Following Friday's poor result the coming weeks are critical to our push for promotion. I'm comfortable so long as we are the hunted rather than the hunters and we really need to still be in that position come the meeting with Dundee Utd on 6 January. The fixtures between now & then as follows:

Hibs: Dumbarton (8th) H, Morton (4th) A, Raith (5th) H, Falkirk (3rd) A.

Utd: Ayr (7th) A, Raith (5th) A, St Mirren (10th) H, Dumbarton (8th) A.

On the face of that we have to play 3 teams in the top 5 whilst Utd would appear to have the (on paper) easier task of playing only one team from the top 5. To counter that somewhat we have an even split of 2 home & 2 away whilst Utd have 3 away games to contend with.

I'm hopeful we will take 12/12, although the trips to Falkirk & Morton will be tough but as a bare minimum we simply must get 10/12 which would put us on 41.

Looking at the teams Utd face respective home/away form it doesn't inspire confidence in us being done any "favours" I'm afraid to say:

Ayr at home are W2, D2, L3 so its an average record but maybe they can at least get a point.
Raith at home are W4, D2, L1 which is much more promising and at hopeful they will at least get a draw
St Mirren away are W0, D2, L5 which is horrific and cant see anything but a Utd win
Dumbarton at home are W1, D4, L3 which is poor, again I think Utd will win this.

Having said that Utd's away form is only average itself at W3, D2, L2 so maybe a little bit of hope there......

At the very best outcome for us I can see Utd only taking a minimum of 7 points but more likely 10 if they beat Ayr. That means we simply must take the 10/12 to go into the game on the 6th "as you were", with home advantage I'm confident we'll get the three points.

I realize it's not good that I'm having to look at what our opponents are doing but the simple fact is we've allowed ourselves to be clawed back so it now comes into the reckoning.

If we win all 4 games then maybe we'll be fortunate that they slip up and we may have our 3 point lead restored again allowing us the opportunity to put clear water between us and them on the 6th but that's the best I can see... Another performance like Friday in these 4 and we could find ourselves needing a win to pull level and avoid them going clear which would not be a good day out.

I still believe we have the best squad in the league and over the remainder of the season this will tell but we simply must avoid falling behind at any point which makes every game between now and the 6th as critical as the game on the 6th itself.