1 John Lambie

Thank you all for your kind words, Jack really was a one-off & I have him (along with John Lambie) to thank for making me a Thistle fan. For those who knew Jack or may want to pay their respects to a lifelong Thistle fan. Jack's funeral will take place at 2:15pm on Tuesday 4th September at Maryhill Crematorium, then on to Kirkintilloch Golf Club.

It is with great sadness that I post that lifelong Thistle fan Jack (John) Cross unfortunately passed away last night after a short illness, aged 95. Jack has been a regular at Firhill, attending his 1st match at the age of 14 in 1937, rarely missing a match home or away since. Although many may not know the name, I'm sure most would know & have seen his face at Firhill & away stadiums around the country over the years. Despite Jack being the best part of 70yrs older than me, I have him to thank for making me a Thistle fan, we have travelled the country together following Thistle for the past 15-20yrs & it really won't be the same without him. At the time of his passing Jack was the oldest living Thistle fan, Jack's last game was Stenhousemuir away where fittingly Thistle ran out winners. Jack was a keen golfer & up until a few weeks ago was still playing Bowls for Westermains BC in Kirkintilloch. Jack loved football but more importantly loved Thistle, thanks for the memories! Just wanted to post this on here for those that may have known Jack, I've attached a photo from the Play-Off Final last season so people can perhaps put a face to the name.

Good signing on paper & not one I ever thought we would make. We appear to be going down a slightly higher risk strategy with our signings; Storer & Mutombo, for whatever reason, have not really made it at other clubs & Coulibaly despite his good performances at Killie has disappeared off the radar since for a variety of reasons. Slater also hasn't done much in recent seasons but these are clearly players with talent & it's worth the risk assuming Archie has decided their attitude isn't in doubt, you can never have enough good footballers. It's a strategy I'm all for, it should provide excitement but also expecting inconsistency & frustration at certain points in the season. On paper, I don't think we could say this seasons squad is any weaker than last seasons & given we're down a level this squad (potentially with 1 or 2 still to join it) should be more than capable of competing for the title. GKs: Bell/Lennox/Sneddon DFs: Keown/O'Ware/McGinty/Elliott/Penrice/Melbourne MFs: Gordon/Bannigan/Storer/Fitzpatrick/Erskine/Slater/McCarthy/Spittal FWs: Doolan/Mutombo/Storey/Coulibaly We're still 2 players off the squad size Gerry & Archie said that we wanted. I think we now have enough strikers/wingers/attacking midfielders. Depending on Bannigan's fitness & the injuries to Gordon/McCarthy we may still require 1 more CDM, with cover at RB also required. Depending on the Keown situation, a defender that could cover CB/RB would be ideal, if Keown is staying then 1 more utility defender/midfielder would probably suffice.

Cerny, Elliott, Keown, Cargill, Booth, McCarthy, Woods, Erskine, Storey, Doolan, Sammon. Subs: Scully, Barton, McGinn, Osman, Edwards, Spittal, Lawless.

Despite the fans being the single biggest shareholder in the club..?

Wouldn't work splitting so early in the season, with 12 games to go it's very likely the mid-table area will be very tight. Would be unfair on a team to lose all hope of European football (or to escape the possibilities of a relagation battle), when they may only be a few points behind/above but with 12 games to go instead of 5. The current split actually does its job in creating meaningful games at the end of the season. We all know why we have it, to have 4 OF games a season but over time I think it's actually shown that it works not too bad if the league is tight in 1 of 4 areas going in to the last 5 games (League winner, European place, play-off spot/automatic relegation).

Not even considering sacking Archie, we shouldn't be & I'm sure we're not. It's not even a case of turning it round, we've played decent enough so far this season, we've simply faced difficult fixtures where we shouldn't really be taking points from (RC, St J & today were the 'easiest' of those games, all away from home). I would have said 3pts from that opening run of fixtures would have been what we would have expected to get, that's what we have. Next 4 fixtures will determine how our season progresses.

I can honestly say I am not yet concerned, it's the best squad we've had since we've been in the top flight. When I looked at the fixtures at the start of the season I thought it would be October until we got our 1st victory. We were dealt a very unfortunate run of fixtures at the start of the season, it now makes games we'd expect to get wins from must win games which has its own added pressure as a result. Unfortunately the league is a little split up already & the games in October now become must win games, I think it will be tight between the current bottom 5 all season. We must take at least 10pts in October as we are likely to get 0 in November. With 7 games in December (5 against teams we should be able to compete with). 10pts October, 12pts in December must be the targets. That would put us on 25pts after 22 games, we again have a very tricky run in January. That would put us on a par with our average points per game from last season, not saying it will be easy but that should be our points target going in to the winter break, much less & we're in for a long season.

1. Celtic 2. Aberdeen 3. Hibs 4. Rangers 5. Hearts 6. Thistle 7. St. Johnstone 8. Motherwell 9. Kilmarnock 10. Dundee 11. Ross County 12. Hamilton

Fair few 'fans' must have loved the last 5 games of the season. Disappointing end, it happens.

Taylor-Sinclair also released by Doncaster.

Jagzone is easily worth £5.99 a month, would encourage anyone who does not have it to sign up. Video quality excellent, commentary excellent, interviews excellent, highlights packages excellent.

Okay just now but dodgy during half time.

I can't get this to work, what stream are you using on it?

Looking at the fixtures, even if we don't pick up another point, it's highly likely we'd still get top 6. No points: Killie winning 2 games, or winning 1 & drawing 2, out of Rangers (H), Celtic (A), Hearts (H). Dundee beating Ross County (A), Hearts (A), Hamilton (H). If we get 1 point, Killie need to win 2 of their last 3 games.

Good to see the delight in Tommy Taylor's face at the end of the video, knowing he got the photo!

Well on course for the 15pts that looked achievable in the middle of February, would already be 15pts if we'd held on in the last 2 matches!

Kilmarnock looked good for the 1st 30mins, one of the few occasions where a team has looked better than us this season. After that we dominated & especially in the 2nd half, a great performance. No player had a bad game, Edwards frustrates the life out of me though. Without the ball he is excellent, chasing with pace, a real asset. With the ball though there is a real lack of quality at times, in terms of decision making & skill. It looks to me though that this could be coached in to him but he is definitely in the team for his stamina & off the ball work rather than what he produces once he gets the ball. Cerny unlucky, presume it was just such an easy save that he took his eye off it. I would have perhaps brought Azeez on earlier, he did a great job last week & could have provided another out ball after we scored. Should have an extra 4pts & be chasing 5th but as long as we can secure 6th it will be very good progression for the team/club.

Price is the major issue, but even if it was £5 entry, I doubt we'd get crowds of over 4k consistently. We may get more neutrals, who may become fans on the back of that but I just don't think we have the core support anymore to get consistently 'good' crowds.

Well said Ian, the facilities management side of Firhill (a pretty big & expensive task over the past few years) was, initially anyway, pretty much covered by Billy's companies for little or no charge.

Inverness have Hearts, Celtic, Rangers then us. Really a great chance to pull away from the bottom 2 over the next month, if we don't take it, it's going to be a long end to the season.

Should be looking for 15pts at least until the split, not unachievable I don't think.

Lee McCulloch did a surprisingly decent job as caretaker last year, good chance he'll get it. Or Billy Davies will no doubt be touted for yet another job.

Clearly injury driven, don't see how else we could have lined up? Erskine not fit enough to start, start Doolan & Azeez we're left with nothing to replace a striker with.

Difficult to pick a formation out of the team selected, definitely going to be at least 1 player playing in a position they've never played in for us.