partickthedog
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Posts posted by partickthedog
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They are both defensive centre mids, but Smyth and Martin are different types of player. I am not saying anything positive or negative about either of them in comparison to the other, but Smyth is more of a quaterback and Martin is more of a pitbull (apologies for quick summary labels which do not tell the whole story).
In other words, Martin is not a direct replacement for Smyth, but brings a different set of qualities to whichever midfield mix is chosen.
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1 hour ago, The Thistle Archive said:
CHALLENGE CUP WOES
● Logan Chalmers hits 17 in the goals-assists (9+8) stakes for the season, 1 beyond his 2024-25 tally of 16 (7+9). ● Cale Loughrey becomes the 6th Canadian to play for Thistle and joins our scoring debutants club. ● Thistle take part in a 36th penalty shoot-out and lose for the 21st time. 7 of the last 8 non bonus-point shoot-outs have been lost, 2009 to date. Amazingly, all 6 Challenge Cup shoot-outs have been lost (see graphic below). ● Thistle exit the Challenge Cup against lower league opposition for the fourth season in a row. ● The H2H joint-record of 4 without defeat versus Inverness CT comes to an end.
Strangely enough, if you took out the Challenge Cup the overall record is not too bad, but it feels worse.
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5 hours ago, jagfox said:
Aeem to be going more towards getting the ball into the box via a cross or throw-in example cited.
I appreciate teams will have adapted how they play is, ceding a bit of possession and making is play further forward but we need the ball players to be confident to carry the ball into danger areas more to create better scoring opportunities (nearer and or facing the opposition goal) or teeing up colleagues who are in that position. Easier said than done obviously.
Anyway, we need a morale boosting win and hopefully get a winnable next round tie or at least a money spinner prior to the transfer window gently closing.
You do of course know that the transfer window never closes gently. It always slams shut.
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I think Chris Erskine scored in a few penalty shoot outs, but I do not recall him taking a penalty in regular play.
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1 hour ago, Jaggernaut said:
I wonder if any of our "regular" penalty takers over the years had a 100% record. I think Jered Stirling had a particularly good record, but maybe even he missed one or two.
A quick check of the Thistle Archive indicates that Jered Stirling had a perfect record, scoring all 13 penalties. He was not always in the starting XI and therefore we missed a few penalties when he was with us, but he was not the culprit!
My recollection is that he earned a big (though temporary) move to Motherwell, and then missed his first penalty for them!
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Positives:
Chalmers was good. His goal was brilliant.
Samuel fought hard, deserved his goal and occupied their defence. As soon as he went off, ICT were under little pressure and came back into the game.
Loughry looked promising and took his goal well.
We took a League One side to penalties rather than losing in normal time as we have done on the past 4 occasions in the Challenge Cup.
Having run out of positives, there is not a lot to say. Twice, at 1-0 and 3-2, we were well in control of the game, but relaxed and allowed ICT to dominate.
Turner's two penalties, his second especially, were bad enough, but he also had a terrible miss in the first half when he skied the ball with the goal at his mercy. Stanway was hugely missed. I would have backed him to score at least twice tonight, and to bury a penalty.
Bud was Fox-like in never looking anywhere near saving a penalty.
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I am generally optimistic, and would never want to strike a downbeat note, but I think I am right in saying that the last 4 times we have "competed" in the "Challenge Cup" by whatever name, we have been put out by a League 1 club, namely the following (all then in League 1), all in normal time (ie not on penalties):
Raith Rovers
Falkirk
Queen of the South
Alloa Athletic
The season we were in League 1 (mid Covid), there was no Challenge Cup (or equivalent).
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Don't want to start a new thread, so will put this here as it relates to a game of football played in Scotland this weekend.
That incredible save by Craig Gordon for Hearts v Dundee reminds me of the save by Tomas Cerny at Firhill against Motherwell in the game that clinched our top 6 place in 2017, clawing the ball back when it seemed already to have gone past him.
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2 hours ago, lady-isobel-barnett said:
......or the odd teambuilding jaunt to Exmoor accompanied by the lads from Hereford.
The article indicates that the whole squad and coaching staff do a 5K parkrun before a game. I am belatedly beginning to warm to Gary Caldwell.
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1 hour ago, a f kincaid said:
Can anyone with a programme subscription help me here please? I've not received a programme for Morton (3 January). I take it there was a programme?
Did anyone receive a programme for the ICT match (6 January, postponed)? I'm assuming here there was a programme and that the postponement might have been too late to tell the printers/distributers. It's not unknown for the club to hold them until the match is rescheduled but that would only cover issues on the night.
I'd just like to check before I get in touch with Curtis Sports.
Cheers.
I cannot answer most of your questions as I buy a programme at the ground on match day rather than through Curtis Sports.
The one I can answer is that there definitely was a programme for the home game v Morton on 3 January.
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Agreeing with both the above posts. We did not play too badly for the last 80 minutes, and it was certainly not a case of being overcome by a superior opponent (though huge credit to Jay Henderson-he took both chances really well). We were just too pedestrian and predictable.
We have to think and move faster. There were a lot of under-hit passes into the midfield, so even if our player did get first to the ball, which was not always the case, the only option was the pass the ball straight back and kill the momentum. Faster, slicker passes hopefully release a player to drive forward at pace.
Again there was this insistence on playing wide at every opportunity, rather than driving forward to commit opponents, thus allowing new opportunities to open up in the middle of the pitch, including the possibility of shooting from just outside the box which he have to do more often and more accurately.
The away form is concerning and we could really do with a couple of statement away wins.
Smyth has many good qualities, but I am wondering if the way he is currently playing is slowing us down too much. I am not saying that he should be dropped, but could Mark Wilson give him some different instructions to help make our play more dynamic?
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Terrible start. We let County have free run of the area around the D. After scoring 2 County have sat back and offered nothing, daring us to attack them. We have tried and made the occasional inroad but not nearly enough.
Put simply I think we have to do again what we did in the second half on Saturday, play forward quicker, run forward in straight lines and shoot more.
If we can do that, I still have a little hope.
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Booked into the Premier Inn with a view to my usual combination of Friday evening football/Saturday morning local parkrun. 3 of the 4 parkruns within reach already cancelled, with Nairn still hanging on in hope.
I know how hard local organisers try to put these events on even in adverse weather, so that is probably commentary enough on conditions in the area.
The annoying thing is that I opted for continental breakfast, so as to be in reasonable shape for running. If I had known that all local runs might be cancelled, I would have gone for full cooked breakfast!
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8 hours ago, The Thistle Archive said:
Inspired by Saturday's 3 goal comeback vs. Morton, our brand new page is introduced by popular demand, featuring every comeback win in history as well as all the comeback draws from 2 or more behind:
Comebacks →The natural companion page to the above, this new addition to our 'Club records' section, features every loss from a winning position, as well as all the games drawn after being 2 or more up in-play. What's the record?
Utterly brilliant as always. Thank you so much. Two takeaways:
1] It is a pity that in August 2025 we missed the opportunity to celebrate the centenary of our record comeback from 4-0 down to obliterate Hibs 6-4.
2] In the past 30 years, we have on 7 occasions collapsed from 2 goals up and on 7 occasion we have come back from 2 goals down. Incredibly I attended all 14 games!
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Could this mystery player be Paddy Kelly (the 2001-2002 version)?
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2 hours ago, jags on tour said:
👀
Are we signing somebody from North West Skye FC?
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1 hour ago, Dick Dastardly said:
You over estimate the intelligence of my dug
Muttley may be smarter than you think.
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I am mindful of the historical parallel. It was in January 2013 that Jackie McNamara was poached by Dundee United. However, if Aberdeen were to deign to look at a successful Championship manager, would Simo Valikari not be a more likely target?
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15 minutes ago, thornwoodjag said:
Aberdeen looking for a new manager. Would be naive of us to think Wilson isn’t in their thoughts.
I would have thought it more likely that Kilmarnock might have looked at Wilson, but thankfully it seems that Robbie Neilson or Neil McCann have become the favourites there. I would expect Aberdeen to set their sights somewhat higher (in their perception at least), so hopefully Wilson will be under their particular radar.
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15 minutes ago, Yellow & Redneck said:
Can't believe I'm saying this, but I really think we missed Robbie Crawford a lot in the centre of midfield yesterday (especially during the first half). Is there any news on him? I know anything injury related tends to be quite confidential nowadays - but even 5 or 6 years ago we tended to get reasonably regular updates on the progress of injured players. Been radio silence this season.
As mentioned before (not sure on which thread) I spoke briefly to Robbie at the calendar signing on 27 November. No medical or timescale detail was sought or given, but if you had asked me then to hazard a guess based on his body language (and with no expertise whatsoever) as to when Robbie would be fully fit and ready for action I would have said 2 or 3 weeks, so I was expecting to see him back in mid December.
Accordingly it would seem that the injury is perhaps more serious than originally anticipated. Hopefully we will be updated with some better news soon.
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On 1/3/2026 at 10:06 AM, lady-isobel-barnett said:
Couldn't really give a shih tzu about Morton's dead dug. Probably got stuck between the benches in the Wee Dublin End and froze to death.
No deceased creature of any species bounce (unless the first half was a short-lived semi-bounce).
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I have at least one witness to prove that I called the 3-2 final result at half-time!
I did not think that we were that bad in the first half, just too slow in our build up, and of course less clinical than Morton in finishing our chances.
Lets'osa had a poor first half, and, as in the Queen's Park game, I was concerned that he was often receiving the ball with his back to goal in situations where concession of possession immediately had the opposition attackers closing in on our depleted defence (as full backs would already be high). That may be OK for Smyth or Martin (who are better shielders of the ball), but does not suit T. When after half-time I saw Turner coming on, I initially assumed that T was the one replaced, and was slightly surprised that it was Fitzy.
Credit to Mark Wilson (as usual). T further forward was much better in the second half, Turner had his best performance this season, and Stanway maintained his excellent standard throughout. The result was that we were far more dynamic and threatening, and could have scored several more than the 3 which were thankfully sufficient.
Samuel, McPherson and Stanway stood out as performing well in both halves. Many other players, including of course Watt and Turner, impressed in the second half.
There is quite a battle developing at the top of the scoring charts, with Watt and Stanway on 7 pursuing Chalmers on 8, with Samuel not far behind on 5. Changed days from our over-reliance on Brian Graham (to be fair on Graham, he might well have been in position to have finished off some of the first half chances!).
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1 hour ago, Lenziejag said:
Did we really go direct a lot yesterday. I didn’t think we did too much. A bit more often than usual but none of the goals were as a result of that.
I can see both sides of that question. I think a fair compromise would be that we got the ball forward a lot quicker in the second half. Most "hoofs" had a measure of direction and intentionality, rather than being mindless blooters up the park.
PS The wonderful video posted by Jagfox illustrates the point. There are a couple of well-directed longer balls coupled with some intricate passing and possession retention (part of it going backwards), and finished off with a brilliant piece of individual skill.
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24 minutes ago, JeanieD said:
Not really a match thread but an observation that our visitors might get a “dead dog bounce” after appointing Ian Murray as their manager.
For obvious reasons I prefer to think of it as a dead cat bounce.
Thistle v Montrose in the Scottish Cup
in Main Jags forum
Posted
Elgin City away would be the preferred draw for me, followed by Spartans away, as both would fill in gaps in the CV.
I would prefer not to play another Championship team yet again. One potential nightmare scenario is that Queen's Park win away to Stranraer on Tuesday, and we end up drawn away to QP in their limited capacity stadium. Hopefully, if that happens, the tie could be switched to Hampden (ie the big stadium), for the first of 3 visits there.