Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Calum Woodger
Utd can’t allow intriguing top-six battle to slip away
HISTORICALLY, the split has been a much-bemoaned feature of Scottish football.
This season, however, it feels like a really intriguing battle to make the top six that is keeping quite a few clubs engaged and interested heading into the closing stages of the campaign.
Perhaps I feel this way because local clubs Dundee United and St Johnstone are right in the thick of it and, remarkably, my team,
St Mirren, currently occupy the final top-half spot.
We’re not used to being up this high, you know?
Regardless, the fight to get over the line isn’t half heating up and it is incredibly tight in that middle section of the table.
With three games until the Premiership is cut in half, the Buddies are in pole position.
I’ll need to say that again in order to make it seem real – the Buddies are in pole position on 36 points.
United are just two further back with the Perth Saints hot on their heels a point behind in eighth spot.
Headed to Rugby Park today, you feel the Tangerines really have to pick up all three points to avoid letting the prize of guaranteed safety and fixtures against the league’s big guns slipping through their fingers.
With Celtic and Aberdeen still to come to Tannadice, this afternoon’s meeting with Tommy Wright’s Kilmarnock represents the Terrors’ best opportunity of stealing a march on the teams around them.
With St Johnstone on League Cup Final duty (above) and St Mirren welcoming Ross County to Paisley, with Hamilton also still to play, in fact, I don’t think United can afford to lose this one if they are to make top six.
Instantly, the Perth side would have a game in hand, and you would fancy Jim Goodwin’s men against County and Accies more than you would the Tangerines taking on Celtic and Aberdeen.
That said, they can only win the game that’s in front of them, and that will be the focus for Micky Mellon’s team today.
And, you’d have to say, they have a good chance of doing so if the form guide is anything to go by.
Despite last Sunday’s 4-1 defeat to Rangers at Ibrox, United have looked much better in wins over Ross County and Livingston, of late.
Whereas, Wright is yet to get that fabled ‘new manager bounce’ out of a struggling Killie – currently on an eightgame losing run and sitting precariously above a rejuvenated Hamilton in the relegation play-off spot.
That the Ayrshire men are seemingly fighting for their lives, and 28 consecutive years in the top flight, could count against the Tangerines.
However, given the way their attacking players are looking right now, I fancy United to have too much for their west coast opponents.
Lawrence Shankland is back to his best, Marc McNulty notched against Rangers, while Louis Appere and Nicky Clark remain threats. Make no mistake, United are on the up.