Alan Murray

I would have laughed at the prospect of signing him a few years back. However we need to realize where we are at the minute - a struggling Championship team. We lack experience and somebody to play a quality final ball. Harkins gives us this. There is a limited amount of players that become available in this window and we need to sign the best we can. I would have liked the deal to be to just the end of the season however I suspect the longer deal is what made him sign for us. Falkirk was one of the other clubs in for him but only offered till the end of the season. This is a good bit of business for us. Though I still say a commanding center back and target man forward are key for us in this window. If we can get quality in for these positions and Coulibaly back we will start to climb this league.

In for Joe Mckee according to Falkirk fans. They offered harkings a 6 month contract.

Sammon would be a good signing if we had got him. Target man and big commanding center back are the two essentials in the window. Think a deal will be done with Mcginty to leave - if not then he should be used as a back-up.

Loan signings can be cancelled by either party in the Jan window.

Big changes coming. I will take a guess at 8 leaving. I would take harkins till end of the season.

Could have picked my words better but he said to several fans he was suffering from depression. Outburts/anger are common with depression.

Both Falkirk and Alloa are at home next week. Defeat against Morton could put us in a really poor position. Still very unconvinced by Caldwell - really should have done better with the players he has,

Hope the guy deals with the problems he has and goes on to fulfill his potential. Too many people poking fun at him were he looks to have mental health problems. He has lots of ability and don't be surprised to see him play in the Championship or League 1 later on if he sorts his problems out.

Two poor goals to give away. The first one in particular. It starts with McGinty making a mess of the clearance - then Banzo fails to follow the runner into the box. Penrice also really should have quicker to help out as two of the center backs go out to try to block the cross leaving Jefferies to try and mark 3 Alloa players. When the goal goes in there are three Alloa players unmarked in our box. The second one is poor also - nobody takes responsibility to close Zanatta down. McGinty is in no man's land marking nobody, Scobbie and Spittal both far too slow to close the goal scorer down. Collective failure again. Going to be a few red faces at the match evaluation tomorrow at Firhill! Caldwell gets the starting line-up wrong. Fitzpatrick for me was always going to find the conditions difficult and we would have been better starting McCarthy. Banzo I thought was left to much work to do in the center of the park against a hard working and organized Alloa side. He then left the subs far too late. Both Erskine and McCarthy struggled to get into the match but Alloa had the momentum and if the subs had been earlier | feel this would not have been the case.

Don't think McCarthy was 100% fit last week. Been said before he needs matches to get the fitness required. Be interesting to see if he starts on Saturday.

Not at the game but think it was too much a risk to have the two center backs against Dobbie. Looked at the goal and it's Scobbie getting dragged out of position by covering Banzo that is the cause of the goal. Should have been a foul on Banzo but it's one that you don't get all the time. One thing the window has to bring is the end of the Keown/McGinty partnership. Both should have done much better at the goal.

Looks like penrice in midfield, spittal right-wing back and Elliot left. If not no idea!

Think we will go 3 at the back for this one. Try to combat Dobbie.

Really hard for a young player to do well in a team struggling.

We panicked again after we scored and we paid the price. Think Falkirk plan was to go for it if they concede. Just look at the amount of Falkirk players that are forward for the goal. Caldwell did the right thing moving to 3 at the back. I thought Falkirk were going to score again as the backline was in panic mode. Scobbie did well when he came on a steaded the back line. His distribution was also good which helped us move the ball better from the back line. As many have pointed out Storey was poor for us today. The plan was clear to keep switching the play as Falkirk play a narrow formation. I think Storey struggled as he was getting the ball from a standing start and can't use his pace to the same effect. I would expect him out of the starting 11 against QOTS. Erskine was good when he came on and caused Falkirk problems. Really need a target man in when the window comes. Coming to places like Falkirk mean you need somebody to mix it with defenders. Doolan and Jai just did not put enough pressure on the Falkirk backline. Banzo clear man of the match - class above.

Shankland is a different player now than he was at Aberdeen. Top striker that should go on a play at a bigger club than doolan.

Shankland is a much better striker than Doolan.

Storey did okay on Saturday. His pace causes problems and he made a great pass that set up the move for our best chance of the game through Spittal. Spittal was poor on Saturday but we are short of options. Fitzpatrick is not ready to start games. Throwing him into a team playing poorly is not what he needs either. I do think he has been unlucky not to feature more from the bench however.

Falkirk is to give McKinnon 'substantial funds' in the window so we can expect them to pick up and get themselves away from the bottom. With the players in our squad we should be nowhere near the bottom. Still think with the right guidance from Caldwell we should be fine but as you say Saturday is a huge match for us.

Bell Elliott Kewon Mcginty Melbourne McCarthy Bannigan Spittal Erskine Storey Quitongo Think Penrice may drop to the bench as his form has dipped considerably. Tough to drop Slater out but we need to add a bit of steel to that midfield and McCarthy would bring that. Would really like to add Coulibaly to that team but with McCarthy and Quitongo unlikely to last 90 mins it would be risky to bring another in that will not last the whole game. If we are struggling at halftime and don't see why we can't bring him on. I thought he might have done that against Ayr

Ian McCall said after the match that Ayr had four of five players capable of playing at a higher level, Well we had 8 players that had played in the Premiership and still got beat. Glad Caldwell has been talking about the mentality of the side because for me that is a huge part of the problem. If we can add a few in the window and get our players playing to there potential then there really is no reason why we can't be as good as Ayr, Dundee United, and County. Need to stop giving away soft goals though. Storey at fault for the Ayr goal as he completely loses his man. It was probably over the line but Penrice does not react to the follow-up and lets his man make sure it's over the line.

Disappointing again yesterday. It was an even game but Ayr had the better chances. We never troubled the Ayr defense enough. Both Mutombo and Spittal were poor - this leaving Jai Quitongo isolated too often. We need to play a defensive midfielder both home and away. The more creative players did not push up enough when we're attacking. Players need to have the confidence to do this knowing we have strong defensive players behind them.

I would go with the following team. It will be interesting to see how Brice does now he has a game behind him. He did okay against Morton even though not anywhere near fit. Don't think you can go with Coulibaly yet. Give him 30+ mins today and see how he goes. Bell Elliott Kewon Mcginty Pencrice Brice Bannigan Spittal Erskine Mutombo Quitongo

So you noticed something that people who specialize in sports science could not see? Just look at the Queens match - 5 goals in the first half and played at breakneck speed. I would say we lasted well. Thistle players fitness can be accurately monitored by sports science these days. They wear CPS vests - they let the sports science people how fast they are running during the game and how much they slow down in the later stages of the match. I am sure they are more than aware of the other team's average figures as well.

Is that your sole indicator of fitness? Late goals? BTW the players had last Wednesday off!