oneteaminglasgow

Gallacher SOD - Mair - Piccolo - McMillan Muirhead/Craigen - Fraser Lawless - Erskine - Higginbotham Doolan With Taylor coming on for Doolan in the second half at some point. Also probably give Elliott/Baird a game, and Forbes come on for Erskine at some stage as I don't know what kind of fitness he'll have. I appreciate he was in Dundee United's starting 11 at the weekend, but before this was he not injured? May not have the full 90 in him, especially if he was playing at the weekend. Not sure about who to play alongside Fraser, as I'm not particularly keen on either of them being played in that holding position, but needs must. At a push I'd probably say start Craigen, but I change my mind about this one all the time. Got a feeling we'll do it tonight and finally break that duck at home. Think it might be in our best interests to score late in the game so the team has less time to panic but I'll take any goals and a win to be honest. It's getting to the stage where I'd take 90 minutes of Stoke type football and 1 shot all game to get that home win, but fancy it tonight. This saints team are missing a few key players, and if the defence can do what they did to Boyd at the weekend against Stevie May, that should eliminate most of their threat, although obviously other players like Hasselbaink are a handful. Fancy 2-0 Thistle, Erskine and Doolan.

I thought it was the other way around and he only came into the team in about October just as they went on their good run of form? Actually very pleased with this signing, a wealth of top flight experience given he's been playing in the league since about 2005, should be able to help organise the defence better regardless of who he plays with as they look like they've lacked leadership and no one knows their job. Hopefully this one comes back to bite St Mirren. All the best Lee.

Am I the only one that thinks there's more to Killie than just Kris Boyd? Obviously he's their best player and biggest threat, but IMO, guys like Chris Johnston and Nicholson are all good players at this level and we certainly won't be in for an easy game. I do think we have a slightly better side than them overall, although the best player on the park will be Boyd, but Killie aren't as bad as is being made out by some.

I'd like to see: Fox SOD - Muirhead - Piccolo - ATS Bannigan - Fraser Lawless - Forbes - Higginbotham Taylor I agree that Fox has been poor recently, but I would still feel more confident in him that I would be in Gallagher. The defence has been playing with Fox all season and know what (or at least they should) to expect from him. I feel that changing this, especially in such an important game, would be detrimental to the performance of an already shaky defence. Muirhead and Piccolo to me seems to be our strongest partnership at centre back, did very well in the Hibs game other than that absolute horror show of a free kick. Balatoni has been poor, and I think he knows it, but some of it, I feel, can be put down to playing a lot of football over the last year and a bit, and plain tiredness. Hopefully, with a couple of weeks away he can come back into the side refreshed and prove that he is Premiership quality. At present, he has not proven it, he will need to start doing better. Piccolo, I think, isn't quite there yet, but definitely could be. He has come on leaps and bounds since his debut against Aberdeen, and if he could cut out the mistakes and improve his positional play he would, in my opinion, be the strongest defender we have. Midfield is a bit of a no brainer as far as I'm concerned, Bannigan and Fraser are the best two central midfielders we have who are currently fit, and as such should start there. Ahead of this, I think we should try and give Forbes another go. I thought he was our best player when we played Dundee United away, and I'm till convinced that he should be played in the hole between the midfield and the striker rather than out wide where he seems to be played a lot of the time. It glaringly obvious that he doesn't have the pace to play on the wing, nor does he work hard enough to play as a central midfielder. However, he is undeniably a technically good player, who is willing to get forward and support (see his goal v St Mirren, and miss v Hibs). While he seems to get a lot of abuse from the Thistle fans (at least the ones near where I am), I think he is still worth a shot. Think of him as being a poor mans Pirlo. Higginbotham I thought was excellent on Saturday, and Lawless seems to have found a wee bit of form recently. I would like to see them try and play this 3 a bit narrower, using the full backs to supply most of the width, as I think that all 3 are best through the middle. Craigen looks like he needs a rest to me, and as such I'd drop him for Forbes, and Elliott can provide something but at present, that something shouldn't be from the start. His threat is from the fact that he's fast and powerful, and is ideal as a sub around the 70 minute mark (when Forbes gets tired anyway). Taylor is an obvious choice up front, unfortunately for Doolan, this boy is simply better than him. Would like to see Elliott, and possibly Doolan just in behind Taylor at some point as well. Think Taylor holds the ball up well, and Doolan could do well playing off him. Even Baird could be worth a shout playing just off Taylor, he might be able to show something he hasn't shown as of yet, although Saturday is much too important game for us to try this. The other thing that's been in my mind for a few weeks with regards to trying is playing O'Donnell in a more advanced role (leaving McMillan at right back obviously). Seem to recall he did this against Dunfermline in the 5-1 game (although I might well be making that up), and I actually think this would allow us to see the best of him. I think his delivery is actually quite good, and it would allow for us to be stronger at the back as SOD would track back a bit more than a winger might. It might well not work, but something which I think is worth a try at some point..

First thing I've said on this whole matter, hopefully won't be too controversial an opinion. I don't think £12 is particularly unreasonable. I think it probably is about right considering all the factors, that you would need around 660 fans paying this price at the gate. We can't forget that we have a large student following as well, and they will be paying less than this, as will any fans over 65 that decide to attend. I think regardless of the ticketing issue, we would have been seeing one of, if not the lowest, attendance we'll have all season at this due to it being a Tuesday night in January, St Johnstone don't bring a large number of fans (and this would again be diluted by the difficulties of getting to Perth and back on Tuesday night) so we can expect a very low away turn out regardless of pricing, it's not a particularly important or big fixture for us (OK, they're all important, but I'd imagine that for fans who pick and choose which games they go to, St Johnstone isn't high up on the list). I would personally be very annoyed if the club set a pricing strategy for this game which they knew full well would give them no chance of breaking even. Secondly, with regards the Complimentary "Ticket". Can anyone please show me where on it it actually says the word "ticket"? No? That'll be because it's not a ticket. I agree that the word complimentary was probably misleading, but I think that it was a genuine case of that was all they had to work with at the time. I would imagine that the tickets that are used this year are printed well in advance and therefore, could not be used for this. Also, I agree with The Cup. St Johnstone fans are *****. I have seen some of their posters on their forum state that they would have been annoyed to be charged anything for this. The fact of the matter remains that, from a legal standpoint, we didn't have to give them anything. We've been, in my opinion, overly generous by subsidising their buses. I don't care particularly if St Johnstone fans aren't happy. Finally, the comparison with the St Mirren-Ross County game is unfair in my opinion. That was rearranged to a weekend, when it was also the only league game on due to it being an international week. This would therefore allow the St Mirren board to predict, rightly or wrongly, that they would still be able to break even by charging this lower price. Our prediction has taken into account the factors which affect our game, and have, I would argue rightly, predicted a low turn out regardless of whether they charge £10 or £12. If £12 is the price which they think gives us the best chance of breaking even, or at least minimising loss then so be it. Edit: My other issue is with people being told that these complimentary vouchers would get them into the rescheduled game for free. I do not doubt that this, regrettably, happened. However, as has been mentioned, the announcement never made this promise. Which means that they were told this by the stewards handing out the vouchers, who are not employed by Partick Thistle, but by the security company which the club use. I would imagine that noone at the club told them this, and they have just said this to the fans at a guess? Would be a bit unfair to try and hold Thistle to something which was promised by employees of another company.

I would imagine/hope that we'll play McMillan and Craigen holding, and Higgy, Lawless and Forbes in front of that if Muirhead is indeed injured. That or throw in that Wilson boy who played against Celtic, looked decent enough. Anything to stop Mark Kerr playing in a game that actually matters

Supposedly we're looking into getting Dylan McGeouch on loan from Celtic, but as far as I know, haven't done so yet.

They broke the rules and this is the punishment, they can't have the punishment lifted just because they aren't doing well in the league and don't have enough players. Lets not forget that Hearts voted in favour of these rules.

Those are all good finishes. Even the header in the 6 yard box, he has to get there in order to finish it off. Maybe the keeper should have done better in the Hibs goal, but he still keeps in along the ground and makes it difficult to save. And just because he gets a lucky break does not mean that he is not a good finisher, that's a ludicrous argument to make. For what its worth, I don't think Baird has been good enough this season, but I also don't think he's a bad player. It simply hasn't worked out for him so far at this level, and Thistle might not be the right club for him. I don't know. I certainly hope he manages to make an impact at some point, and from looking at those goals there is definitely a decent player in there, but for whatever reason, it hasn't shone through for us. If he leaves then so be, if he stays then he simply needs to get the head down, and work hard in training and try to do something when he does get a game, which unfortunately outwith winning the penalty against Hearts, he hasn't really been able to do. I won't hold it against him if he isn't cut for this level, as long as he puts the effort in, he'll be ok in my books.

I have a season ticket in the Jackie Husband stand, it was supposed to be in the North Stand, told them that when I went to get it then didn't receive the email over summer asking me to clarify so just assumed it was fine. However, yesterday I showed it to the guy at the turnstile and was allowed to enter the North Stand but told that they weren't really supposed to let me in as my season ticket is JHS. Clarification definitely needed on this one as I thought they would work anywhere in the ground?

No other club in the First division has under 16's go free either (at least to my knowledge).

Other than the ones already mentioned, a favourite moment of mine from this season was definitely Bannigan's goal away to Queens Park to make it 4-4 in the dying moments and then Erskine's winner a few seconds later. Something about shutting up those Queens Park fans who were all giving "so f@cking easy" and so on was just majestic, along with the feeling that we're Partick Thistle, and we really do score when we want.

gone for J, everything from the pass by O'Donnell into Doolan is just outstanding play.

personally, I'm a huge fan of forbes, I think he is a technically very good player with a delivery and range of passing unmatched by anyone else in the squad.

personally, I'd love to see a mention of "We're Partick Thistle, We'll score when we want" on it