jagfaelivi

Was listening on the sports news on BBC'S Newsdrive programme about 5.30 and "Archie" was on talking about Lyle Taylor and his importance to us. Only , am I going mad? It didn't SOUND like Archie. Did anybody else hear it?

Sorry I meant to say but got it wrong that United didn't look dangerous at all UNTIL they resorted to longer balls.

Was there today and quite enjoyed the match. Thought United played sort of "studied/tutored" football without a lot of spark in it until well on in the second half. Perversely once they resorted to longer balls they didn't look dangerous at all. We played okay with BRE being a standout and the ones you would expect to be "better" like Wilson and McDaid were better. The latter, though, gave the ball away a couple of times in the middle of the park and each time United could have scored. We could have scored more after several breaks when United lost the ball in midfield. I didn't know it was Finnie playing, presumably he was the number seven? Duggan looked more or less like he did last season , maybe having filled out a bit. The biggest laugh was one of their bespectacled coaches sitting in the back of the stand and you could have heard him in Motherwell - amazing how rude he sounded in a silent stadium. Their manager, though, was Davy Bowman whom I didn't recognise till I saw him up close at half-time.

This is murder!!! It's a bit like the feeling you get when you are in love for the first time but you can't read what is going on at all. You are just looking over your shoulder all the time, partly In anticipation and partly in dread. THISTLE!!!! Why have you done this to me??

Can't see it. I've read just about everything relevant for a month now and continue to be disappointed that there is no news of that one great signing. Fingers crossed!

I've been coming to Firhill since 1958 and, long ago, I was reconciled to the fact that Thistle would ALWAYS be the sort of club who gave us good days and bad and that there would be more days of anguish than of ecstasy. We are the product of an economic situation that does really not let us "move on and up". We will always be in the shadow except(it seems) for once every fifty years when we win a trophy. There have been good times - like the recent cuffing of Hamilton - but usually more days like last Friday and the 6-0 reverse at Parkhead earlier in the season. If you do not understand this or fail to accept it you should find yourself another team. " Real" progress is something that is not going to happen unless the Weir people come up with 10 million and then we'll do a Gretna before the funds, inevitably, run out.

Yup! Pretty poor but if you look at us over the last few seasons just WHEN have we been able to cope with a packed defence? When the old Ross County came to town we had no answer to them lining up in two banks of four. Nobody there to put his foot on the ball or anybody who can find room in the box and if we had who could pass it two yards accurately to somebody in space? If you look at us we are dreadfully wasteful in the last third MOST OF THE time. How often do good positions just peter out ? It's happened soooo often. And if, like tonight, when we are behind and a team is determined to defend we have nothing to offer. When a team "plays the game" and comes out we can be very good but nights like tonight, or a variation of them, just show up every shortcoming we have. No cuteness or creativity when/where it matters most. We have taken ten goals off Hamilton in the last two and a half games but that's because they come at us, as do Inverness (similar good Thistle performances) but when anybody refuses to play we, like tonight, have no ideas. I have no idea what the answer is but what good is it ranting like some on here? We have been like that for a long time.

Living on the other side of the country I'd like to know that the game is in no danger given the recent snow. How's it looking?

Well that was pretty poor! I was in among their support as I hate sitting behind the goal. And I think I saw the development of play (or lack of it) We continue to be soooo bad when we get into the last third of the field. We get into a position to do something with the ball and we would then be nearly as well to pass it back to their goalie. Couple of examples in the first half - O'Donnell coming in and hitting it away over the bar when in a decent position to do more, particularly from the angle he was at. Then Keenan hitting a lovely ball through the channel for Lawless that ran for a bye kick. Usain Bolt would not have got to it. Then in the second half the same player big cross to the back stick where there were precisely no Jags players. And how often do we hit the first player when we cross it? And then there are wee "clever" flicks to somebody surrounded by the opposition and only two yards away. Other teams seem to have the ability to hang on to the ball till they see a pass. The pitch was AWFUL but they coped with it better than us. Maybe we just don't have the players. I thought Balatoni was good as well as Seabourne and young McDaid will make a player..... We have a long way to go

The forecast for Dingwall on Saturday is dire. Around 30mph winds and chance of snow travelling back. Should it be postponed early or am I just a wimp?

Magnificent day for us and we never kicked a ball! And we gave away hundreds of the pies we couldn't use to a local homeless society. Well done the Jags!

Here we are nearly ten hours into the window and NO Jags signing yet!! What are you playing at Archie?

The official site has just posted that Aero's contract has been mutually terminated. What a great player he was for us in the Championship winning season and I hope that he goes on to do good things elsewhere. The rumour is that he's off to Falkirk. When he signed for us from Annan I was sure he was going to end up a great Jag but it just never worked out for him at the top level. Best of luck to you Aero in the rest of your career and thanks for all you did in a Thistle strip.

Would agree that Christie was immense in the second half. The laddie is credited with saying that he stays behind after training to improve his skills and I, for one, think that it sticks out a mile that he is doing this. I see he is strong and now is one of the few in the team who will actually try and BEAT an opponent. This speaks volumes for him . I used to despair when I saw his name on the team sheet. No longer. A Jags team all playing as well as he is currently would be awesome. Well done Christie and keep it up!

There was a tear in my eye reading the Jackie Campbell input. Absolutely brill !!!! What a player he was for us; always in the right place and with that blonde head getting to the ball first. What a servant. Later on Jim Duffy was equally impressive for us except with a lot less hair!!

Well now! There's a decision and St Johnstone have accepted the two match ban. Surely THIS has opened a completely new can of worms. If I were an ICT supporter I would be livid that cheating has cost my side a point and there is the little matter that,come the split, St J have two points they are not entitled to. Where might these points take them and what financial advantage might they gain? Surely if the powers that be hope to stamp out cheating St J should be docked two points and ICT credited with one. When it is as clear cut as this let's have the ruling body showing teeth and balls!? Now they've done this I'm sure there could be riots throughout the land in the future and I'm sure posters on here can think up scenarios where there might be hand-to- hand fighting if results are affected by downright dishonesty. In some sports you never get to play again if you are caught cheating - golf is a classic example - and yet in football you can end up as player of the year if you indulge yourself looking for advantage by simulating. Think of Ronaldo and Suarez in the past.

A good point about Hamilton and their "mature" element. I listened to the Hearts match last night and they are STILL going on about this Hearts team filled with "young boys". Makes me sick! I added up the ages of their team last night and ours at the weekend against Dundee and their total was 272 against our 277 giving them an average age of just under 24 and us just over. And arguably their "young boys" are much more experienced because of their recent predicament and, in the first place,because Hearts are probably/certainly able to attract better youngsters to them being a bigger club than us. And they will also have been asked to perform at a higher level than ours for their professional career because we only got promoted last season. Wish the BBC would stop it and deal in FACTS rather than perceptions. The biggest culprit of course is Preston who is a supporter rather than a pundit or commentator.

A funny thing about Saturday....... I am usually in quite early and watch closely the bit of the warm up where one of our coaches throws the ball up and the guys line up to have a go at getting it past the keeper ie shootin' in! Anyway I've said quite often to friends how BAD we are at hitting the target - despite having all the time in the world most balls seem to be blazed over the bar or hit at the goalkeeper ( with more of the former than the latter) On Saturday, though, whether I was imagining it or not, we seemed to be keeping the ball down better and at least hitting the target - better striking of the ball all round. How ironic, then, that we should have had chances in the game and not even worked the goalie. When we played ICT at home I remember watching them doing the same exercise ( supervised by Russell Latapy a notably good striker in his day). They were soooo much better than us at it. Your comments would be appreciated because surely hitting the target should be something you can improve on and there should be some sort of a sense of shame attached to missing it?!? I used to play golf quite well and must have hit millions of practice shots in my time and, yes, you DO get better with practice. Was it Lee Trevino who said "the more I practice the luckier I get".

I listen to the six till seven programme most nights and am getting ever more disillusioned listening to the inside leg measurement details of everyone who has ever played for Rangers..... it goes on and on and on. And then it's on to the Tonev affair. Is it POSSIBLE to give this pair any more air time. The Friday night prog went on about McCoist then they started all over again on exactly the same stuff on Saturday. As if this is not bad enough we then have to listen to Cowan and Cosgrove talking about their teams forever and ever. And they have the cheek, particularly the latter, to suggest their teams don't get enough air time in comparison to the "Big Two"!!! Then it's on to the diminutive Young and the plight of the Paisley crew. And we know that Richard Gordon supports Aberdeen and his son is a Dundee supporter. And Biscuits is a Hearts man....And wee John Robertson if he's not telling us about Hearts he is pontificating about what's happening to the two north of the haggis line. Why do we pay our licence? Is it just me?

If you are like me you will be slightly fed up with the media perception that we are/have been poor away from home this season - how often have you heard in the last week "they've only won one away from home league game this season"? I've compared our equivalent away fixtures last season (substituting Hibs for Dundee and Hearts for Accies - I'm sure you can follow my reasoning there though Hamilton have been much better than Hearts ever were last season, even on their late good run and our 3-3 at NDP was much better than our 2-0 at Hearts last season) What I've found is that we lost to the teams , Celtic, Dundee United and Aberdeen who we would maybe expect to fall to in both seasons (but losing fewer goals this season) and we lost both times to Kilmarnock. So not a lot of difference including wins last season and this at Paisley and Inverness. So really we are only a fourth minute of injury time equaliser at NDP different this time from having ten points like last season when the perception was that we were very good away. Eight points this time but losing only eleven goals as against last season's fourteen. Both seasons we've scored nine. Soooo I would say on balance we have been MUCH better away from Firhill than last time AND we are only now getting our best team sorted out. Huge reasons for optimism I think.

Had Higgy coming back twice there!! Must be this Shiraz! Will have to suck a lemon to get the grin off my face!!

Don't think it was as much a flat performance last week as we aren't very good when a team parks the bus. That's an area we definitely have to improve on. There are good things happening; Fraser is back and raring to go as is Higgy; Banzo didn't have a pre-season and is now showing his real ability; we are more sorted at the back with Seabourne leading the wayand Gallacher playing out of his skin.. Other good things are McMillan doing the business, SOD coming good and Higgy getting back. And what about the improvement in Christy? It could be a great second half to the season particularly if we get a big front man in next month. Bring on the 'dee and well done Archie and Shaggy. Wish I had been there today.

Just another story from the fifties concerning Willie Smith our goalie for a period then ( he was George Smith's cousin). I was telling a pal about this thread and the talk of the wall at the back of the goal. He had attended Willie's funeral and there was a story told there about a wall at the back of the goal collapsing one day during a game. Willie went to the assistance of some of the fans who fell through and maybe was thought of as a bit of a hero at the time. Can anybody confirm that this happened and maybe supply some detail? I was first at Firhill about 59 or 60 and I think the wall had gone by then.

This draw was all my fault. As a retired person and with little to do this morning I did my own draw with the sixteen teams. And, yes, believe it or not there were four teams left in my bunnet and,yes, Thistle came out at home against ICT or St Midden. I thought to myself well, at least, we won't get THAT one. Oh dear!! It was the only one that was the same as the real draw so I am certainly to blame. It is so so dull and if it's ICT as is likely we will get no gate either. And might go out.

I texted Cowan and Cosgrove yesterday that most of Scottish football is fed up hearing their bias on the 'well and the Saintees - they go on ad infinitum. But the BBC is riddled with this. Apart from the Ugly Sisters and the skewed coverage they get you've got wee Chic going on and on about St Mirren and to a lesser extent Richard Gordon with Aberdeen and wee Robertson on Ross County. I'm sure you can think of more. Plus they sent along that woman to Firhill yesterday and she didn't exactly exude football knowledge/expertise. I was listening as I watched and wondered if she was at the same game. Is it time we acquired a celebrity/media fan to fight our corner. We seem to get hardly any coverage EVER!!