Dundee boss John Brown saw his side handed a crunch relegation clash away to St Mirren to open their run-in and told his players to prepare for their “cup final”.
Faced with having to try and claw back a 13 point deficit in the final five games of the season to avoid the drop, the Dark Blues already know they have it all to do when they get their bottom six campaign under way next weekend.
However, SPL chiefs have given them absolutely no room for error after pairing Brown’s men with the second from bottom Buddies in their first post-split fixture on Saturday April 20.
Dundee United will kick-off their top six effort with a televised home game against Motherwell on Friday April 19 and will round off their campaign at home to champions-elect Celtic in a lunchtime kick-off on Sunday May 19.
They were also given a third home game against St Johnstone on Saturday May 4, but face lengthy trips to Ross County on Friday April 26 and Inverness on May 11.
St Johnstone were promised three home games and the SPL delivered, with Ross County and Inverness first up on April 21 and April 27 respectively before closing out the campaign against Motherwell at McDiarmid Park on May 19.
Away games against Dundee United and Celtic have been pencilled in for May 4 and May 11.
But yesterday’s fixtures now mean it is a case of win or bust for Dundee when they lock horns with St Mirren in Paisley a week on Saturday, but interim boss Brown would not have it any other way.
“I said to the boys a while back that if we were going to try and peg the gap we would have two cup finals against St Mirren,” he said.
“This will be the second cup final and the boys will be looking forward to that because if we can get a result it will cut the gap further. It is a cup final for us and I’m glad it’s that we’ve got plenty of time to prepare.
“It’s great that it comes down to this game and the winner takes a lot out of it.”