TIME FOR BRAVEHEARTS NOT (EVER) FAINTHEARTS

Now’s the time for Bravehearts instead of Fainthearts on both sides of the road if Premierleague football is to be preserved on Tannadice Street.

The phoney war is over and, starting at three o’clock tomorrow, the real battle for survival begins as four of the bottom six get down to deciding who is going to fall out of the SPL at the end of the season.

And if the men who matter most right now at Dens and Tannadice Parks — the players — stand up and are counted, there is reason to believe this most difficult of league campaigns can finish with both sets of supporters smiling, or at least breathing a big sigh of relief.

Before we get to that stage, though, there is a lot of hard work to be done, and it will be a major surprise if there are not a few twists and turns along the way.

For Dark Blues followers, there can be some comfort in the four-point gap they hold on bottom two Livingston and Dunfermline.

The fixtures, though, have not been kind to Jim Duffy’s team, who will need an improvement in away form to be sure of safety.

Both Livi and the Pars have to be faced away from Dens, and statistics of this season and before suggest that is not a good thing.

As well as not having won outside the City of Discovery during this campaign, they have never beaten Livi away from Dens, while the last success on East End Park pre-dates Dunfermline’s dalliance with synthetic surfaces.

For that matter, tomorrow’s venue — Rugby Park, Kilmarnock — has not been a happy hunting-ground, and if ever there was a time for putting a few records straight it is on these grounds over the next few weeks.

At Tannadice, there would surely have been a more positive reaction to the post-split fixture announcement last Saturday night.

Three games at home and only one outwith their home city were as much as the Tangerines could have hoped for.

And, by the time he takes his men up to the Highlands to face ICT on the last day of league business, interim boss Gordon Chisholm will be hoping safety has already been guaranteed and he can relax and enjoy the build-up to the Tennent’s Scottish Cup Final.

Given the improvement in performances and results that has already been evident, if that is the case, surely Chisholm will have been told to drop the word “interim” from his title.

Since taking over from Ian McCall a month ago, he has been tactically sound, got the players working hard for each other and conducted himself well. Most of all, he has shown himself to be a leader.

While on the subject of Bravehearts, no-one who knows him would deny Dundee defender Lee Wilkie the right to be labelled with that somewhat clichéd title.

After receiving the worst possible news this week — that he has ruptured his cruciate ligament for the second time since January last year — there is no question he faces the biggest challenge of his career.

As he fights to overcome this disastrous blow, you can be sure he will do so with the same commitment he takes onto the park for every game.

However bleak things look now, only a fool would bet against one of the country’s best defenders being back in Dark Blue in a year or so.

It’s up to his team-mates to make sure when that happens he is playing in the SPL.

Predictions

Dundee United v. Livingston — HOME; Dunfermline v. ICT — AWAY; Kilmarnock v. Dundee — DRAW; Hibs v. Hearts — HOME; Motherwell v. Aberdeen — HOME; Rangers v. Celtic — AWAY.