As battles to beat the drop go, we are brilliantly placed. We are nine clear of the drop zone with just 15 to play for, and our relegation rivals have to come to our place, which is a bit unfair on them. On paper, it should be pretty straight forward. But this is St Mirren we're talking about - things are never as easy as they should be. After all, the gap was 12 points this time last week.
In the previous four seasons of our current SPL stint, we have been comfortably safe from relegation just once - back in 2008, which was down to Gretna's implosion. In both 2007 and 2010 it went down to the penultimate game (although last season we were as good as safe with two games left), while in 2009 it went down to the final game. Saints just don't seem to let their fans relax. In 2009 it should have been easy as we were in pretty good shape, but three straight defeats left us staring at relegation before we pulled out that monumental performance against Falkirk.
So, while many people may think we're already safe, the players should not think like that until it is mathematically impossible for us to be relegated. Fortunately, Danny Lennon's comments in recent weeks suggests that will be the mind set and the players won't be allowed to phone it in until the job is done. We will see if that is the case tomorrow at Hibs, who will be fired up after unhelpfully losing to Hamilton last week. Cheers for that.
We go into this one on the back of a two game losing streak, but as they were to the Old Firm there isn't too much cause for alarm. Indeed, it seems we actually performed well deploying two rather different systems, so it'll be interesting to see what happens tomorrow. The continual suspension of Michael Higdon makes me think we're more likely to see the side that faced Rangers, with Craig Dargo up front and Paul McGowan in behind. Aaron Mooy did extremely well and is surely worthy of another go in midfield, but it wouldn't be a surprise if his place is taken by Kenny McLean or the suspension free Hugh Murray.
it's usually at this stage I rant about why John Potter should be dropped, but won't. However, he's suspended so I won't bother wasting time on that this week. Lee Mair could replace him but there is a real defensive problem with a potential injury to Darren "Zinedine Zidane" McGregor. If he doesn't make it, expect David Barron or Marc McAusland to slot into the back four - or Lennon to go with some bizarre system (it wouldn't be the first time. With no other injury worries, there's no reason why it won't be the same team as last week aside from that change. Gareth Wardlaw could start, but probably won't.
Hibs were on a horrendous run of form earlier in the season until they played us, at which point things suddenly started looking up. They went on a five game winning run, beating us twice in the process, to ensure they wouldn't have any relegation worries come this time of season. They're now looking to finish "top of the bottom" and while last week's defeat to hamilton shows they are beatable, there's a fair chance they'll be fired up for this one. It's at this time of the season teams with nothing to play for often start to blood youngsters, but even if Hibs do go down that route it won't necessarily make them easy opponents as they've produced plenty of good players in recent years.
One of those is Derek Riordan, who is currently on 10 goals for the season. The forward has repeatedly been linked with a move away from Leith in the summer and with his contract expiring in a few weeks it wouldn't be a surprise if he decides to try his luck south of the border next season. However, if he does make that decision you can bet on him wanting to ensure he goes out on a high, which is not good news for us.
It'll be interesting to see just how much of the current Hibs crop are still at Easter Road next season as manager Colin Calderwood wasted no time in shipping out a number of players during January. Many more are out of contract and the fact John Rankin is one of them has meant an early start to the usual stories about him signing for us. A number of other players with expiring contracts will probably get their chance in the next few weeks and will be keen to show they should be kept on or earn deals elsewhere.
Hibs do have the makings of a good team, partly helped by Calderwood's January signings such as Victor Palsson, Ross County's Martin Scott and powerful striker Akpo Sodje. A fair number of the ones he kept on are also pretty handy. Liam Miller has put his difficult days behind him and has been a revelation in the last few seasons, while Ian Murray has been excellent. Danny Galbraith's trickery and pace can cause problems to defences while David Wotherspoon will be delighted to face us tomorrow seeing as the majority of his first team goals have come against Saints!
Hibs goalkeepers used to be even worse than English ones but that problem finally seems to have been solved this season. Mark Brown is a solid stopper while Graham Stack used to be a decent signing in Football Manager and was between the sticks for much of that winning run. Having two good keepers is a massive change from the ways things used to be at Easter Road when guys like Yves Ma-Kalambay and Andrew McNeil were in goals.
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