a f kincaid

(League games only.) As far as I can tell, 24 April 2010 v Ross County (2-1 win). 38 league games ago.

Quietly optimistic (ie, less pessimistic) because I think this is the season when other clubs catch us up and learn the realities of megre budgets and squads. A promising bunch of youngsters coming through can only bode well for the future. Having said all that, I think some folk are getting a bit too carried away about Saturday. It was, after all, largely a team of fringe and reserve players - good though it was to beat them. Why break the habit of a lifetime? I'll still read the league table from the bottom up!

Official History records that Andy came on as a sub against Raith Rovers. 5-0 win at home on 1 September 1971. Was his only LC appearance.

Not sure that's true. Their website for most of last week was showing that the game had been moved to the Grangemouth Stadium in view of the greater than anticipated public interest so it's not at all clear who asked for it to be a closed doors game. (They're training at Stirling University by the way.) A guy sitting next to me a Blyth last week told me that they had 30 signed professionals and their squad list more or less confirms that. They've just spend £250,000 on a stand behind a goal and are currently building another one. Probably have bigger average attendances than us as well.

I may have missed someone else commenting on this elsewhere but Erskine actually came back on during the second half at Blyth. Is there a special rule for friendlies or did the ref just not notice?

Splitting it H and A would have been too big a job! Oh, forgot to add that the figures ignore penalty shoot-outs.

Just for the record:- League P 139 W 51 D 35 L 53 F 158 A 150 CIS Cup P 10 W 5 D 1 L 4 F 16 A 13 Challenge Cup P 13 W 9 D 2 L 2 F 28 A 15 Scottish Cup P 13 W 5 D 4 L 4 F 15 A 18 Total P 175 W 70 D 42 L 63 F 217 A 196 % Success League 37% 25% 38% Others 53% 19% 28% Total 40% 24% 36%

Let's go for 5th or 12th April. That way we can play them twice in a week. (Scheduled fixture 9th.) Just the stuff to bring the fans back. Any bets?

Quite true but IIRC Rangers had "reserved" the last work permit place for someone they wanted to sign (and later did?).

Serious question. Has anyone ever considered a calendar that runs for the season, not the calendar year? Seems a bit daft from August onwards given the turnover of players. I agree this could still happen, but to a lesser extent, in January. It means it could show the complete season's league fixtures. Could also be sold as a deal with season tickets.

Official site. Pitch ok. Can the police still put the game off or does the inspection also cover the surrounding streets?

If I remember correctly, Shawfield was half in Glasgow and half in Lanarkshire. The boundary cut across the pitch at some point. Can't remember the outcome but this was the subject of some debate in the 50s/60s if they qualified for the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup. It was argued at the time that their ground wasn't wholely in Glasgow. Being a "city" and having a fair was the original entry requirement.

'It’s never been as bad as this’ Ian McCall, the Partick Thistle manager, can take his side into the final of the Alba Challenge Cup with victory over Ross County today Photograph: Steve Cox Share 0 comments 10 Oct 2010 IAN McCall has a weakness for crime fiction. But he has no desire to become Scottish football’s next victim. McCall’s sense of his own managerial mortality has been reinforced by a seven-day period which has seen one of his closest friends, John Hughes, relieved of his position just seven games into the season at Hibs, and his old Dundee United and Queen of the South assistant, Gordon Chisholm, suddenly fear for his own job amid the ongoing financial meltdown at Dundee. As manager of Partick Thistle, McCall’s own popularity amidst his Maryhill constituency has fluctuated during a painful 12-month spell where the club made inroads into a debt which now stands at around £800,000, but not without turning their second-place finish in the Irn Bru First Division in 2008/09 into second-from-bottom this morning. Getting beyond the challenge of Ross County – who they beat in a morale-boosting league encounter last weekend – at Victoria Park this afternoon and into the Challenge Cup final might persuade some of the disenchanted to get off his case for a while. “This is a brutal division and football in general in Scotland is brutal just now,” said McCall, who remains in close contact with both Hughes and Chisholm. “One of my best friends just lost his job the other day, which is incredible. It is not my place to talk about the rights and wrongs of it, but my feeling is just for him and his family. “He is a wonderful person and for someone from his background to achieve what he has done is astonishing,” he added. “I am sure there will be more things to come in his story. The same goes for Brian Rice, who also worked for me and played for me. Maybe they will benefit from taking a wee bit of time out of it, but I am sure he will get another job when the time is right. I spoke to Chis yesterday. I guess he didn’t expect another Clydebank scenario up there [McCall and Chisholm were the managerial team when the former SFL club were in terminal financial hardship]. It is a brutal, brutal job just now, but I think the people who matter within this club know how hard it has been since January, and realise the severe constraints which we have been working under.” The state-of-the-art entry system at Firhill these days involves the football manager leaning out of an upstairs window and dropping a fat wad of keys down to the pavement below. It is not the only time the keys to Partick Thistle have been handed over in the last few weeks. Around a fortnight ago, the club’s long-time chairman and vice-chairman, Allan Cowan and Tom Hughes, walked off into the sunset, leaving the First Division outfit in the hands of the oil businessman, Billy Allan, and David Beattie, the owner of McGhee’s Bakery. McCall was the man holding the reigns when Clydebank, Morton and Airdrieonians lurched into administration, but he still regards this as his “hardest period” in football. “The two guys who have left are very good friends of mine,” McCall said. “Allan was my lawyer 10 years before I even became Thistle manager. I just think they were tired. They had been doing it for so long, and they wanted to take a step back. I know fans will have their own ideas, but I think that was genuinely the case. So we move on. And in Billy and David we have two pretty full-on businessmen who know their stuff and hopefully there will be better times ahead, because since January it has just been so tough. This is the hardest period I have had without a doubt.” McCall was allowed to make just two loan signings this summer, Iain Flannigan from Kilmarnock and Conrad Balatoni from Hearts. There is a contrast to Firhill’s fellow tenants, Sean Lineen and his Glasgow Warriors rugby union side, for whom money seems to be little object. It has crystallised the Partick manager’s belief that some kind of enlargement of the top flight is required, even if his fatalistic streak fears that the timing might not work in their favour. “I have been in Scottish football for 27 years now and it has never been as bad, it has never been as stricken,” he said. “There are a lot of good managers and a lot of good players, but it is just completely suffocating now. We have two huge clubs in our small country who we need – once they go we really are in trouble. There will be no structure there which will be perfect, but what we have right now is killing it. Fourteen or 16, there should certainly be an increase. In the back of my mind I am thinking it is typical of Partick Thistle, this weird and wonderful club, that the year that we have to cut things down to the very bone will be the year they actually increase it.” McCall is only outranked in seniority as a full-time manager in Scotland by Walter Smith and Jim Jefferies, and his three and a half years at Thistle already seems like a lifetime. He was linked with, and then priced out of, the ill-fated manager’s job at Dundee and still craves a return to the top flight at some stage, but is “very content” with life at Thistle. Indeed, if everything runs to plan, he is quite prepared to stay at the club for the next decade. “When you live in the west end of Glasgow, being manager of Partick Thistle makes you a high-profile figure,” he said. “I am higher profile now than when I was living in Broughty Ferry [as Dundee United manager], I assure you. I miss going to the really big games, and I hope people don’t think I have lost the desire to do that. I haven’t, it just grows. I want to make sure that people realise what happened at Dundee United was not entirely my fault. But this is a bloody hard job and I want to stay here and get it done. “If the people who come up to me in Byres Road went to games we would have 10,000 every week,” he added. “But the fact is we have only got 2000 people coming each week. We thank them, whether they want to shout at me or give me and the team support then great. They still pay their money.” http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/more-scottish-football/it-s-never-been-as-bad-as-this-1.1060552

Ditto. Whatever the justification of the criticism of McCall, this is bordering on the hysterical. Bet no-one was criticising him for not being on the pitch before kick-off in the season we finished second. Can't recall John Lambie ever doing this either. Indeed I think few managers do this. If a manager has to brief the team about tactics and the opposition 15 mins before the start there's something sadly wrong. If the man is a smoker and has to leave the ground for a fag just before kick-off (to make it his last for how long?) so be it. No coincidence he was seen with John Lambie. As for the conversation with two Pars fans - all hearsay.

Sign of the times no doubt. We were moved out of the Alan Rough lounge to make way for corporate hospitality yet I think I'm right in saying it's been empty the last few games. Certainly there was no sign of life yesterday (or on the park!). Can only assume that there must be a break even point where the caterers (are they sub-contracted?) say it will cost more to open. Would be interesting to know if that is in breach of contract. Classic "use it or lose it". Bad show if there was no advance notice they have stopped doing food in the AS.

Listened to virtually the whole hour and don't think the piece was broadcast.

PT v Dunfermline 11 April 1987. Sorry, part of my treasured colleaction and no facilities to scan but perhaps someone else on here might help out.

Wasn't Bates the guy that wanted to install electrified fences at Chelsea? Derek Johnstone was first listed in a programme as manager in August 1986 and I think I am correct in saying Ken Bates' representative on the Board was Barrie D Spiers (also variously listed as B A Spiers and B D Spiers). IIRC he was a businessman based in Jersey. He was first mentioned as a Director in the same programme. I rememember asking myself how many reserve games he would make on a Thursday night! Johnstone was last listed as Manager in the programme in Feb 1987. In the programme dated 7 March 1987 the manager was listed as "ooooooooo"! Billy Lamont was first listed as the Manager in the programme on 25 April 1987. At that time Spiers was still on the Board. Spiers ceased to be listed as a Director in the programme dated 15 April 1987. Bates had an editorial in the programme dated 11 April 1987 as follows:- "There has been much speculation over my involvement with PTFC and so to put the record straight I welcome the opportunity of speaking directly to all Jags supporters today. Property developer I am not and challenge anybody to show otherwise. There are development possibilities at Firhill - British Waterways have already indicated interest, but PT want to be part of any redevelopment incorporating wide recreational facilities and any profit must be retained in the club for improving facilities for supporters and to enhance our capacity, seating and playing strengths. I suscribed for shares in PT because the then existing shareholders were unwilling - or unable to take up their rights. The alternative was possible closure - the alleged local business men willing to be involved - well where are they? Empty vessels make the most noise. The same applies to empty pockets! Enough of the past. Let me talk of the present and the future. PT is the club that everybody loves - even if they support another club. Glasgow can cetainly support a third Premier Divison outfit and we can be that club. However, talk will not get us there. PT has withered over the years, and apart from a very fine ground, we are at a very low ebb. Nine months later I am far more aware of the problems that face us and I have a better idea how they should be tackled. However, it is not down to any one man. We need a dynamic Board of Directors and this is already under review. A strong management team, good scouting, youth policies, and enthusiastic support - not just on match days but seven days a week to help raise £1/4 million a year that is needed to run a successful club. Finally, you need patience. Success never comes overnight. Enjoy the game today and ask yourself what you are prepared to do - , no, not for the fellow sitting next to you! You must put your money - or if short of money, your effort - where your head is. Together we can make the Jags great. Ibrox here we come?" Any of that sound familiar???

Presumably when this comes to pass, opposition fans won't be able to see highlights free and would have to subscribe like everyone else. If so, could it lead to other clubs doing the same and preventing us from seeing our away games on their webites for free?

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