Barney Rubble

This is horrible news. Every good wish to all the Doolan family for strength and comfort at this sad time.

Agreed wholeheartedly GRE - but unlike the three I mentioned we were never in a position to win either of those in terms of having the lead or the opportunity to lead. In addition, the game that preceded those two was the home cup tie v Dunfermline where we were saved by a Dunfermline miss in extra time that appeared geometrically impossible, and Kyle Benedictus securing the otherwise unwon crossbar challenge during the penalty shoot out.

This. Cove (h) 2-2 from 2-0 up was scandalous. Dundee (h) 2-3 from 2-0 up was criminal. Gary Megson was out of a job that night had we done what we should have done. QP (h) 0-4. They were dead and buried if Aero scores the penalty, and instead within 5 minutes of that miss our season was infested with dry rot. Those were the three that stand out for me.

Sneddon was injured when Doolan took over. Not his fault obviously. Mitchell has been solid since and has done nothing to warrant being left out in favour of Sneddon. KD has 6w 6d 1l after 13 games. I'm going with KD's judgement of whom should be in the team. And that's not intended as a negative opinion on Jamie Sneddon in any way.

Apologies for the selective quotation. In my opinion, Doolan making Bannigan and Docherty the 2 in a 4-2-3-1 has been the basis of the improvement in the team. It has also had the benefit of playing Turner as the advanced man in the 3 which - to me - is his natural position. Bannigan looks like a player transformed at the moment - his influence from midfield has been pivotal since Doolan took over. Never understood the lack of appreciation for Docherty. He does a mound of dirty work that isn't appreciated by many. He may not be the most gifted, but he is the best reader of a game we've had in a decade. His covering skills when off the ball are excellent. He'll be missed big style next season if the rumours of him moving on are true.

Dates of the Play Off have already been changed to 6th and 9th June folks.

Fitzpatrick has no excuse. He's underachieving big style. There's no reason for him being unfit given that - as far as I'm aware - he's had no serious injuries since being binned by Norwich. His commitment to the defensive side of the game is unacceptable. May even have been indirectly responsible for us losing yesterday's goal. In fairness, he did put two belting balls across the six-yard box late on, but too little too late for me.

At the risk of jinxing it - Win all three home games and at Hamilton and the impetus will be with us going into a final game that will hopefully give us a shot at automatic promotion. Given how steady the defence has been since Dools took the helm, it's not unrealistic. There again, now that I've said it................

Sharing a cargo with Bobby Houston maybe?

Double post - sorry.

The objective of the game is to score more goals than the opposition. How do you score goals? By being prepared to test the goalkeeper. I watched Italy on Thursday night dominate England around their box but being feart to shoot. They lost. I watched Thistle last night dominate Fake Thistle - especially after Welsh's harsh red card - without ever shooting at goal (Brian Graham's first half effort apart). We lost. I was at Hampden this afternoon to watch a frankly insipid Scotland performance which featured lots of possession and mainly poor crosses but no shots on goal (one decent effort from Stuart Armstrong other then the three goals). That we didn't lose was that Cyprus had no intentions of winning the game in the first place. Last night and this afternoon were exercises in low-risk football which seems to be the pervasive feature of the modern game. Which makes the game difficult to watch nowadays.

Much colder for those in attendance, I'd imagine.

Arbroath clearly are rotten. They've now played four games against us this season without scoring. Which is probably Dick Campbell's finest ever achievement for Thistle.

You have doubts??

Nothing arguable about it Jaggernaut. It's a deficiency they have regularly displayed throughout this century.

It's more accurate to say that team clicked because the players signed by Jackie McNamara took McCall's foundations to another level - O'Donnell, Lawless, Craig, Craigen, Murray (in particular) and Fox. After Jackie, Archie then took them over the line to yet another level.

Fair play - Thanks for the clarification Michael.

All players were wearing black armbands LIB.

Be honest Big Col - have you been approached??

This decision wasn't taken today - the Board or whoever is taking these decisions were anticipating a 5-0 horsing under which they could have covered themselves. Whatever McCall's deficiencies, the manner of this does not do the club any favours at all.

Very interesting comment in view of what has transpired.

I've generally got time for McCall. His comments before this game aren't acceptable though. I want a Thistle team that's going to Ibrox to do their best to overcome them. I'll accept a team getting beaten on the park by a better team on the day. What I cannot accept is a Thistle manager who appears to have given up on the game to be played tomorrow. McCall's comments sound ominously like the latter. If so, it plainly is not good enough.

Should we claim a moral victory if the score is less than 4-0??

Wow!! This from the poster who criticised GRE2 for being overly negative during last week??? What a difference a few days make.

If that's true he deserves his arse kicked up and down Maryhill Road. He gets knocked around every weekend so knows what to expect when up against an 'experienced' pro like Reynolds. It's true he doesn't get enough protection form refs - there was one graphic incident where he was grabbed by the waist a few minutes previous to the red card - however verbal abuse of the ref cannot be excused, if true. He ought to know better than that.