Lionel J. Botch

The last time there was something called 'Home Rule', that ended well didn't it?

No politics at football - I may be wrong, but I think there is at least 1 advertising hoarding around the ground from a political party. Should the club remove this immediately and return the fee for advertising?

Martin, my good lady has e-mailed on several occasions to get a price to hire the Aitken Suite for a party next year. Heard hee haw back, so I can only imagine it is going so well they can ignore customers.

Thanks for that PT, I knew I had seen it somewhere but couldn't find it. So, how's that working out then?

The TAG thread has brought back the issue of the supporters federation. Can someone please enlighten me as to: What the supporters federation is? Who are the members / representatives? How did they become members / representatives? What is the federation there to do? How does this differ from the role of the trust? Not spoiling for a fight, genuinely don't know (or if I did know it's been so long off the agenda I can't remember).

The first few times it was because we did not know it would come off without leaving a mark. Taken it off now and tbh it is much better. I'm not sure MacB will be too happy that the club are selling a product that is not fit for purpose and removes them from a main source of advertising.

My son has the home kit and after several times of trying to iron back on the MacB logo we have decided to remove it altogether. Anyone else had a similar issue or is it just his?

Does anyone agree with that starting line up? I am not in the change the manager camp, but even some of my mates who would never question Archie are starting to scratch their heads. How can our top goal scorer be on the bench for a midfielder who is never a striker? How can we have no replacement left back for a player who advised he was leaving in January? Whatever you think of him, how can Lawless go from not making the bench to becoming a starter? (I know he was on the bench today). How can we afford to sign a player for a season and send him to Airdrie? There is something very wrong. Our squad is no stronger, IMHO,than this time last year. That is not progress.

An amazing amount of bawbaggery going on here. Whether by design or default we have been limited in the transfer market. We have a game on Wednesday and we are weaker than last season. Long way to go in the transfer market, let's see how we stand when it closes.

Now a Grimsby player by all accounts.

I asked when I was up buying a kit for my son. In the next few weeks I was told with no specific date announced as yet.

Not for me, but to be honest, there is not much chance of me buying a strip with MacB on the front of it regardless of what it looks like. Extortionate price for a kids strip though. Got the wee man a Portugal kit with Ronaldo on it for £50 in greaves, age 7. Quite how it is justified to charge £55 for a Thistle kit for a 4 year old is beyond me.

James McPake freed by Hibs. 29, got experience but injured for much of the season. Worth a punt?

This is the point I have tried to make in previous posts. Assuming many people take the non reserved option, where do you put the kids for an all ticket match? I find it amazing that you can issue a ticket that gets you into a stadium without allocating a seat for an all ticket match. If there are 200 non reserved tickets, that is an admin headache to contact those ticket holders, or the guardians, to tell them where their seat is for a ticket game. Now you need to allocate a seat next to that for the adult to move to as well. As I have mentioned in an earlier post, this affects 1 game. Much easier to issue a kids go free season ticket with no access to the Celtic game. Several weeks before this game, you can purchase your ticket for a concession fee. Anyone not interested can then have the seat sold for the game by the club. The way to stop adults entering into the stadium on the kids ticket can be looked at. A kids only gate (obviously next to an adult one) for example that a steward / rep stands at.

I believe Gary will be our record transfer fee in the next few years if he keeps progressing.

The premise for the charge is the to improve the match day experience. I assume this is to stop seats being unoccupied each week. As has been mentioned, does this mean the guys in the NS can't select a JH seat? After all an empty seat spoils the match day experience. How does the walk up tickets work for the Celtic game, I suppose non season tickets don't get in free. If so it is hard to argue with the logic that the club is losing a potential 150 match tickets. In effect the £25 covers the match ticket cost for this game. Looking for a solution, if one is required, is it possible to have the same arrangement as this year, but it does not include a Celtic ticket. Then have a cover charge for these games, say £10. Anyone who does not want to take the kids to this game free up a ticket to be sold at full cost. Otherwise, on a match day against Celtic, where do the non allocated free tickets go? You need to give them a seat somewhere. Let's keep it together guys, no us and them chat. We are thistle!

What do the supporters federation think about this? On the face of it £25 is not much, I take 4 kids so it fair mounts up. I think it is the sledgehammer to crack a nut. This only affects celtic games as it is the only all ticket game. So I decide not to take a reserved seat for the kids. I assume the club are going to need to issue tickets for that game next to me. So why not give them to me all season? If the club are going to move me to be with the kids to non allocated seats for the Celtic game they need to reissue my season ticket seat for 1 game. Do we have the admin to support this?

Not really happy with the kids issue with what has been mentioned thus far, but I'll await to see what the official line is. My concern is that the renewals will be available soon and a charge will be a fait accompli. I have sat in my seat for a few years with my kids, even when I had to pay for my daughter. I have not abused the system, I have used the kids season tickets, but I need to move for reasons that I don't fully understand. Ok I can stay, but it will cost me potentially £100. I assume this will be to the kids area around section 7 and I assume we will need to move when Celtic come to town. Many people have said they are not taking their kids to the Celtic game, so the kids ticket does not include the Celtic game and if you want to go, you can apply for a ticket a few days before the tickets go on general sale. If you have not advised the club the kids are going, they can sell the seat. Sounds obvious but I have no idea if we have the technology or resource to deal with it. I think the club need to look at the the stadium as a whole and not sections in isolation. For example, with the lack of fans from some clubs, such as Ross County, why open the main stand at all. Can they be housed in the JH? If so, it would be in the sections closest to the NS, where the family section is. Should the family section be at the other end, say section 2? This would also mean we do not sell season tickets in the sections that will be vacated for Celtic. This can be a section for people who pay at the gate to use. We need a stadium strategy, for want of a better way of putting it, as we need to keep the home fans as happy as possible at the same time as maximise the revenue the club can bring in.

Been thinking about this all day with an impartial head on. Why this decision and why now. I suspect all chat of old form is a bit of a smoke screen (never, I hear you say). There is a minor logistical problem when Celtic come in that the NS needs to be moved. I am not sure why this is given several supports have let off smoke bombs in the old stand. A quick FOI request to Scotland's finest and GCC will get the full picture as to the decision made. I suspect it is more to do with teams bringing larger numbers that are stuck in the corner of the stand where restricted view is an understatement. That's why the plan is to put flags over this section rendering it unusable. After all, it is unlikely to be full of Jags fans. 2 birds with 1 stone as far as the club are concerned, away fans happy, the shed still together (and the manager wants you there!). I could be a million miles off here, but it's as much as I can come up with.

Oh the club can fair make an arse of things. To be honest it takes all sorts of skill to make a bigger arse this year than TAG of last year. I sit in the JH with the kids. Love the atmosphere that the NS brings when in full flow. I'm sure it brings all sorts of encouragement to the team as well, despite Maxi's suggested comments above. If the club think this is going to blow over they can pap peas at the moon. Get the petition circulated via Twitter and Facebook to get 1000 names. This is a line in the sand for the fans, we are thistle. Someone much wiser than me once said that Football without fans is nothing. Football without an atmosphere will soon deliver nothing. A guy sitting next to me has decided No season ticket, no merchandise, no new strips or cack grub being bought at the ground until this is resolved. Hard to argue with that. Let's get organised as a support and sort this.......

Never in any doubt Delighted for Archie and the team. Win on Saturday and we finish 7th.

Automatically relegate one of the teams and promote Sevco 5088 to the top flight. They need the money as there are suggestions they are on the brink of administration.

Don't think we can underestimate that result. Solid performance from most and fair play to Archie for making the changes. I though that Prince had one of his best games in a Thistle shirt. If Erskine had the confidence to shoot, he could have had a couple. I do not like getting on at referees, however today I will make an exception. He was howling. Is Boyd immune from receiving a yellow card? His unwillingness to caution him after his 2 fairly wild challenges in a row made him lose control of the game. Roll on Friday, 3 points would be most welcome.

Right Fawlty, your round at the St Mirren game. I'll bring the school year book for a laugh.

Dumbarton it is then. Will catch some of the games at the complex this week as well.