No Buddie seriously thinks we'll be anywhere near our current league position come May, but it's nice to enjoy it while it lasts - and it would be even nicer for it to last a wee while longer. To do that we must win against a Hibs side who still seem to be suffering a Scottish Cup hangover following their hammering by Hearts back in May. They didn't look particularly clever against Dundee United on the opening weekend of the season, although they did manage a spirited draw against Hearts last week. By all accounts they did pretty well as the game went on so this may not be as one sided as your average top against bottom fixture...
This is another of those games we have to be looking to win if we want to push on for a place in the top six this season. Hibs, like ourselves, finished in the bottom half last year and both sides will be looking to make big improvements this term. We are effectively rivals for one of the coveted slots so winning a game like this would be ideal as it would not only boost our hopes but seriously dent those of one of our rivals. There's no reason why we can't take the win - Hibs have a pretty poor record in Paisley and we did manage to beat them twice last season.
Thanks to the wonders of the SPL fixture this is our last home league game for a month - although we do have a League Cup match at Greenhill Road in 10 days or so. The powers that be did hand us a relatively easy start to the season - our upcoming road trip involves tough fixtures at Aberdeen and Motherwell - and we've taken fairly good advantage of that to pick up four points from a possible six. Making that seven points out of nine would just top things nicely ahead of some pretty tough fixtures.
There are unlikely to be too many changes to the Saints side that produced the goods at Dens Park last week, although skipper Jim Goodwin is available again now that he has finished his spell on the naughty step. Unless we make huge changes to the system the only person who could make way for him is Jon Robertson, who apparently had a good game. The strikeforce of Steven Thompson and Sam Parkin seemed to do well, even though it may not have been the most mobile, and is likely to be deployed again due to the continued absence of Lewis Guy and a fresh injury to youngster Thomas Reilly.
Despite not having had much training Graham Carey was a surprise starter last week and seemed to cope reasonably well at leftback - a position he had struggled in during his original loan spell at the club. However, with all due respect to Dundee he probably wasn't challenged much and will face a sterner test tomorrow. Even if he sticks to defending his passing is so good he can still cause problems from deep - and provides a real option for any free-kicks around the box. I'd be surprised if he doesn't keep his place so David Barron will probably be on the bench again. Aside from Guy and Reilly the only other absentee is long term injury victim Grant Adam.
In the last couple of seasons Hibs have sacked their manager before we've reached Christmas and Pat Fenlon must be in serious risk of making it three from three. They only managed to finish 11th last season - although that was partly down to the poor work of Colin Calderwood and the squad he left for his successor - but there were lots of points frittered away that shouldn't have been. The Scottish Cup run was a bonus - although had a horrific ending - but things will need to improve quickly if the Hibees are to make the top six for the first time since 2010. Last week's draw against Hearts suggests things are going in the right direction.
After a good loan spell last season Leigh Griffiths is back for another six months at least. When he screws the nut and doesn't do anything daft he is a good player, as he showed with his goal last week, but he does silly things rather too often. With Garry O'Connor gone Hibs looked a bit light up front, with only Eoin Doyle and a few youngsters, so Fenlon decided to bring in Shefki Kuqi. The big Finn will beef up the strikeforce in more ways than one and is likely to be involved tomorrow - no doubt bagging a debut goal along the way.
It wasn't until I saw the Hibs team for their first game of the season that I realised they still had Pa Kujabi. The leftback looked rather shaky at the best of times when playing for the Hibees last season and capped it off with a horrendous performance in the Scottish Cup final, which saw him sent off just after half-time. He's yet to play for Hibs this season and their supporters will be hoping that remains the case for the foreseeable future. Fenlon obviously has similar ideas as he brought in fullbacks Tim Clancy and Alan Maybury over the summer, although the latter made a poor mistake on his debut against old club Hearts last season. James McPake has now signed for the club on a permanent deal after his loan spell last season and Hibs fans will be hoping that means there defence isn't quite as porous as it was.
Fenlon has also pulled off a decent piece of business by signing Paul Cairney. The midfielder was wanted by a number of teams - including ourselves if rumours are to be believed - after starring for Partick Thistle in recent years and should be able to cope with the step up. Gary Deegan has come in from Coventry, having worked with Fenlon in Ireland, and showed against Hearts last week that he is not to be messed with, although he was lucky not to be sent off. While second timers O'Connor and Ian Murray have gone, Ivan Sproule is still about and capable of terrorising defences with his pace.
Follow Mirren Mad on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/mirrenmad
Follow Mirren Mad on Twitter @mirren_mad or http://www.twitter.com/mirren_mad