Rather than this being another potential three points in our charge to the top six or European place, we have found ourselves in a relegation struggle. This is a true six-pointer - a win would re-establish our gap over the cousins but a loss (unthinkable surely!) would put us joint bottom with 
But losing is not nearly so unthinkable as it was even just a few months ago. Fair enough, they did beat us in the league cup - but we had ten men, we hit the woodwork, we were unlucky…We improved after that loss and were sitting proudly in third place after the first round of fixtures. We then performed well against the Old Firm and might even have taken more than one point from that pair of games. All was still good. But since then we have fallen apart in dramatic fashion.
It is a little unfair to include games against the Old Firm in runs as they can take one or two results and turn them into a crisis. But since the Old Firm matches, we have taken no points from the last four contests and our only goal in that time was a direct free kick. We have serious problems in keeping goals out, we can't score ourselves and the midfield is getting neck cramp from watching the ball fly over their heads.
Once more we can question the tactics of the manager. The 4-4-2 system we have used simply hasn't worked, not least because we have no wingers - or certainly none that we trust to start. We might welcome back Clarkson after suspension and a hand injury but Craigan looks to be out again. We could effectively drop half the team without them having much complaint and it needs both a huge increase in performance and attitude if we are to get a result.
Unfortunately we might be frustrated once more but at least we might pick up one goal and one point in a 1-1 stalemate.