Whatever we do tonight will have people pointing the conspiracy finger at us. If we lose, we're helping Rangers. If we lose heavily, we're lying down - the fact we're third bottom of the SPL apparently forgotten. If we draw or win, we're obviously helping Celtic - because it's so easy to deliberately get a result against the Old Firm! While there will be moans regardless of the result, we should see this game as an opportunity to annoy at least one half of the Old Firm. And if you want a real conspiracy theory, what about the fact referee Craig Thomson is a Saints fan?
In amongst all this focus on Rangers, it's easy to forget that tonight is our final game of the season. A win would lift us to ninth and give us some extra cash for next season, so this is definitely not a meaningless game. We went with a fairly strong side on Saturday and it will be interesting to see what we do tonight. Rangers will be up for this one and looking for goals, but when we've played defensively this season we've often been hammered. Garry Brady seems to play in these sorts of games and could well return, as could Franco Miranda if he's fit. The main problem could be in the left back area, where Ryan McCay will almost certainly start. He's been poor over the last few weeks and could prove to be the weak link tonight.
Rangers have been fighting on four fronts this season (literally, going by the CCTV footage from Wednesday night) and have ended up cramming a number of games into the last few weeks of the season as a result. They tried to get this changed, but for once Scottish football's ruling bodies stood up to them. Saturday's draw with Motherwell suggests tiredness may be catching up with them, but they could probably field a completely different side tonight and still win comfortably. Former Buddie Kirk Broadfoot will probably be at right back, while Kris Boyd may be brought in for a rare start. Whoever they pick, they have a number of talented players and the pace from someone like Nacho Novo could pose a major problem.
Unsurprisingly, I think we'll get beaten tonight. The only question is by how many. If Rangers score early they could notch up a cricket score, but if we can keep them out and frustrate them for a bit then it might be respectable.