MerryHell

I think one of the problems for referees is that, what is only a job, is impacting on their private lives. When newspapers publish the religion of a referee prior to an old firm game, when people intimidate the famlies and employers of referees, when a club is so up its own arse that it will appeal and 'seek clarity' on just about every decision made against them, it's gone beyond reasonable behaviour. The article says that the Dr Reid statement was the final straw. I cannot believe that we have 'bent' referees, or that they deliberately give or deny a team key decisions. I've seen some crap referees and have been infuriated with them, but they are human and have a lot to deal with over the course of 90 minutes, after all some players DO deliberately try to cheat and very little is made of them.

I agree - i thought he drifted in and out of the game today. For me, he's never going to track back, tackle or win possession for us - he relays on the rest of the team to do that and then pass to him to go on a run. When he's on form, his runs are good, but often the end product is lacking. Today we got a goal from one of his crosses, too often we get nothing. It might seem a stange thing to say about him, but I think that he's a luxury we cannot afford to have in our team. I'd much rather have an on form and fit Flannigan.

Quite a few positives today - the main one, for me, being that after Stirling pulled level, we continued to push for a winner and kept going for the whole 90. Also encouaging to see us scoring two on the break for a change. Nobody in the team could be faulted for effort today, though I didn't think Boyle was as effective as he has been, and nothing seemed to fall for Liam today. Fox, Archie, Kinniburgh, Rowson, Cairney, Hodge and Paton all had particularly good games today and if you've got 7 out of your 11 playing at the top of their game, you're going to win more often than not. If the 'circular formation' before kick off was to revise the tactics McCall gave them, i'm all for it.

I'd love to support the club more by attending events, but to be honest, having a fish supper with you all doesn't really inspire me! No offence. So i'll not be going to the St. Andrews night thing. It's nothing against the trust. I know absolutly nobody that goes to firhill so, for me it'd probably have to be a situation that mostly involved alcohol. I take a six year old to the games so selling 50/50s isn't something i feel i can help with, though i have volunteered to help with the calendars. Matchday is the part of the week when I have the least time to volunteer. I realise it sound like 'i can't do this', 'i can't do that' I'd love to contribute more, i just need the right cause/event.

I don't care - as long as we are the ones singing 'Can We Play You Every Week?' at the end of the game.

Aw fcuk - i've just put 2+2 together. This actually depresses me. Aw fcuk. Don't make an arse of yourself mate - you were better off trying to force an EGM. It's too late now, but REALLY? Aw fcuk. Can't you see that good people have tried and failed to reason with these people and ended up giving up. This statement was released with you on board??! In my eyes, you appear to have been bought. It makes my comments on David's integrity all the more relevant. Aw fcuk. I thought I articulated myself pretty well in my last post and now i'm reduced to this. Aw fcuk.

Hmm, I just don't think they get the point do they? The Jags Trust board always seem to hide behind 'the constitution' as a justification for any action, no matter how unpalatable it is to any of the Jags Trust members. What we really wanted/needed was a mass resignation of the remaining JT board and elections to fill the relevant positions. What we get is 'the constitution says we can just elect new people who we fancy being on the board, so that's what we'll do'. But it's worse than that - they just go ahead and have wee meetings and then inform us that that's what they've done - here's the new names, now be happy. They have a cheek to criticise the Club Board for not revealing what their programme notes are going to say - the JT board don't even inform the members that a meeting is scheduled or what was going to be discussed. Look at the news section of the JT website - three resign, another one resigns, we've had a chat and appointed three replacement members, Let the Festivities Begin!. Indeed. It's interesting to see that they quote Cowan directly as a way of highlighting a time when the trust and club lived in 'harmony'. For me it's also interesting (and reassuring) that the club approached David with a view to getting him more involved. It reassures me that the board really are looking for people who are articulate and seem able to easily bridge the gap between board and supporter. Stangely enough, I commend David on rejecting this advance, to me it shows an integrity that is often lacking in people of office these days. He'd be a fine trust chair. Bugger. I hope the club do not get involved in a war of words with the trust now - their 'statment' makes them even less representative of the trust membership. I would have thought that Morag McHaffie, as our representative, would have been aware of our feelings on this issue and advised against such a destructive response. Where do we go from here ... ?

Why don't we just have one great big league, where everyone plays each other once over the course of a season, alternating home and away fixtures against each team yearly. Over the course of two seasons we will have visited every senior league ground in Scotland. Problem solved.

But more importantly, did they get the shape of their poppy right?

People were booing the team at HALF TIME as well! Okay, let's be honest, Morton were pretty pish today, barely managed an attack and we should have beaten them by two at least. For whatever reason we are just not putting the ball in the net - we had a couple of nice moves which ended with us getting the ball into the box with no end product. It's a pretty sad situation that we are in a position where we really need to hope that an injury prone midfielder (Hardie) can get fit and that we can afford to have him back on loan. No team tried to run the time down - there was no time wasting and the game was pretty end to end until the final whistle. This makes it sound more entertaining that it actually was but its true none the less. Hodge and Flannigan played pretty well today and would get pass marks from me along with Archie, Willie and McNamara. Cairney and Grehan gave the ball away far too much, the rest tried but didn't really manage to make any impact on the game. I'm not that concerned about our league position ... yet. We cannot allow ourselves to be cast adrift at the bottom - we are already 7pts from 5th and no matter how compact the rest of the teams are, we got to start climbing the league soon. Some sections of the support are happy enough to dish out criticism to the management and players this season so they can expect it back without complaint.

I guess that todays article, read in conjunction with the column in the programme tomorrow might give a more consise picture of the boards intentions, and might answer a few of the questions that are flying around at the momment. I can understand people having questions based on the articles, but I think the board are really making an effort now and don't deserve some of the criticism currently flying around. They have been far more open recently, and theres nothing to say that, if they are considering a future share issue for instance, we wont see a 'Meet the board' evening where our questions can be raised.

I was assuming she was related to him even before marriage ...

To be fair to the club, i remember getting leafleted at a home game BEFORE the end of last season about 10/11 season tickets. No doubt, this could have been processed a little smoother but with the new board and staff, im sure the coming seasons will be a lot smoother. Cost wise, I think we are fine - Norwegian kick-off times sound horrendous.

Two words - Debbie Douglas With a name like that, she must have been waiting her whole life for an opportunity like this to come up!

I'll be first to admit that I don't know as many Thistle songs as I probably should. Am I alone in the support or is this perhaps a problem in trying to get an atmosphere going? I could get through Mary fae Maryhill though, and it would have the added bonus of avoiding the 'difficult chat' with my son later in life.

For me it's not about the kids or any other 'type' of supporter. I take my boy to the game and i'd be happy with him singing, but whats he going to sing? Who actually signs these days? Who is it up to to create an atmosphere, the BOD? No, it's up to us.

I think that trying to get more money out of the fans that turn up at Firhill is only going to raise so much money - the real money is to be gained in trying to get back the fans that have lapsed. I was thinking about this and how many of you know who Rangers or Celtic are playing next Saturday?(don't look it up). I don't know, but thats because I don't care. How many of our lapsed fans could say who we were playing next Saturday? Would they even bother looking to find out? If we don't advertise, we don't make people aware of our product. I know this can be costly so ... I have seen empty shop fronts been taken over 'professionally' to be used for advertising while the shop is empty. In todays climate, what would be the chances of PTFC persuading any empty shop owners to donate their window space for advertising in return for say, two matchday tickets? There must be tons of empty shops in our catchment area. The club recently produced the 'What keeps us coming back' poster that could just be changed to display the next fixture, along with something declaring that the Jags can be seen 'live and in glorious 3D!'. Or something. Anyway in my head it could work.

We dont concentrate for 90 minutes - for me thats the reason we dont get draws. How many games have been drawn on 80 minutes which we then go on to lose. This season - QOS, County, Dundee have scored late goals and both Stirling and Cowden have come back to beat us from being a goal down. Doolans late goal on the final day of last season, being the recent exception, both in terms of result and quality.

Before yesterdays game, Dundee were 20 points adrift of the bottom team (Morton). They won and now they are 20 points adrift of the bottom team (Stirling). At Christmas they will sell Harkins and Griffiths and the player embargo will prevent them signing any replacements. I assume this will extend to loan deals and Jamie Adams and Nicky Riley will also leave then. The fans have pledged not to support their team away from home, despite it being the team that they must relay on to overhaul the point deduction. Totally self-defeating. IMO they will not get enough points after the player cull at the turn of the year to survive in this division.

FT - bollocks, so close to a great result. Back down to 9th we go (or 8th whenever they show Dundees points reduction).

Aw pish ...

Yeah - given the circumstances, i'd have taken a draw as well before kick off. Well done lads for getting back into it, now CONCENTRATE! 6022 attendance - thats quite a bit down from the 8000 predicted. Still give my right kidney for attendaces like that at Firhill though!

YYYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

To be fair, and no offence to Tom, I think you get a more rounded view from the DFC website believe it or not. It describes Buchanans shot as a good effort, and suggests that Griffiths is having trouble beating any Thistle players with the ball. I'm more optimistic for reading their commentry, as long as we don't lose any more (goals or players!) before half time.

Bugger