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Post-split fixture decision needs watching

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By on CQN BLOG & Comments

The SPFL will determine post-split fixtures along established guidelines.  Celtic will face Newco on either match day 34 or 35, to avoid the possibility of a league decider between the teams.  With Hearts likely to lead the table going into the break, the usual metric changes.

The loser of the Celtic-Newco game could face Hearts when already out of contention for the top two slots.  If Celtic were out of contention, would we expect them to take on Hearts on the final day of the season at full strength?  Even without the prospect of denying Newco the title, Celtic would be a busted flush.  The same is true for Newco.  If they were out of the race, do you think there is a remote chance they would turn up at Tynecastle and collect the points that would deliver the title to Celtic?

Newco fans are likely to be as animated on this subject as we are.  They will remember a lacklustre Celtic defeat at home to Aberdeen, when the visitors needed a win to confirm finishing above Newco in 2018.  Some of us will remember the final game of the season in 1982, when if Celtic drew and Aberdeen beat Rangers by five goals, the title would go to the north east.  The Dons were 4-0 at the break, before news filtered through that Celtic had hit the goal trail.

These examples may be innocent results, but the SPFL must do itself a favour and take suspicion out of the equation.  Hearts, Celtic and Newco must play each other in the first two rounds of games. The SPFL cannot contrive a competitive advantage for one of the title contenders.

Hearts, Celtic, Newco, Motherwell, Hibs and Falkirk will make the top six.  This gives the League another headache, as all six cannot have 19 home and 19 away games.  The only fair solution is to give Hibs and Falkirk 20 home games.  This will mean an uneven number of home and away fixtures with Falkirk and Hibs for some clubs.

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See the table below showing what games home/away the clubs are due to get and who they will play at each venue.  Teams in yellow are playing their third game of the season at that venue.  Hibs will have four home games post-split.

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  3. spikeysauldman on

    fave uncle

     

     

    my auld man was 80 last nov (and his bro funnily enough :))

     

     

    quite a quiet affair – all round to one of my bros (also a twin)

     

     

    he was out with us for a wee while last sat. he had just become a great-grandfather.

     

     

    seen my uncle last at a funeral, few weeks back

     

     

    think there will be a few more in the coming months :(

     

     

    keep the faith

  4. FAVOURITE UNCLE on

    Great news say hello from me and my wife 80 tomorrow and she is also a twin.

  5. spikeysauldman on

    fave uncle

     

     

    thanks

     

     

    have a great day and best wishes to your better half !!!

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  7. Tontine Tim on

    On April 18, 1959, if hearts had won and 1872 lost at home, then hearts would be champions, instead 1872 did lose 1-2. while we were coming from behind to win 2-1 at Parkheid with goals fae wee ten thirty and Eric Smith, ironically both sides had the exact same 41 GD while we languished in 6th place 16 points behind, 2 points for a win then, and a miserable 17 GD, there wisnae any singing and dancing at hatebrox as although they were champions we won it for them.

     

     

    I have no doubt that there was no way Sir Bob would have allowed us tae lie down tae hearts and gift them the title, it wisnae his corinthian way, but a later generation of management would take great delight in doing that.

  8. ziggydoc1 on

    Isn’t it possible that we play Motherwell at home also (along with Hearts and Sevco), rather than away?

  9. BigChipsUK on

    I don’t see why they can’t publish the sequence of post-split fixtures right at the start of the season, in the following form:

     

     

    Matchday 1

     

    1st v 6th

     

    2nd v 5th

     

    3rd v 4th

     

     

    Matchday 2

     

    1st v 5th

     

    2nd v 4th

     

    3rd v 6th

     

     

    etc.

     

     

    …with the H/A venues to be determined once the actual teams are known. If it ends up with a team playing HHAAA post-split or a title decider between Celtic and rangers then so be it, that’s the luck of the draw, and you still play the same games over the piece regardless of what order they’re played in. At least they can’t deliberately favour or disadvantage any of the teams, as it’s pre-determined.

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  14. rimtimtim on

    If Celtic can win all their remaining home games from now on, they can win this league. The best results this season have been in away matches and it’s our home form which has troubled us.

     

     

    Dalriadastreetcsc

  16. Gedinte on

    BIGCHIPSUK on 6TH MARCH 2026 5:14 PM

     

     

    Unfortunately because of the 12 team league and the 33 games prior to the split, then 5 after, the first consideration becomes one of fairness in respect of H/A, so that is unavoidably the first step.

     

    Next, you take all of the matchups which are known both in respect of teams and venue, and then you attempt to drop them into a schedule. It can be computed, but it does require consideration of all the other variables, which include the old US v THEM timing, reasonable H/A sequence, and no two fixtures in the same city on the same day.

     

     

    I was not intending to be too abstract, but my point about the high school student with a laptop is that there are a finite number of permutations all of which can be calculated prior to the season commencing, and then the relevant version gets published once the top-6 is known. This would be fully transparent.

     

     

    Alternatively, we wake up to the need for a 14-team league with a split after the initial 26 games (13 home and away), with another 12 games post-split (6 home and away). This is a perfectly balanced schedule that WOULD be published at the beginning of the season as you suggest. I believe that the concern with this structure has been the need for one team to be idle in each set of post-split fixtures. I personally feel that is manageable and would dictate that on the last day of the season the teams in 7th and 8th (as of the split) sit out, as they would be the ones most likely to have the least to play for.

  17. BigChipsUK on

    RimTimTim, our opponents owe it to their own supporters to venture into the attacking half occasionally in their home games, which affords us opportunities to exploit the space this opens up.

     

     

    When they visit Celtic Park they simply park the bus and hope for the best from the odd rare punt up the pitch, leaving us with two banks of five to get through to create chances. And they know that we’ll just keep passing from side to side and back again before swinging in an inaccurate cross for a 6’4″, 14 stone brick khazi to head clear… and repeat ad nauseum!

     

     

    Hence we are always likely to get more clear cut chances away from home.

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  19. BigChipsUK on

    You’re right Gedinte, a 14 team set-up would be more straightforward, and fairer. And it doesn’t just affect the top of the table. Relegation could be determined by the fact that one team played 6 games away to Celtic, rangers and Hearts, while the other team played just 3 such games.

  20. jackiemac on

    Connaire 12

     

     

    In the light of your ascension after your faith in the suffering, kingdom and patience of the risen Lord may I bequest your intercessions to the Queen of Heaven that she may guide the those who’ve lost the sight of the truth this week and that she may pray for those underfire.

  21. the Bada Bing on

    The renewal window will open on Wednesday 18 March and close on Wednesday 22 April, with fans first being charged for their purchases on Friday 1 May.

     

    Last season, fans had until 5 May to confirm their renewal.

     

     

    Cash flow issues at Poundland again? Watch our mob try the same

  22. Sionnaigh on

    March 6th

     

     

    There was no priest in last night or tonight. They stopped me from seeing my solicitor tonight, as another part of the isolation process, which, as time goes by, they will ruthlessly implement. I expect they may move me sooner than expected to an empty wing. I will be sorry to leave the boys, but I know the road is a hard one and everything must be conquered.

     

     

    I have felt the loss of energy twice today, and I am feeling slightly weak.

     

     

    They (the Screws) are unembarrassed by the enormous amount of food they are putting into the cell and I know they have every bean and chip counted or weighed. The damned fools don’t realise that the doctor does tests for traces of any food eaten. Regardless, I have no intention of sampling their tempting morsels.

     

     

    I am sleeping well at night so far, as I avoid sleeping during the day. I am even having pleasant dreams and so far no headaches. Is that a tribute to my psychological frame of mind or will I pay for that tomorrow or later! I wonder how long I will be able to keep these scribbles going?

     

     

    My friend Jennifer got twenty years. I am greatly distressed. (Twenty-one-year-old Jennifer McCann, from Belfast’s Twinbrook estate, was sentenced to twenty years’ imprisonment for shooting at an RUC man).

     

     

    I have no doubts or regrets about what I am doing for I know what I have faced for eight years, and in particular for the last four and-a-half years, others will face, young lads and girls still at school, or young Gerard or Kevin (Bobby’s son and nephew, respectively) and thousands of others.

     

     

    They will not criminalise us, rob us of our true identity, steal our individualism, depoliticise us, churn us out as systemised, institutionalised, decent law-abiding robots. Never will they label our liberation struggle as criminal.

     

     

    I am (even after all the torture) amazed at British logic. Never in eight centuries have they succeeded in breaking the spirit of one man who refused to be broken. They have not dispirited, conquered, nor demoralised my people, nor will they ever.

     

     

    I may be a sinner, but I stand — and if it so be, will die — happy knowing that I do not have to answer for what these people have done to our ancient nation.

     

     

    Thomas Clarke is in my thoughts, and MacSwiney, Stagg, Gaughan, Thomas Ashe, McCaughey. Dear God, we have so many that another one to those knaves means nothing, or so they say, for some day they’ll pay.

     

     

    When I am thinking of Clarke, I thought of the time I spent in ‘B’ wing in Crumlin Road jail in September and October ’77. I realised just what was facing me then. I’ve no need to record it all, some of my comrades experienced it too, so they know I have been thinking that some people (maybe many people) blame me for this hunger-strike, but I have tried everything possible to avert it short of surrender.

     

     

    I pity those who say that, because they do not know the British and I feel more the pity for them because they don’t even know their poor selves. But didn’t we have people like that who sought to accuse Tone, Emmet, Pearse, Connolly, Mellowes: that unfortunate attitude is perennial also…

     

     

    I can hear the curlew passing overhead. Such a lonely cell, such a lonely struggle. But, my friend, this road is well trod and he, whoever he was, who first passed this way, deserves the salute of the nation. I am but a mere follower and I must say Oíche Mhaith.

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  29. Hot Smoked on

    ” Burnley78 on 6th March 2026 2:54 pm

     

    We have currently got a massive long term injury list of a magnitude I can hardly recall ever.

     

    We seem to ignore this when looking at the squad.”

     

     

    One of the reasons ` We seem to ignore this ` might be because, as far as I know, the Media never mention it?

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  31. Hot Smoked on

    PS How many points do you think Ireland will win by tonight?

     

    I`m going for about 30.

  34. The Blogger Formerly Known As GM on

    I don’t expect Wales to win, Smokey, but hopefully they’re competitive and keep it down to a couple of scores.

  35. The Blogger Formerly Known As GM on

    Anyone know why ‘The Soldiers Song’ is played only when Ireland play at home?

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  41. The Blogger Formerly Known As GM on

    Hmmmm….I think your prediction may be a bit conservative, Smokey😂

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  43. Maolmuire O Muirgheasa on

    Pixbo Wallenstam trailing 4-6 to Jonkoping as the Svenska Superligan Floorball championships head into the final straight.

  45. Sionnaigh on

    See that “Ireland’s Call”, the one Free Staters sing before Rugby matches. Why not the national anthem, “Amhrán na bhFiann”?

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