Barney Rubble

Assuming no further injuries, the pool against Airdrie is minus Adeloye, Bannigan, Lawless, O'Reilly (?), Robinson (??), Sneddon, Williams, and anyone else that I may have forgotten about. McMillan, Muirhead, Fitzpatrick and possibly BBG are all in deep need of decent recovery time. We're not quite running on fumes, but the lack of adequate cover is certainly a feature right now. That said, it has to be all hands to the pumps on Saturday. Whatever the result, I wouldn't be tinkering too much in the remaining games before the play-offs unless absolutely necessary.

Scott Brown v Jim Goodwin who binned him at Pittodrie? Incentive central.

Hmm. How do you explain Tomi Adeloye scoring two tap ins after coming on against Arbroath and missing two very scoreable snips in the same cameo?

Agree with the first paragraph as that was also my interpretation of the post. If it wasn't intended as criticism, then perhaps it could have been expressed differently. Fully agree with your final sentence - James is an asset and one whom I hope is able to progress his career with Thistle.

Objective achieved, but on another day we could easily have lost that game. We were insipid in the first half bar a couple openings before the goal when McBeth blazed over the bar, and Robinson hit the post (?). Great strike from Stanway for the goal and smart reactions from Scott Robinson to react to the rebound from Ridgers. Disagree that Fake Thistle didn't create a chance - their number 4 should have burst the net with one that he dragged across the goal early in the second half. Dropping so deep when they went to 10 could have caused us headaches, but we got away with it in the end. Thought Stanway, McBeth, Mitchell and Robinson were best for us. Fitzy had an odd performance punctuated by several poor choices in possession. After all is said and done, a welcome result and three points!

Mitchell was fine today - badly let down by his defence for the goal. McBeth looked a natural at CB. Read the game well, and his tackling was clean. Robbie Muirhead is a handful, and, goal apart, McBeth kept him quiet throughout. What was noticeable to me was that it appeared that McBeth was the dominant CB calling the shots with Aero falling into line. Midfield was OK. Neilson has something in that position, but has to think and act more quickly to be truly dominant in that area of the field. Scott Robinson - love this guy. His work rate is phenomenal. He is the best foil for Brian Graham that doesn't disrupt the formation, and his leap for a guy of average height is truly impressive. Well merited MoM today. Going forward, perhaps McBeth could cement the dominant CB role??

Utter nonsense. His shooting may have been below par, however his work rate and closing down of their defenders was exemplary.

That's some Craig Dargo you must be on tonight Bobbyhouston.

Seems to me that Fitzpatrick has improved his defensive game by a margin (1st goal v Fake Thistle apart). I like what Doolan has done with this player - he's got him enjoying playing football again, something that McCall manifestly failed to do last season. He wants the ball now and seems much more willing to dig for it too in defensive areas of the field. And when Aidan puts the afterburners on - he's our very own Duhan van der Merwe.

That was encouraging. Fair play to the manager for tearing up his standard script and trying something else. McBeth and Neilson as a fulcrum of a 4-4-1-1 worked really well, and you can see that Neilson can grow further into that role. Robinson was a standout, worked tirelessly and didn't give their midfield or back line a minute's peace all day. Would have liked to have seen their keeper tested a bit more often, but all in all that had a lot more shape and structure than we've been used to lately.

Give it a bloody rest please. You're polluting every thread with this shite about your mate McCall. The fact is he didn't deliver for Thistle. He ran out of road and credibility. Please get over it.,

He's injured.

12 goals shipped in 3.5 games is a horrendous statistic.

That's quite an achievement after only 4 years with the club.

Never say never with Thistle DD.

It's international weekend 22nd - 26th March. Netherlands v Scotland on the Friday night, so no top league fixtures. The other three divisions are all in action.

Rudden isn't a bad player, but since leaving Thistle he's never repeated the effectiveness he had playing with BBG.

Good draw. Home tie with every chance of making it to the quarters, which means more unbudgeted corn for the coffers. More importantly, it's an opportunity to follow in the footsteps of the ladies and make the final. And hopefully win the bloody thing.

Nothing for us to fear in the draw. Anyone who draws us should feel the fear.

All competitions since his appointment in Feb 2023: P46 W25 D11 L10 Points per game: 1.87 (caveat: one Scottish cup game and one Challenge cup game are included in those stats). 54.3% win rate 78.2% positive result rate (assuming a draw is accepted as a positive result). 21.8% loss rate. That's the statistical evidence. Draw your own conclusions.

Don Thomas is a fine football player at our level, but we'd need to offload at least one of Alston/McInroy/Robinson this month for his arrival to make any sense. I'd take him on a PCA for next season without question.

Good result and even more so in the context of results elsewhere. Despite their limited availability, Arbroath - to their credit - were very well organised and did cause us several problems. For example, we gave away numerous corners and dead balls, situations where we are always vulnerable. Thought we lacked creativity in the first half, but after Aidan's goal (outstanding effort) we moved up a gear. Pleased for Tomi, he doesn't get many minutes but generally uses them well. So, two back-to-back home fixtures against the bottom two which produced zero goals and zero points this time last year, have produced seven goals and six points this year. All is still to play for!!

What is the definition of this supposed data you keep pointing at javeajag? And why does it justify us winning any league or promotion in the first week of January? The only data that is relevant to winning the league and promotion is the league table after the 36 games are completed. Right now, we have 17 games to go before that line is reached. Perhaps any data - whatever you may define it as - can be more accurately evaluated then??

Defender on any post is a non-starter as by definition it plays the whole attacking team onside. Sneddon's distribution isn't quick enough in my view. Whether that's down to his decision making or team-mates not making themselves available is up to the coaching staff to address, and quickly please. We're wasting opportunities to put early pressure on retreating defences. I'm prepared to forgive Jamie's howler today; these things happen to everyone once in a while, and for goalkeepers they tend to have more immediate consequences. Aero (for example) has had a couple of dreadful brain farts in the last two seasons that have never garnered as much attention.

Didn't realise at the time the significance of Ben Stanway's contribution to the goal. Great stuff. Thanks Camallain as always for capturing these moments and posting them on the site!!