Roque

Are either of you members of social bubbles? I also had problems getting my ticket earlier (it wasn’t recognising any details - either to log on or to reset password), but thankfully a member of my social bubble was able to purchase the ticket for me. It seems like being part of a bubble like this may impact your own access to the online ticketing platform. He can also see my season ticket details on his profile but I can’t see my own ST details anywhere.

Yeah, the Star is an embarrassment these days. The new owners have sacrificed their proximity to Firhill and the regular income that brought, to run their ridiculous wee Celtic supporters club from it. **** them.

I thought the figure announced seemed about right. A disappointingly low home turnout, but it made sense. I'd guess roughly 1700 in the JH and 400 in the JL is probably fair, with the announced 1080 in the away end making up 3200. JH used to hold just over 6000, but there have been a few changes and its capacity is now a good few hundred less than that.

Yeah, saw that on Twitter. Looks like some Alloa fans on P&B were at the wind-up by saying it hadn't changed. Good news for us, anyway. Suits our FB/WBs especially.

The pitch hasn't changed in size, unfortunately. I do think Alloa will be weaker this year and definitely more beatable at home, but yeah, the Indodrill pitch in its current state is a real leveler.

I misunderstood what DD meant by "league positions", assuming it to be about the group positions in the League Cup! Have edited that part of the post to be clearer.

They are based on League Cup group positions, but we're not guaranteed through that method. Celtic, Rangers, Kilmarnock and Aberdeen will be seeded as the European participants, as will the four group winners with the highest points totals. Currently the group winners and their points totals are: County 12 pts (+10 GD) Thistle 10 (+3) Motherwell 9 (+9) Hibs 8 (+5) Hearts 8 (+3) Livingston 8 (+2) Inverness 7 (+4) St Mirren 7 (0) However, only County, ourselves and St Mirren have played 4 games. Hearts, Hibs, Inverness, Motherwell and Livingston all have a final group game to play, and each one of them who wins will move us down a place. So we need less than 3 of that 5 to win their final games, which I'd say is pretty unlikely.

6 draws and 3 defeats in 9 Firhill games against Kilmarnock in our 5 seasons in the top flight. Compare and contrast with 3 wins, 3 draws and 3 defeats at Rugby Park. Embarrassing home record against them, which hopefully unlike the away record at Motherwell, doesn't develop into this kind of curse that we can't break.

I was behind the goal as well, and whilst it looked like a goal from our angle, being behind the goal isn't a great place to be able to determine things like that. Much better view of balls crossing the line, offsides, etc from the side.

Motherwell are currently sitting on P15 W13 D1 L1, with their final game on Saturday. Ayr are on P15 W13 D0 L2, with their final game also this weekend. If both win, we will be 3rd overall in the group stage format since its inception. If Ayr fail to win and we will be 2nd. If Well lose then we would be top overall, and if they draw it would be a tie between the pair of us (and I haven't looked at GD). Bear in mind Motherwell are playing Annan in the last game, so highly likely they will win!

Few mentions of him signing for us on Twitter; one from Graeme McGarry, who often seems to get first dibs on Thistle news.

It seems like quite a few people on here seem desperate for this takeover not to happen, and I can't figure that one out. There are very few facts available at the current time, but we've got folk instantly dismissing them because they won't have Partick Thistle's interests at heart, or they're foreigners and therefore they must be dodgy because Vladimir Romanov and some crooks who owned Dundee a while ago were. To me, looking at the portfolio of Chien Lee and Paul Conway, I don't think this looks like a case of some Romanov-esque dodgy dealings. These are very wealthy men who run bigger clubs than Partick Thistle, and whilst I could be wrong and they could be taking over our club to asset-strip - that doesn't seem like it would make much business sense given the current make-up of our club. Far more logical would be the suggestion of them trying to build up a network of clubs, with us somewhere nearer the bottom of the pile, where young talent can come to Firhill to learn, and any prospects that we develop ourselves have a quicker route up the ladder. But even if that is the structure they'd have planned, it doesn't mean we can't be successful as a football club at our own level. I think any suggestions that we're dying as a club are wide of the mark, but we're certainly not flourishing either, and imo any positive change should be welcomed. The current board plod from one mistake to another, don't seem to understand or appreciate how to keep an entire fan-base on-side (hint: texting a select few supporters and expecting them to spread word of how great a job you're doing doesn't work and just creates divisions within the fans), and I have no faith in them to improve on our current predicament.

I don't get this kind of thinking. What's the difference between loan players or "cast-offs" from Nice or Barnsley, and mercenary Scottish players? Realistically, hardly any players playing for teams these days are local, or support the team they are playing for. Whether it's a French player on loan from Nice, or an English player on loan from Barnsley, they're still players trying to make a living in the game, just as Ryan Williamson, Shea Gordon, Joe Cardle, etc are. None of them will have signed for Thistle because of love for the club or because of loyalty, so what does it matter which of them are lining up in red & yellow on a Saturday?

Hard to directly compare a player who we've only seen a few times, but Tidser seems quite similar to what we've got already at CM - and especially to Bannigan. I'd be worried that signing him would take us to 5 CM's (6 if you include Wilson) whose roles are all fairly similar. This would again leave us without a defensive-minded CM, which we've sorely lacked since Osman decided he wanted to be a hat salesman instead of a footballer.

For league games, home club keeps all gate receipts, food sales, etc. They then have to pay for stewarding, police etc from their own pocket. Gate receipts used to be divided years ago (I'm thinking maybe 70s or 80s was when it last happened), but was rightly binned. Why should Hamilton Accies and their minibus full of fans receive half the gate (minus costs) at Celtic Park? Or indeed, to use your own example, why should Alloa and their 150 travelling fans receive half of a 3,000 gate at Firhill? This kind of thing just isn't practical and has no real reason to be reviewed.