The Scottish Fitba Weekender

Aye aye, fit like min? Well, this is it: the final round of games in the SPL before we hit the oh-so-popular league split.

There's no real suspense in figuring out who this years lucky competitors are: last weeks results, and in particular Aberdeen's and St Johnstone's defeats made pretty sure that Hearts would be the team to make the final cut, providing they don't muck it up by losing at home to Kilmarnock tomorrow.

So has, as BB King once famously sang, the thrill gone? Well, not if you are Celtic (can we catch up with Rangers?), Hibs or Motherwell (who'll get that final Europa League place?) or any of the teams in the lower half of the league - but realistically only Falkirk, St Mirren and possibly Kilmarnock - who, mathematically, could all still go down.

Does that make it exciting? Sure it does! First up in this weekend's slightly curtailed football extravaganza are two sides who will be worried the most about the next five fixtures or so ...

Falkirk (12th»WLDDL) v St Mirren (11th»DLWLD)
It seems like ages ago now (Inside Left has had to endure two Aberdeen games in between, games in which time just seemed to stretch on into eternity), but Falkirk actually won a game last Saturday, against European-football chasing Motherwell, no less. The Pressley effect continues to work it's magic, as the team are still in with a chance of SPL survival, a chance which not many pundits gave them when Pressley took over half-way through January.

It's not going to be easy, that's for sure, but the fact that you're only three points behind your opponents and you've actually not done too badly against the teams in the post-split world you find yourself in might be enough to keep you up. Sadly for Pressley, he might have to manage tomorrow without Pedro Moutinho, Burton O'Brien, Ryan Flynn and Vitor Lima, all fighting off injuries.

St Mirren have had a bit of a roller-coaster season (Cup final appearances, sorting out Celtic etc.) but still find themselves in a place they're very familiar with these days. The Buddies desperately need a win tomorrow to give themselves a better-than-good chance of survival.

This may sound like the rantings of a lazy hack journalist, but the way I see it, one of these two teams will go down: which one that is will be decided tomorrow.

Personally, I reckon Falkirk have the momentum to pull something off here, so I am going: Home Win.

Hamilton (9th»LWWDW) v Hibernian (4th»LLWLW)
Hamilton have done remarkably well to make this season a lot more comfortable than last. They've done well to cope with the loss of James McCarthey to Wigan, while they've done equally well to hang on to James McArthur for as long as they have. Now with the season coming to a close, the rumours about his eventual and inevitable move away from New Douglas Park down south are starting up again. McArthur is determined to keep the focus on ensuring his current team remain in the SPL, but that's pretty much assured I reckon, so he can showboat away all he likes now to add some more digits to his price tag.

The narrow defeat at Rangers put to an end a good run of form that saw them pick up 10 points from a possible 12.

Hibs, on the other hand, are on a bit of slider. For a team we all thought may well split the Old Firm before Christmas, they've really been letting us all down. A meagre eight points since February is all they've managed, putting to an end any threat of a challenge for the Champions League qualification berth. So far it's a 1-1 aggregate score between these sides (a 5-1 Hibs win offset by a 2-0 win for Accies), so who will win the final meet-up of the season? I reckon Hibs. Away Win.

Hearts (6th»DLWLL) v Kilmarnock (11th»WLLLL)
Kilmarnock eh? A lot of defeats in a row, or a whole lotta 'L' if you like. And then blow me, they suddenly turn on the magic and win rather easily against Aberdeen. The game was not without it's irony's, namely the two Jimmy's and the pass that provided the first goal coming from Scott Severin, a former Aberdeen player.

Ah well, that's football for you, but the defeat, while nice for Killie was a stab in the heart for this writer, seeing as I never wanted Calderwood or Severin to go in the first place, and there is Calderwood in all his glorious luminance showing his successor just how to go about winning a football game.

So, in front of largely empty stands, Killie pulled of a much needed win that lifts them four points above the drop-zone, but there's still a lot of work to do for Calderwood and the other ex-Aberdeen rejects.

Against Hearts they'll have their work cut out for them. The Jambo's need a point to secure top-six football (and possibly Jefferies to secure a job). I was amazed to learn that this is only the second time this season these two have met, and that the last meeting was back in November (Hearts won 2-1 at Rugby Park).

Are you amazed? I was. But then, I'm an Aberdeen fan so I'm easily amazed anyway.

For Jefferies it will be the first time his former team have come to pay him a visit, so the pressure is on. Hearts lost their last home game, while Killie have lost their last three away games, so you've got to back Hearts to bounce back and do the dirty. Home Win.

Aberdeen (8th»LLWDL) v St Johnstone (7th»LWLDL)
Like I said earlier on in the week, it's not often that I get to see Aberdeen play, but thanks to the miracle of modern science, I've seen the Dons play two games in a week. As I sat cursing the rather inept display on show, and in particular the appalling 2-0 defeat at Kilmarnock last Sunday I thanked my lucky stars that the prohibitive airfares prevented me from even considering going over to watch either game 'in the flesh', as it where, because my goodness, Aberdeen are terrible.

I won't go into it too much, but unless McGhee does something real soon (i.e stop losing games), Aberdeen may well find themselves staring relegation in the face. While the performance against Kilmarnock is best forgotten, the mid-week game against Rangers provided a lot more positives.

Don't get me wrong, it was still mostly awful, but the Dons enjoyed more possession and our weaker players over the course of the season - Kerr, Ifil, Grassi - actually put in decent performances. Certainly it was a different performance than against Killie which pretty much confirms the common belief that Aberdeen only turn it on for the Ugly Sisters.

St Johnstone demolished Rangers 4-1 in the week before Aberdeen played at Ibrox and lost 3-1, so <thinks aloud> how does this work? Does that mean St Johnstone are better than Aberdeen? Or that if Aberdeen can't beat Rangers, but put in a good performance nevertheless, they'll beat St Johnstone because St Johnstone lost to Dundee United who haven't beaten Rangers this season but who Aberdeen have beaten?</thinks aloud>

Fuck it, I don't know, in much the same way that these predictions ultimately come down to nothing more than a wet finger pointed randomly at a screen showing the fixture lists. So, let's see. Ehm, draw?

Division One
A fairly small program this Saturday, with most of the fixtures spread out between now and Wednesday, Why? Well, Raith Rovers and Ross County are in Cup action this weekend (against Dundee United and Celtic respectively) so that takes care of most of the weekends fixtures.

The pressure remains on Dundee to live up to all the expectations (not to mention their league position for most of the season) and win promotion. Overtaken by Inverness Caley a few weeks ago following a dramatic slump in form, new manager John Chisholm needs to pull all the irons out of the fire if they're going to make up that seven-point gap, starting with the game away at Partick tomorrow. Inverness make a very long journey (the longest in the First division) as they travel hundreds of miles south (and back north again) to Dumfries and their game with early Division leaders Queen of the South. The Doonhamers incidentally, another team with games to make up play again on Monday against bottom side Airdrie United.

The final game of the day sees Ayr taking on third-placed Dunfermline Athletic.

Division Two
Alloa are closing in on promotion and a return Division One. Leading the table by some nine-points over Cowdenbeath, Alloa, like Rangers far above them need only two more wins to secure that promotion. They're at home to Brechin tomorrow. Promotion challengers Cowdenbeath are away at Peterhead. The Blue Brazil are pretty much assured of a play-off place at least to hopefully send them back to the First Division but until the mess around the club's future is sorted out, it's all looking very uncertain.

The Spartan take-over, should it go through is a lot more attractive if Cowdenbeath are a First Division side (the populist idea being that Spartans would take over Cowdenbeath, move it all to Edinburgh and take their place in the First Division).

I'm no conspiracy theorist, but if I was a Cowdenbeath fan opposed to the takeover (and who isn't) I'd be hoping for a few good defeats in the next series of games...

Elsewhere Clyde got rid of their manager John McCormack in midweek following their 2-0 defeat at Alloa that pretty much assures the Bully Wee of Third Division football next season. A dramatic slide for a once proud team, where will it end? Dumbarton welcome East Fife, while Arbroath will be hoping for a win against Stirling to get themselves away from the relegation play-off spot.

Division Three
It's been a while coming, but Livingston can be crowned champions tomorrow if they take a point against Forfar. They could have been running the Third Division Champions flag up the pole before the start of this weeks game had they not lost 2-0 away at Annan last week.

Elgin finally overtook Montrose last week at the bottom of the table, following their 1-0 win in Annan and Montrose's defeat at Livingston. Elgin take on Albion Rovers while Montrose are at home to Annan. Berwick need a win over East Stirling to overtake Queens Park in the play-off places. The Spiders are away at Stranraer.

That's it. Hope you enjoy the games!