SPL Fixture List to be Published this Week

The first games of the new season will take place on the weekend of July 30 and the list will be transferred to diaries and calendars by supporters as they anticipate the forthcoming campaign.

Of particular interest will be the first encounter. Could the computer see us face either of the Old Firm? Given the dramatic final game at Fir Park in May the attention paid to such a game would be higher than normal.

In recent years we have faced Celtic(a) L 0-2, Dundee (h) L 0-2, Livingston (a) L 2-3, Dunfermline(a) L 2-5, Dundee(h) L 0-2. The eagled-eyed reader will not fail to spot a worrying trend in these curtain raisers. Let’s hope that the pattern comes to halt at the end of July. In any event, it appears that the result in the first game of the season has little effect on our final placing.

Also of interest will be the arrangements for the Boxing Day and Ne’erday games. There was an outcry last season when the traditional derby day had Inverness travelling to Motherwell while Kilmarnock were scheduled to trek to Aberdeen. Surely the lesson will be learned this time around?