All Activity

As long as Wilson doesn't refer to them as a pool of players. Be a bit insensitive, methinks.

If Baraclough is back in the UK now, recuperating, I hope he can contribute to the sourcing of players who Mark might consider adding to the squad. Even if it’s just keeping in touch by phone while his injuries heal.

Agree with @lady-isobel-barnett that we can be quite fixated on formations such as 4-2-3-1, 3-5-2 etc when in reality they are only really starting positions. From what what I have seen in the 2 friendlies so far Wilson is changing the nature of how the fullbacks play. We have for the last few seasons been used to seeing overlapping fullbacks when we have possession so that it creates overloads in wide area's. To my mind it was noticeable against Glenafton and against ICT that Wilson is looking for the fullbacks to either underlap or be more central and almost become the midfield allowing the likes of Stanway and Crawford to make runs into the box and get beyond the strikers. In theory pulls a wide defender into central area's and leaves our wingers with more space and a 1v1 against the opposition fullback which in turn makes us less predictable in attack and less reliant on a striker for goals. Second half of the ICT game showed this particularly when Lowe and Logan were our fullbacks. Logan is very good at making underlapping runs, Lowe is pretty good on the ball and able to pick a pass and put in a decent cross. Harkness tried to play as an overlapping fullback putting more pressure on our weak midfield and whilst Reading was trying to underlap Fitzpatrick he's not as good as Low on the ball and got caught in possession a couple of times. So if we are looking at formations against ICT we looked more like a 2-3-2-3 when we had the ball with occasional periods where either Logan, Stanway or Crawford would go further forward and we end up with almost 5 up front but people finding space in the defensive channels rather than just out wide and overloading the fullback. Downside is that if an opposition can break quickly they will find space in wide areas which will in turn mean our centre backs getting pulled wide. So might not be the worst thing to have a centre back play as CDM who can drop in central in that scenario and immediately have 3 at the back. Where I think the issues are is that I'm not convinced Reading can play in that system as he looks more like a wingback who can carry the ball but struggles with delivery and on defensive duties. Low looks better in possession but still not got the physicality required for the defensive work. Whilst we become less reliant on a striker to score goals we need a striker with better movement to create spaces for the advanced midfielders to exploit. For our wingers to exploit the 1v1's requires them to have a few tricks which I think only Chalmers and Lawless truly have as Fitzpatrick and MacKay are more about pace. Conversely we need the wingers to have pace to cover back quickly and Lawless doesn't have that. I would also add that we will be asking O'Reilly and Ashcroft to do a lot more quick changes of direction so we might well find they start to pick up more injuries than last season. I like Dolan and I think he can cope with first team football but we might still need another centre half for cover

You make a good point but...... Six foot nothing, Eyes of blue Quite Big Lee Ashcroft is after you. .... just doesn't scan 🙂

With MacBeth and OReilly either side, Ashcroft’s lack of pace is not badly exposed. He’s an old fashioned Jim Holton defender who dominates in the air. Play a back 3 with Luke striding out like a thoroughbred.

Even after putting aside the current state of the squad, it seems inconceivable that at any time in the first half of the season McBeth will start most games on the bench. Just as inconceivable playing a back four that the captain or the left sided O'Reilly would be dropped to accommodate Luke. Maybe we look too much into formation? If McBeth starts in defensive midfield and drops into the back line when defending it's not too much different from him starting in a back three and moving forward when we're attacking (as indeed he's done). Bit like wingbacks who'll make it a back five when called upon. It's still not ideal as I think McBeth is best when he picks the ball up from the back line and drives forward rather than collecting it further up the park, but needs be. Putting a positive spin on things a centreback pairing of Ashcroft & O'Reilly should be the least of our worries.

Looks like a good addition to the squad.

i think the best 3 players at the club are all centre backs, if we do go back 4, then i think macbeth will be sacrificial lamb into midfield. Which i dont agree with, for me, since he signed hes been best player at the club (thats still here)

I wish they would hurry up... Jk, no jk

I think he could be the answer tho. Strong, can break the lives Vlad the Impaling Jag?

It seems that Wilson is favouring a back 4, which begs the question, what to do with McBeth ? He is too good to be sitting on the bench every week, waiting for Lee or Dan to pick up a knock, so maybe a stand in defensive midfield, until Martin is back might be an option, however that has not worked well in previous setups. Could he play right back ?

I think he could be the answer tho. Strong, can break the lives with his runs and take a ball on the half turn

First signing of the new season: https://ptfc.co.uk/ptfc-news/erin-rennie-becomes-ptwfc-first-summer-signing/

https://ptfc.co.uk/ptfc-news/partick-thistle-open-day-2025/ Hopefully the weather will be kind.

Logan also got back to make an excellent goal-line clearance when the rest of the defence had been caught out.

Stanway, Campbell and Crawford were awful in the first-half. Tbf they were more central but The Caley just cut through is at ease.

Cammy Logan's 90 mins has looked good to me. Takes up interesting positions, most noticeably in attack where he often becomes a sort of inside right. Certainly never predictable as he can overlap down the right flank as well. Game took a turn for the best when McBeth moved into defensive midfield. We know he's not the answer there but it just highlights an obvious area where we're weak and vulnerable.

Diack was quite distressed he won't be back soon. Dislocated shoulder by the looks of things. I thought the #9 was okay. He received no service thanks to the first-half setup where the doughnut in midfield was prevalent in midfield cedeing possession and putting pressure on the defence. A couple of switched turned things around. Ditching Harkness, Campbell and pushing Luke and Ben forwards. It must have been a decent half-time talk too as the first-half performance was pitiful, despite only being a preseason friendly. Kobei Moore did okay, knew what runs to make and he was involved in the goals in the second-half. Cammy Logan looks like he deserves a contract. Played well in both games and comfortable in midfield and right wing back. Everyone got a runout apart from Cameron the reserve keeper. It was a game of two halves but it was reassuring to see the manager was flexible with the formation and trying players in different positions. Luke McBeth in defence, had a first-half shitemare but was solid in the screener role secind-half and let Stanway do what he does best. Making runs wither side of the penalty arc. Chalmers did some flashy runs in first-half but really made an impact in the second-half. Not sure if agree with previous comments about Laeless and Falconhoof. Didn't do much to threatening whatsoever. Still, another game under the belts. We need at least four or five additions. Logan may be one. Moore may get a shout due to Diack's injury. Still need a #6 unless McBeth is moved there then we would need centre-back cover. Need a number#8 & #9 and probably another full-back. Interested to see what is done before our next game. Still a lot of work to be done. Credit to the manager though. He switched from an awful 45 minute performance into a promising one.

I think we should be signing Cammy Logan. If he's relatively low cost (and given he was at forfar last season he surely can't be looking for megabucks) at worst he is decent cover but he does look like he might be better as fullback than Reading is on the other side. Harkness looks a long way short of the required standard. No.9 didn't look brilliant but not sure if thats because he only met his team mates in the last few hours and he maybe hasn't played much in the last few weeks. Certainly didn't do anything tonight that would make you think he was worth a contract. Horn looks our best striker right now and that was before Diack got injured. Midfield was a mess first half. McBeth as CDM steadied the ship and allowed Crawford and Stanway to press higher. However we really need another midfield option as I don't think that 3 are good enough at Championship level. Falconer showed some nice touches when he came on but still not sure he's physically ready. Lockhart looked decent and maybe the most first team ready of the midfield youngsters. Dolan showed up well at centrehalf and looked physically capable of playing first team football. Thought Low's passing was better than Reading but Low does need to bulk up a bit. If we sign Logan then we still need another right-back to at least provide cover. Need at least 1 midfield starter, 2 strikers and another goalkeeper as a minimum.

I think Diack was injured. He was taken off, and one of the coaching team had to help him back to the changing room. Possibly a shoulder problem. Hopefully precautionary and not too serious. I am hopeful that Thomas Horn may become a decent striker for us before too long, but tend to agree that for the moment we could do with 2 strikers with reasonable scoring pedigrees.

A description that could equally apply to Diack unfortunately. We really need two strikers in before the season starts

Gibb is off to Hibs, have not seen anything about Burchill yet.

Some takeaways: Ben Stanway is going to be our goal scoring midfielder this season. Cammy Logan is ten times better than Jack Harkness at right back. We are still looking for a centre forward. Stevie Lawless and Matty Falconer seemed to read each other really well and put together some great combinational play. That could be a partnership to watch. Robbie Crawford runs about a lot.

Will be interesting to hear the opinions of those at the game as it sounded like the "game of 2 halves". Good to get 2 wins from 2 games and to show we can come back from a losing position but clearly tougher games lie ahead and still need to add to the squad.

That triple salvo showed what this team can do. For 10 minutes we played like Barcelona. Thereafter the game rather petered out with a flurry of substitutions and we held on for the 3-2 win.