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Even though Dundee United had last Saturday off, I did take in some football over the weekend. I wish I hadn’t bothered, in truth.

I watched the Premiership highlights with what can be best described as uninterested detachment.

It seems odd to say given how sore relegation was at the time, but there is not much I actually miss about being in the Premiership.

I’m not saying I wouldn’t want United to be promoted. Even for me, that would be a rather perverse thing to say.

I miss the Dundee derbies, of course. To a lesser extent, I miss the games against Aberdeen. Those games have an intensity that, with all due respect to all of our Championship opponents, is not something we are going to experience at this level all that often, if at all.

Any United fan who claims to miss playing either of the Glasgow behemoths is either disturbingly masochistic or really enjoys paying obscene amounts of money to sit behind a pillar or to have songs sung at them about 17th century battles for 90 minutes. Hey, each to their own.

The weekend culminated with Celtic taking on Aberdeen in one of the most one sided sporting contests since a Roman emperor decided to stick some Christians in the same stadium as some lions, just to see what would happen. Frankly, it was a waste of an hour and a half unless you cared who won. Great for Celtic, bad for Aberdeen, an absolute non event for everyone else.

The game made United’s abject display in the League Cup final against the same opponents less than two years ago look resilient. Well, almost.

These days, when I watch a sporting contest, in any sport, if I don’t have any partisan interest I have next to no interest in watching what amounts to a victory procession. I don’t really want to be at least 90% sure who will win before the damn thing even starts. Having said that, I did watch the Formula 1 that same day, which did prepare me for the League Cup final in the sense that only one team was ever going to win that too.

I did see a comparison made with the sustained excellence of Andy Murray, although given Andy Murray isn’t world number 1 simply because he has five times as much money to spend on tennis rackets as Novak Djokovic, the comparison doesn’t quite work.

Given the chances of there being a title race in the Premiership is about as likely as me winning a Nobel prize, we should celebrate the fact that we do still have one in the Championship.

At least, for the time being.

On Friday night we have that unusual thing in Scottish football, a top of the table clash which actually means something. There are three points between Hibs and Dundee United, and this feels like a game that really matters. It’s certainly a novelty for United to be involved in a game as big as this without needing to use the words “relegation six pointer”.

With the points gap being what it is, if Dundee United have any ambitions of actually winning the Championship this season it’s important they do not lose. A draw, while not being ideal, would not be fatal to United’s league chances with so much of the season left. A three point lead for Hibs is not insurmountable. A six point lead, however, would be extraordinarily difficult to claw back. Even at this relatively early stage.

But to win the game and go level on points with Hibs would be miles ahead of the expectations of even the most optimistic United fans, given how United ended last season and began this one. What a springboard to go into the second half of the season that would be.

Especially so considering the refereeing conspiracy which has been taking place against Hibs this season. I do hope there is actually a conspiracy and it’s not just something their manager has made up to cover his own inadequacies. Having to put up with a neutral referee on Friday night will be such a comedown. I have been promised bias, and bias is what I expect.

At the time of writing, over 10,000 tickets have been sold for the game. There will be not far short of 3000 Hibs fans there. Even without taking into consideration that it’s a game which is on television, taking place at a time of year when traditionally every penny is a prisoner, that’s remarkable. It’s amazing, how if you get a game that actually means something, people will turn up and watch it? Pretty revelatory stuff, isn’t it?

For all the inevitable pre match talk of how these two clubs “should” be in the Premiership, both clubs are at this level because they deserve to be. As much as I think both teams are currently good enough to play in the top league, based on very little other than gut feeling, unless they actually get promoted there it doesn’t matter a whole lot.

Thanks to injuries, a Dundee United team with no strikers will be taking on a Hibs team with no midfielders. Well, not quite, but the certain absence of John McGinn and the probable absence of Fraser Fyvie will be a blow for Hibs. McGinn, in particular, is a wonderful player who can hurt better teams than United. Having said that, their squad is so strong that I wouldn’t expect them to be significantly weakened by those absences.

United have been excellent defensively for the last couple of months, but in the last few games, other than the win at Dumfries, they haven’t carried a huge goal threat. Whether the likelihood that Hibs will play a more open game than most recent opponents will actually help United remains to be seen.

It’s bound to be a tough game for United. But it will be a tough game for Hibs too.

An evening game, under floodlights, in front of a large crowd. A game that actually means something. What else could you possibly want? Aside for a United win, of course…