite a few times as summarised in this @craigkilliepost:

Could the extra home game not just as easily be given to Motherwell or Hearts in this scenario? We will likely have the least to play for and had a deficit of home games a few years ago so I'd have thought we'd be the logical choice.

I think if Motherwell or Hibs make it, there'll be 4 teams in the top 6 who've had 17 home games, meaning someone will get an extra one. If it's Dundee, everyone will get 19 home and away.

I've just watched it again, at 0.25x speed, and there is absolutely no "kick" of any kind. It would have been a worse award than the one we got against Hibs a few weeks ago.

Didn't see that coming after seeing the lineup but it's a brilliant 3 points given the circumstances. We've now won at 9 away grounds in the league this season. Bet it's a few decades since that last happened.

Mental goal to concede at 2-0 up.

Enter Toby Sibbick.

There have been loads of shite handball calls since VAR came in but that one was pretty straightforward imo. His arm was out from his body and it blocked a goalbound shot. Nothing else has happened. Managing the game well enough but it's frustrating how often we've turned the ball over and then ended up going backwards.

Finding it impossible to imagine that lineup not getting utterly bullied. I had a similar vibe before the 3-0 at Pittodrie last year. I think draw is the absolute best we can hope for now but I've chucked a few quid on St Mirren -1.

I was at the other end of the ground from Brown's miss and didn't really notice it at the time. The main thing that stuck out from his performance was how easily he was nudged off the ball when he tried to play with his back to goal, which isn't an ideal quality if the key requirement from our striker is to bring the wing-backs and attacking midfielders into play. Judging by where he plays for his club, maybe he's more suited to playing off the main striker or as a wide forward, but that's not necessarily a role that we're likely to see much.

There's been a lot of clamour for Shankland so there was inevitably going to be a lot of clamour backlash after missing a chance he should've scored, but I thought he otherwise led the line pretty well and I was pleased he didn't look physically or technically out of place. Hopefully he gets another chance or two in the friendlies coming up. Other than that, Gilmour being excellent and Souttar being astonishingly bad were the things that stood out to me.