Countdown to 3rd place thread

[bingo70]

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So when do we think about changing the title to ‘Countdown to 2nd place’?

Win our game in hand and we’re 9 points behind.

Still a lot and let’s face it, we’re not catching them but I’m going to allow my mind to wander for a bit.

9 points goes to 6 behind when we beat them at home after the split. 6 points goes down to 3 points when they lose to Rangers before the split and we beat Livi on the same day.

3 points is nothing really, can make that up nae bother 😉

[Squealing pig]

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Win our game in hand and we’re 9 points behind.

Still a lot and let’s face it, we’re not catching them but I’m going to allow my mind to wander for a bit.

9 points goes to 6 behind when we beat them at home after the split. 6 points goes down to 3 points when they lose to Rangers before the split and we beat Livi on the same day.

3 points is nothing really, can make that up nae bother 😉

Hows the goal difference, might be an issue

[PatHead]

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So when do we think about changing the title to ‘Countdown to 2nd place’?

Until we can't be second?

[Magpie]

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Win our game in hand and we’re 9 points behind.

Still a lot and let’s face it, we’re not catching them but I’m going to allow my mind to wander for a bit.

9 points goes to 6 behind when we beat them at home after the split. 6 points goes down to 3 points when they lose to Rangers before the split and we beat Livi on the same day.

3 points is nothing really, can make that up nae bother 😉

These are the kind of scenarios which make football exciting. Until it’s mathematically impossible I’ll continue to have hope. I will probably still want them to beat Aberdeen next week but if they don’t and we grab a win against Motherwell then it will make things even more exciting.

[bingo70]

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These are the kind of scenarios which make football exciting. Until it’s mathematically impossible I’ll continue to have hope. I will probably still want them to beat Aberdeen next week but if they don’t and we grab a win against Motherwell then it will make things even more exciting.

I know they’re having a nightmare with Lennon just now but I hope they sack him and they have a total collapse under a caretaker manager like Kennedy until the end of the season.

As long as we beat Motherwell on Saturday, a draw between Aberdeen and a Celtic would be terrific.

[Northernhibee]

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I know they’re having a nightmare with Lennon just now but I hope they sack him and they have a total collapse under a caretaker manager like Kennedy until the end of the season.

As long as we beat Motherwell on Saturday, a draw between Aberdeen and a Celtic would be terrific.

Our 4-0 win against Rangers at Easter Road came after they sacked McCoist and had an even worse option on the touchline. What worries me is though that Lennon's management was so bad with us that even Paul Heckingbottom got a huge bounce out of the Hibs team.

[Since452]

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Our 4-0 win against Rangers at Easter Road came after they sacked McCoist and had an even worse option on the touchline. What worries me is though that Lennon's management was so bad with us that even Paul Heckingbottom got a huge bounce out of the Hibs team.

Lennon was a weight on the players shoulders. Won our first game in ages under Eddie May after he left. No surprise either.

[bingo70]

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Our 4-0 win against Rangers at Easter Road came after they sacked McCoist and had an even worse option on the touchline. What worries me is though that Lennon's management was so bad with us that even Paul Heckingbottom got a huge bounce out of the Hibs team.

I think Kennedy is absolutely hopeless, based entirely on a few interviews I’ve heard from him.

Never in a million years a Celtic manager and I suspect a part of the problem there, if they decide to replace Lennon with him until the end of the season I doubt very much there’d be a bounce from him.

[Souter96Mac]

Reckon Lennon would've been sacked by now of they knew they had someone capable in the backroom staff to takeover until the end of the season. Our next 4 matches will largely dictate whether we'll be battling for 2nd or 3rd. If we can win 3 or 4 of them, then it's game on imo. Rangers will have won the league already, will Celtic players be able to motivate themselves to have to battle for 2nd place?

[Monts]

Would be classic hibs where the one season where third would be guaranteed group stage football in Europe, we finish second

[hibby rae]

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Win our game in hand and we’re 9 points behind.

Still a lot and let’s face it, we’re not catching them but I’m going to allow my mind to wander for a bit.

9 points goes to 6 behind when we beat them at home after the split. 6 points goes down to 3 points when they lose to Rangers before the split and we beat Livi on the same day.

3 points is nothing really, can make that up nae bother 😉

Then they lose to the huns after the split meanwhile we administer their first defeat of the season as they have nothing to play for 😂😂

Should we now be hoping for a sheep win on saturday? 😂😂

[hibby rae]

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Would be classic hibs where the one season where third would be guaranteed group stage football in Europe, we finish second

What happens if you finish 2nd in regards to parachuting into other comps?

[Sir David Gray]

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What happens if you finish 2nd in regards to parachuting into other comps?

Start off in the qualifiers of the Champions League then the qualifiers of the Europa League and then the play off of the Conference League.

[hibbysam]

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What happens if you finish 2nd in regards to parachuting into other comps?

Enter 2nd qualifying round of champions league.
Lose and we enter 3rd qualifying round of Europa league.
Lose and we enter the play off round of the conference league.

Would be one winning tie away from groups of some form.

[JeMeSouviens]

What’s our record points total since we’ve had the current 38 game season? We must have a decent chance of beating it?

Looked it up:

2001 - 66 pts
2005 - 61 pts
2018 - 67 pts

[Magpie]

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What happens if you finish 2nd in regards to parachuting into other comps?

We would need to win the Champions League 2nd qualifying round to guarantee the Europa Conference League group stage.

[wookie70]

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I know they’re having a nightmare with Lennon just now but I hope they sack him and they have a total collapse under a caretaker manager like Kennedy until the end of the season.

As long as we beat Motherwell on Saturday, a draw between Aberdeen and a Celtic would be terrific.

More likely a collapse under Lennon imo. He will throws the toys out completely when The Thes have mathematically won and he won't be bothered about next year as he won't be there so will start blaming every component of the team after a defeat. The players may well completely chuck it

[bingo70]

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More likely a collapse under Lennon imo. He will throws the toys out completely when The Thes have mathematically won and he won't be bothered about next year as he won't be there so will start blaming every component of the team after a defeat. The players may well completely chuck it

Think that’s already happening.

He’s slagging his players off tonight saying some are scared to header a ball.

[hibby rae]

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Enter 2nd qualifying round of champions league.
Lose and we enter 3rd qualifying round of Europa league.
Lose and we enter the play off round of the conference league.

Would be one winning tie away from groups of some form.

I guess it would depend on seeding etc. Might get the Welsh champions or something.

I wonder if playing only three rounds, but one being champs league, would be worth more money than the conference groups?

[Juniper Greens]

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I guess it would depend on seeding etc. Might get the Welsh champions or something.

I wonder if playing only two rounds, but one being champs league, would be worth more money than the conference groups?

Nope. Runners up can only draw other non winners. Champions draw champions in the qualifiers rounds of the CL.

I'd love us to get second, but I could see us then losing all three qualifier rounds to crash out before the groups. Would happily have 3rd place now

[Northernhibee]

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Think that’s already happening.

He’s slagging his players off tonight saying some are scared to header a ball.

Michael Stewart slaughtering him on Sportscene the now (and also Laxalt) for taking 70 minutes to notice that changes needed to be made to break Ross County down.

[mayo hibee]

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Nope. Runners up can only draw other non winners. Champions draw champions in the qualifiers rounds of the CL.

I'd love us to get second, but I could see us then losing all three qualifier rounds to crash out before the groups. Would happily have 3rd place now

To give an idea of the standard the teams in that stage this season were Benfica, Dynamo Kiev, Rapid Vienna, AZ Alkmaar, PAOK, Locomotiva, Besiktas, Plzen and Gent.

Nothing easy there. Personally I'd take third and guaranteed European football until December.

[King Cosell]

If we win our next 4 tough but winnable games we go into the split on 64 pts, if Celtic lose to Rangers and draw with Aberdeen or Dundee Utd they're on 68 pts. Beat them at ER after split and there's 1 pt in it. Far from impossible.

[hibbysam]

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Nope. Runners up can only draw other non winners. Champions draw champions in the qualifiers rounds of the CL.

I'd love us to get second, but I could see us then losing all three qualifier rounds to crash out before the groups. Would happily have 3rd place now

Would be highly likely but worth it for me. We’d still get minimum of 6 games in Europe, increased league prize money, probably a decent whack of European prize money too.

Games would be as follows:
Champions league tie vs runner up from Holland, Turkey, Austria, Denmark or Czech.
If we lost, Europa league tie against either of the other two losers from above, or the Czech cup winner.
If we lost, conference league tie against the other losing team from above, any of the winners from the previous round (lots of smaller nations) or 4th from Portugal, 5th from France, or 6th in any the top 4 leagues.

Now would imagine dropping down like that we would be seeded come the final game but I’ve no idea how that all works at this stage.

[Northernhibee]

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To give an idea of the standard the teams in that stage this season were Benfica, Dynamo Kiev, Rapid Vienna, AZ Alkmaar, PAOK, Locomotiva, Besiktas, Plzen and Gent.

Nothing easy there. Personally I'd take third and guaranteed European football until December.

Tbh if there’s a chance of us finishing second in the league when there is both Celtic and Rangers in it, second would be the biggest achievement in my lifetime as a Hibs fan barring 21st May. Considering the chasm between the spending of the top two and the rest, it would be unreal.

[B.H.F.C]

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If we win our next 4 tough but winnable games we go into the split on 64 pts, if Celtic lose to Rangers and draw with Aberdeen or Dundee Utd they're on 68 pts. Beat them at ER after split and there's 1 pt in it. Far from impossible.

I think the most unlikely thing in amongst all of that is us winning our four games. Would take us to 8 league wins on the spin which would be unbelievable going. Then again, they’re winnable games. If we could manage it, it might give us half a chance after the split because Celtic will definitely drop more points between now and then.

[bingo70]

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I think the most unlikely thing in amongst all of that is us winning our four games. Would take us to 8 league wins on the spin which would be unbelievable going. Then again, they’re winnable games. If we could manage it, it might give us half a chance after the split because Celtic will definitely drop more points between now and then.

Tend to agree.

Everyone, myself included, is talking as if it’s a banker we will win our game in hand.

The team we play our game in hand against just beat Celtic and pumped us the last time we played them.

In fairness, there’s absolutely no need for this post pishing on everyone’s chips when I think most realise it’s very unlikely, but not impossible.

Nothing wrong with letting our minds wander a bit as long as the players don’t. Also got to hope it helps keep the players minds focused.

[hibbysam]

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Tend to agree.

Everyone, myself included, is talking as if it’s a banker we will win our game in hand.

The team we play our game in hand against just beat Celtic and pumped us the last time we played them.

In fairness, there’s absolutely no need for this post pishing on everyone’s chips when I think most realise it’s very unlikely, but not impossible.

Nothing wrong with letting our minds wander a bit as long as the players don’t. Also got to hope it helps keep the players minds focused.

To be fair folk said the same when we played St Mirren, they’d just played Celtic off the park at parkhead and pumped Dundee United at tannadice. We turn up we most likely win, unfortunately we missed a tonne of chances up there last time and never turned up at home.

[ScottB]

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What’s our record points total since we’ve had the current 38 game season? We must have a decent chance of beating it?

Looked it up:

2001 - 66 pts
2005 - 61 pts
2018 - 67 pts

We need 5 wins from the last 9 to equal our record total. So setting a new one is certainly possible, if difficult. We’ll need to if we want to grab second place!

[Sir David Gray]

So do we want a Celtic win next week to help us finish 3rd but have almost no chance of 2nd or an Aberdeen win to help us get a chance of finishing 2nd but risk dropping down to 4th?

Celtic win every day of the week for me.

I'm already quite excited about seeing us playing in the group stages of Europe even if it is in the Europa Conference League. To be honest I'm more excited about that than the prospect of playing a bunch of qualifiers even if one of those rounds is in the Champions League.

Although it would be very satisfying to finish above Celtic.

I just can't see any way that we pick up 13 more points than Celtic over the last 9 games of the season.