partickthedog

Agreeing with all that, especially as regards Scott Robinson. Does he have special springs in his football boots?

Agreed. Given the amount of time Morton were allowed to move the furniture before each long throw, could we have used the same tactic and run the clock down towards the end of the game by insisting on taking 2 minutes to rearrange the stadium before all of our throw ins?

A muted celebration of a goal which still leaves us behind in the game (ie 2-1 down) would be fairly normal.

Yes, thank you. Apologies!

Underdog choices are straightforward for the men AB For the women my underdog detection software cannot compute the first game as neither of the combatants meet the definition of underdog. So, on principle, it has to be Pass A Thanks BB

Ngwenya did have one brilliant pacy surging run early on, but seemed to regard that as his quota for the afternoon and did not do it again. McBeth put in some great tackles and Robinson was busy throughout. Minutes 60-80 were electrifying. We seemed to be snapping into tackles and winning every second ball, and there was energy coursing all through the team. At that point we looked far more likely to win, but to be fair to Queens, for the last 10 minutes they regained the ascendancy, and in the end I was happy to hear the final whistle.

Created numerous chances. Could not score, although their goalie made some good saves. Then conceded soft goal to a header. Mitchell seemed to dive under the ball

I agree with those posters who have said that we have to be looking to win this game. I would not settle for a draw if offered to me now. Hopefully I will not be eating these words!

I agree that good wing play especially by Fitzy and Lawless is a frequent source of our most promising attacks. However, I think that we often play the ball wide unnecessarily as though we feel we have to do it. If the possibility is there to drive direct towards goal we should not be afraid to do so.. I would also like to see players having more pops at goal from round about the D rather than play the standard wide pass. As McInroy and Bannigan have proved on all too rare occasions, you might just score or at least provoke a ricochet off defender or keeper giving someone else the opportunity to do so.

We have statistics for "Expected Goals", which I never understand, but does anyone produce statistics for XJH or "Expected Jumping Height"? Surely Scott Robinson must exceed every XJH metric with his spring-heeled leaps?!

Strangely I thought that the referee was quite good today and let the game flow. He did not give a foul every time a player fell over, like most referees tend to do.

I thought that it was Wasiri at first, but on a closer look I think that the header came in from McBeth.

I suppose for him it is a question of motivation. Is Mitchell showing the self-drive to come first?

Arbroath on 6th January says my old-fashioned paper diary. PS Lenziejag beat me to the draw!

I am sure that we will all agree with that! The more interesting question is as to whether one would prefer to lose 1-0 or 4-3. It is of course a given that all of us want to win, and none of us wants to lose. However, if loss it has to be, then (as long as we have not thrown away a 3 goal lead!) I am in the camp of preferring to lose 4-3 than 1-0. I suspect many posters will take the opposite view, and that is fair enough!

It's been a good week in training.

Kris Doolan also said that Stevie Lawless was a big player for us.

Someone will not be pleased to see that a two tranche meal is on offer.

At least O'Reilly has managed more minutes than McGinley.

Sneddon being out spares Doolan from making an awkward decision. If Mitchell or Stewart comes in and plays well, then going by Doolan's previous practice they will keep their place as and when Sneddon recovers.

On seeing the replays I am slightly less critical of Jamie Sneddon as regards the first goal than I was when watching this from behind the goal at the time. Firstly he was totally abandoned by both defence and midfielders. Secondly the shot was sclaffed in such a way as to carry it away into the far corner and out of his reach, even though not hit very hard. If it had been a true hit shot, Jamie might well have saved it. In the reverse, I am more critical of Jamie's involvement in the third goal than I was at the time. I thought that he might have deflection, forest of legs, hard shot from point blank range or other similar excuses. However, it would seem that the ball went too easily right through him at the near post. No change of view on the second goal, which was exactly as I saw at the time. Jamie failed to command his 2 yard box, far less the 6 yard box. I really like Jamie and hope that he can come good again and go on to a successful career, preferably at Thistle. However, for the moment, I think that he has run out of chances and that either Stewart or Mitchell should be handed the gloves for the next league game.

He's actually quite a young chap. The name comes from Bertie Auld.

Just in from Inverness. Mixed bag of thoughts. Poor first 20 minutes, but then we came into the game. Strangely we conceded all 3 goals at times when we were actually playing well. I am generally supportive of Jamie Sneddon, but sadly he did look to be at fault with at least the first two goals. The first goal was a speculative long ranger which had good direction but nothing like the power Kerr McInroy generated last week. Jamie seemed to scoop his hand over or round the ball. A solid shovel of the ball to the side looked to be eminently possible. The second goal was at the far end so harder to comment on, but it appeared that an Inverness player had an unopposed header from 2 yards in front of the centre of the goal, in an area you would expect the goalkeeper to be commanding. First half we were very slow and ponderous, shuffling the ball from side to side with no pace or creativity and then launching a long diagonal ball. Even when well directed, by the time the target player had got the ball down, the initiative had been lost. McMillan's absence seemed an ideal opportunity to start O'Reilly, and move Muirhead to right back where he has always been decent, plus adding the long throw option. Williams did not play particularly badly, but he kept checking back and could not get any link up going with Lawless. I would agree with the poster who said that Lawless was off form, but only as regards the first half where he was anonymous. In the second half we stopped playing the long diagonal balls and began passing much more quickly and incisively through the midfield. Lawless came right into the game and had an excellent second half. McBeth really grew into the game and was particularly good in the second half. He was harshly penalised on occasion, so perhaps has to learn the dark art of winning the ball strongly without apparently committing a foul. Fitzpatrick was not on his best form, but kept trying (as witness his goal) and was unusually passionate in trying to galvanise the rest of the team into action. Scott Robinson was the real difference maker today. He is nimble and quick thinking on the ground as you might expect (as in winning the penalty), but also has a spring heeled leap to win unexpected and well-directed headed passes. We really need several consecutive injury-free performances like that. Graham took the penalty well and his volley for the third goal was brilliant. Great credit to the fans today. They really stuck with the team and inspired the fightbacks. For all the shortcomings in the team today, you do also have to credit their fighting spirit in keeping coming back, especially when the goals lost could easily have been dispiriting. Not quite sure where O'Reilly was playing when he came on, but he seemed to be everywhere, not least in the attack. Looks like a quality and committed player who should be starting. I am such a slow typer, 6 others have posted since I started. Apologies if I have duplicated anything they have said!

The main positive of finishing second is the substantial extra prize money. Although last season reaching the play off final made us feel like we had finished second, the reality is that we picked up only fourth place prize money.

In other words the team to which a player is being "farmed" out has to have the right agri-culture.