Another relegation battle
This season we are faced with yet another relegation battle. As we have returned to our normal end of the league, we are taking the usual stick from other fans. However, are we as bad as everyone says we are?
Only two years ago we finished second in the league. Good teams don't go bad overnight. So, having been a first division club £800,000 in the red eleven years ago, we are now in the Premier league and in the black (if only just). This could be viewed as a small success. If you look at the fact that we have been in the Premier league for eleven consecutive seasons (sixth longest) then this is a remarkable success. We also won the cup in '91 and finished 2nd and 3rd between '93-'95.
Look at all the other clubs about our size in the Premier recently. Hamilton and Clydebank don't have grounds and are struggling financially and neither have won anything for years. Dundee have a tip of a dog racing ground, no money and also haven't won anything for ages. Airdrie, Falkirk and Partick Thistle have been up and down. Dunfermline spent years blowing promotion campaigns on the last day of the season before finally getting back into the top division. Morton have a dump of a ground and have only looked like getting back up once in recent years. Kilmarnock and St Mirren both think they're big clubs and they have nice grounds, but only Killie have been (struggling) in the Premier league recently. St Johnstone look like getting back into the top league this year as they are walking away with the First Division. Dundee Utd slowly declined until they were relegated last season. The only team with a record anywhere near as good as ours is Raith. They were fifth last season, won the League cup a couple of years ago and enjoyed a good run in Europe, but haven't been in the Premier league much.
The smart ones among you would have noticed that out of the clubs above only Dundee Utd and Raith Rovers have won trophies in the nineties. Out of the twenty-one honours available this decade Rangers have won fourteen and Aberdeen two. The other five were won by five different clubs, ourselves included. Add this to being League runners up in '94/95 (third the season before), giving Borussia Dortmund a scare at the Westfallen and playing some of the best attacking and passing football in our history and we've been doing pretty well recently.
So even if we get relegated this season remember that in the last ten years at least, we have done things almost all other provincial clubs could only dream about. Remember this the next time you abuse the team for being ninth or eighth or whatever. Get right behind them to make sure we keep on having good times and stay in the Premier League as we have for the last decade.
Derek Wilson
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