Dundee are on the brink, teetering over the relegation threshold with seeming inevitability.
The number of points they are adrift is now greater than the number of remaining matches they have to save themselves.
Five points to make up with four matches to play – along with the hope St Johnstone’s recent good form deserts them.
After Saturday’s draw at Dens, Callum Davidson’s Saints have now picked up eight points from their last five matches. If they gain half as many in the four games remaining, the Dark Blues are pretty much toast.
Can they survive?
Dundee are now asking for big favours from the rest of the bottom six while also needing to beat those same teams.
But there are still 12 points to play for and still opportunities to get out of trouble.
To do so Dundee will have to show form unlike anything they have mustered since November/December, when they won three out of four.
And St Johnstone have to lose, lose, lose.
There’s a reason the bookies have Dundee 1/20 on to finish bottom of the Premiership.
The odds are overwhelmingly against the Dark Blues.
So what next?
Dens managing director John Nelms has already stated he has two budgets set for next season – one for the top flight, another for the Championship.
If, as looks likely, it is the latter, the playing budget will be slashed.
But the majority of the current squad is contracted beyond this term.
And that leaves the club in a decent place heading to the second tier.
As always, the Championship will be a long struggle, but this Dundee side would be favourites to come straight back up.
With no big-spending side like Dundee United or Hearts in their way – play-off dependant – the Dark Blues would be a big fish in that pond.
Add goals and that squad is a good one for that division.
Who is in charge?
This is the biggest question for Nelms to answer.
Mark McGhee and Simon Rusk are only contracted to the end of the season and are yet to win a game in charge.
There are four games to change that – engineer a great escape and surely the job is theirs for next season.
Or maybe they have impressed enough behind the scenes to get the nod.
That would not be a popular choice among the supporters, however.
With relations strained already this season, keeping fans onside while the club tries to sell season tickets could be a simple PR move for the American owners.
Who is else out there?
Jack Ross’s name always pops up in these scenarios but would he want to drop back into Championship football?
Would Kevin Thomson step away from the good thing he’s got at Kelty to come into a club on a downer after relegation?
Then there’s skipper Charlie Adam, with his contract running down, looking to move into coaching and already a leader at the club.
He’d no doubt be in contention, but whether Dundee could go for another untested young manager is another question only Nelms can answer.
Right now
That’s thinking for the summer. Right now, the Dark Blues have to find a way to get three points on the road at Aberdeen.
The Dons are on a woeful run of form themselves, winning just one league game since they defeated a Covid-ravaged Dundee side on Boxing Day.
The pressure is on Jim Goodwin and his side already at an unhappy Pittodrie.
Dundee have a chance still to win there and begin one last survival salvo – but do they have the quality to take it?
