partickthedog

Have tried to make use of the WiFi but my attempt has been dismissed. I admit that I have only been following Thistle regularly for 20 years. Do I not qualify as s PTFC Supporter?

Pretty even and disjointed game. Erskine goal was brilliant team move and great finish. One of the few moments of quality.

Stuart Cosgrove on Off the Ball this morning was lamenting that St Johnstone had lost "all twelve" points to Thistle last season.

Cerny Gordon Devine Lindsay Booth Welsh Edwards Amoo Erskine Lawless Doolan

A flirtation from 1974-77 (attending Firhill as one of a group of school friends which included one really keen supporter). Following from a distance 1977-96 (watching for the Thistle result and hoping they had won, but not much more than that). Total bonkers commitment 1996-date (every competitive match home and away last season). I could try to make a case for 42 but as a real diehard Jag I can only properly justify 20. The kids were sports minded and collecting football stickers and talking about going to a game. To ensure that they would not follow one of the Old Firm, I decided to take them myself to Firhill. It was a dismal winter's day (Saturday 10th February 1996) and an even worse game. Kilmarnock were awarded a penalty after just 2 minutes, which Tom Black slotted away. Thistle (including Big Jim Slavin) huffed and puffed, but never looked like equalising. A dire spectacle, but we loved it and bought into this peculiarly frustrating football club and slowly built up the frequency of our attendance and soon embraced travelling to away games as well. We could not be accused of being glory hunters. It was not until deep into the following season that we witnessed our first victory, 3-0 v Falkirk, with Ian McCall playing a cameo role. Our introduction was in the dark days of decline which makes us appreciate all the more the subsequent promotions and other successes. Peter Lindau's hat-trick at Forthbank, Andy Gibson's winner at Dens Park and Shaggy's at Inverness on nights of driving rain and high drama, Billy Gibson's free kick at Peterhead and the later pitch invasion, Gary Harkins looks one way, passes the other at Ibrox, James Craigan scoring in front of a packed North Stand v Morton, Chris Erskine slicing through the Falkirk defence, Kris Doolan beating the Hibs rearguard singlehanded, Gary Fraser's and Kalum Higginbotham's goals against Hearts, the team move finished off by Steven O'Donnell at Tannadice, Banzo keeping the ball just about singlehanded for 10 minutes in Perth to see out the victory. Legendary moments and with our current array of attacking talent, many more to look forward to...

I am trying to think which footballers could work for CM Accountants and apart from the generic Centre Midfielder, the only name that strikes me is Colin McMenamin. There must be a Thistle CM somewhere.

I like Derek Ferguson's enthusiasm for the game at all levels and he knows the names and abilities of players at clubs like Thistle and Hamilton. He may not be the most incisive and intellectual pundit, but you get the impression that he enjoys and enters into the spirit of every game to which he is assigned and is not thinking "I am a big time and big team Charlie who should not be forced to be here",

Did anyone else see that first goal and think right away of Daley Blind and Robin Van Persie and Holland"s equaliser against Spain in the World Cup?

At least Archie will not be tempted to repeat the disastrous experiment of deploying three experienced centre backs in a cup tie at Tannadice.....as we do not have three experienced centre backs.

We will unleash Chris Erskine upon them!

Presumably he was posted overseas

Most of us are no doubt so used to listening to football commentaries and pre and post match interviews on the radio that we automatically translate what we hear into what we know is the actual meaning. Here are a few examples with the statement in bold and the translation in italics. I am sure that fellow posters can add many more. The ball zipped about on the slick surface. It was raining. They play in a certain way. The other team hoof the ball up the park at every opportunity. Their manager will have them well organised. They will be the most boring team on the planet. We like to get the ball down and play. We are not very good at passing the ball to each other, but we do try and do this occasionally. We lacked quality in the final third. The forwards, wingers and attacking midfielders I signed are all equally useless. We lacked that little bit of guile. None of my players has got any imagination. We totally dominated the game. Play was fairly even. The clean sheet was the most important thing. I would prefer to draw a game nil-nil than win 3-2.

I am in the same boat. Was also buying for my non-season ticket holder daughter who is back in Glasgow for the holidays, so I know I have to go to the ticket office anyway, but I wonder whether I will be offered a paper ticket or told that I do not need anything as it will be on the season card. I hope that I do not have to climb the hill twice! Interesting Great Glasgow Alliance car load coming to the game today. Daughter and me (Jags fans) plus neighbour and son (Queens Park fans) and neighbour's son's friend (Thistle fan)!

Martin Hardie (definitely) ! Lindsay Hamilton (not so sure) ? I also have on the edge of my memory, a young player who seemed to have a great future but went off the rails slightly-Gavin Rushford or a similar name ??

You must be on Macleod 9

Should you not be sitting on the fence rather than seeing both sides of it? Sitting may be rather uncomfortable but at least you will not strain your eyes.

Thank you TJR. My gut feeling was right about 1998, and I should not have wobbled when I remembered the return of Willie Jamieson and Sammy Johnston. Without them the goals track record would have been dire indeed. I was totally wrong about 2000 although those who were to become legends such as Hardie, Lennon, Lindau and McLean had relatively modest starting totals. I do not recall Cameron, Dunn, McWilliams and Stirling lasting long into the season (no window then!) and my recollection is that Shaw joined us mid-season. Therefore the goals total may have dropped substantially before the legends got into their stride. I am hopeless on years but the Ayr game at Somerset I was remembering was immediately after Mark Roberts left us. I believe it was the third season of being back in the First Division (the second season under Ian McCall) and Jonny Tuffey was our established Number 1. He made a poor clearance which Roberts punished with aplomb by a curling finish from near the half way line. Doolan had yet to join us and Harkins was not yet a regular scorer. The only player with a fair tally to his name would have been Liam Buchanan, but even with a handful of goals for others, I do not think that they would have matched Marko's total.

Christie Elliot and Sean Welsh will be less impressed with my underestimating their goals totals. Would you mind this season including in your game by game round up the goals total for the squad? Should surely be an impressive number by the end of the season and may be interesting to compare with future seasons as players come and go. The numbers brought by Jamieson and Johnston may have saved the class of 1998 from being the most goal-lite in Jags history. Could this accolade belong to the class of 2000 who were about to enjoy a momentous season as league champions. Danny Lennon, Martin Hardie, Scott McLean and Peter Lindau (on loan) had begun to show their qualities but perhaps only had 10 or 12 goals between them at that stage. Archie brought another 3 or 4 and I am not sure who else contributed any. I am assuming that Robert Dunn would have been let go before then. If I am allowed a supplementary question, was there ever an occasion when there were more Jags goals among Thistle's opponents than among the Thistle players themselves? Possible candidates might be: 1) Playing Celtic with Ronnie Glavin and Joe Craig in their team. 2) Playing St Mirren featuring Doug Somner. 3) Playing against a team including Maurice Johnston-Celtic, Rangers, Hearts, Falkirk-any more? 4) My special shout out would be the time we opened the Championship season playing away at Somerset Park. 40 plus goal man Mark Roberts played and scored for Ayr, and I am not sure if any of the Jags had built up a significant goalscoring record by then.

Have they changed the name from Ochilview to Ovalchew?

TJR. Really hoping that you will bring us similar stats in 2016-2017 as your efforts last season were so much appreciated. A question to get you started. When did we last have as many Thistle goals in the squad as we have now? Rather unusually we made a substantial net gain over the close season as I think the only goalscorers we lost were Frans, Dan and Gazza with approximately 5 between them, while we acquired Chris Erskine who already had over 30. Doolan has 90, Erskine well into the 30s, if not 40, Lawless I think in the high 20s, Elliott a dozen, Bannigan getting towards 10 at a guess, Amoo half a dozen, Welsh and Fraser a handful each and Pogba, Booth, Edwards, Lindsay, Dumbuya and Osman have their twos and ones. Total must be around 200 and will of course be growing as the season progresses unless there is a very unexpected transfer out of a player on a long contract. Willie Sharp would have beaten the lot put together, but since he retired have we ever surpassed that total, possibly if and when Dougie Somner had some prolific team-mates? On the flip side, when did we have the least Thistle goals in the team? I would hazard a guess at the start of our first season in the third tier. Jered Stirling, Gareth Edwards, Alan Lawrence, Andy Lyons and Nicky Henderson all left, Robert Dunn had not started to score and the fairly modest scorers we carried over were such as Alan Morgan, Martin Lauchlan, Kevin Gaughan and Alan Archibald. Then again, I have just remembered that Sammy Johnston and Willie Jamieson did come back. Did they have many first time round?

Snap!

Just occurred to me that Higgy featured in our goal of the season in both of his seasons with us. Rather strangely these both involved playing a long pass down the line from a deep full back position to halfway, on opposite sides of the pitch. From left full back at Easter Road he played the ball up to Kris Doolan who cunningly flicked it over his head and outpaced and outsmarted two defenders before chipping the keeper for a glorious solo goal. From right full back at Tannadice he fed Steven O'Donnell who combined with Lyle Taylor (via an outrageous backheel) for a fantastic team goal. So perhaps there was more to Higgy than we often remember, and he certainly covered the whole pitch!

And also a very nice guy!

Scott Paterson. We certainly got his best season as a player.

R-marrying would give you the opportunity to enjoy a TAG party!