Fearchar

A winger has to get the ball past at least the fullback, launch it into the air for one striker in the goalbox to beat two giant centrebacks facing the right way, with the head, a rounded surface that offers little control, to get it past the third giant facing the right way, who's also allowed to use his hands. Outside corners, which can be trained for to use the speed of the ball, how often does a cross result in a goal? I'd bet it's successful in fewer than 1 in 10 cases. That goes at every level, which is why successful teams have abandoned it.

The team lacks a heart. Oh for a figure like "Boab" McCulloch. You could see the panic breaking out once the penalty was conceded, and it took an age, and 2 goals, to get back sufficient confidence to play the ball on the ground, by which time Timmy Wright's team had realised the big boot game was making these players uneasy. It doesn't help that Graham and Rudden are both constantly looking for a header: that just encourages the big boot up the park. It's not as if this team is very successful with headers, anyway, other than at set pieces.

Wingers are yesteryear's tactic. Tiffoney, like everyone else, doesn't score from the wing. Watch any top European side and you'll see the lengths they go to to avoid being pushed into those dead areas near the corners.

Apart from the medical/pandemic aspect, there might be an interesting comparison with the implicit agreement to be searched at the turnstiles. In Germany (where fans tend to be more boisterous than at Firhill, even at "lower" grades of football) you either agree to this or don't gain entry. AFAIK nobody has ever objected. (The police, who attend major matches, are armed, btw.) In much the same way as we generally carry fistfuls of cards - credit, driving licence, season ticket, etc. - but express shock and horror when someone suggests ID cards, is objecting to a vaccine record not the same emotive rather than rational response? (On a personal note, if I'm travelling to a country with tropical diseases, I ensure that I have a record of my vaccines with me, just in case it's useful for medical reference. That might be a potential employer, rather than a medical practitioner.)

This. (Out of likes.)

It's a bit unchancy to have comments on a game without any complaints: what's got into you all? Surely it's worth commenting that the team could and should have been ruthless: Graham's miss before an inviting goal set his teammates' efforts at naught, and various other attempts were made speculatively instead of punishing Greenock Morton. These can be important later in the season for goal difference.

At times, you wonder where players' heads are. On at least one occasion, a passback to Stone was aimed straight at the goal: if he'd slipped or the ball had bobbled, it could have resulted in a goal. Don't they know that a passback should be beyond the posts? Late on in the first half, in additional time, the players decided they had to work themselves back into the game just after losing a goal and passed it to and fro at the back - not a thought for game management: obviously, if you have a minute or two to go and have just lost a goal, the best thing to do is get the ball into the opposition penalty area. Was the loss of Docherty not just affecting midfield resilience but also leadership?

Without Docherty, our midfield melts away. A serious rethink is needed about whether Bannigan should be a starter, with his one-legged play and pirouetting. How many passes are these players completing to the opposition, as opposed to our own players?

Soft centre in midfield, and a goalkeeper whose confidence has gone.

Barely stringing passes together. Plenty of throw-ins and long balls giving away possession. Capped by a goalkeeper beaten at the near post. This needs a lot more effort from the midfield to sort it out.

In a rationally organised football league, you'd buy a kind of away viewing ticket which would allow you to view any single game on each day. The myth that football clubs are independent companies lives on, though, with its administrative disarray.

There are possibly saints among our numbers, but there are surely at least as many sinners. (If you prefer a cruder tone: "Vertrauen ist gut, Kontrolle ist besser." As said by a revolutionary who managed to die in his bed.)

Look on it from the other viewpoint: if season ticket holders are allowed free access to a live stream, they could conceivably allow others to make use of this access while attending the game. The only way to prevent this is to require individuals to apply separately. There is even the possibility of fans following a live stream in order to see replays of incidents while watching the game - something that would convert fans into viewers, and possibly make them less encouraging.

It looks as if ours are going to have to come off the bench too, in the form of the app. There doesn't even seem to be a way to get two seats for them: they're both on one phone. (I'll probably have to send one over as a cardboard cutout, i.e. a screen grab.) This really isn't an auspicious start to the league campaign.

Docherty replacing Bannigan completely changed the team - endeavour, tenacity and verve all reappeared in midfield. Satisfactory for Graham, of course, but Foster would probably prefer to forget this game, although for most of it he was reliable.

Our midfield is hardly in the game. Tiffoney is excellent, as usual, but Turner is lightweight in central midfield, while Bannigan trails behind play, barely uses his right foot and can't tackle. A really soft centre. All this emphasis on wing play is archaic. It took I don't know how many tries to cross from the right until one of the strikers (Graham) headed the ball into the net.

Does anyone have a defence they could sell us?

To be fair, his teammates seem to believe he's playing for another team and shouldn't be given any support. Of course, maybe they're saving their efforts for shoring up their ineffective defence or to make up for Bannigan's right foot.

Sorry to hear you have to go alone. Still, you can shout to your neighbours - oops, no, that isn't allowed either.

It would be simpler for the club to scrap its online approach altogether, hire a few temps for ticket sales by phone whenever needed (at a time of high unemployment, an easy solution) and get a business-oriented review of the whole ticketing and online setup. At the moment, it's struggling from one crisis to the next, e.g. ticket sales for single seats spaced out only, with no adjustment according to what's ordered online. It looks increasingly amateurish. Even the recently installed ticket sensors at the turnstiles were replaced by different ones.

AFAIK there isn't one: there is a Partick Thistle Events App - purpose unknown - and a Partick Thistle Official App, which is set up to show season tickets and, in theory, should be capable of being used to buy further tickets. It has icons called Shop, Events and Tickets - none of which seem to do anything. Oh, and buying tickets for seats together hasn't been thought of in devising a ticketing algorithm for online purchases. The club obviously doesn't approve of families sitting together, in case of Covid infection. ,' `. | \ | \ \ _ \ ,\ _ ,'-,/-)\ ( * \ \,' ,' ,'-) `._,) -',-') \/ ''/ ) / / / ,'-' Oh, and I should have mentioned that the resultant demands on the phone have led to the answering-machine solution.

The club's approach to its IT presence is in tune with the Bing management - stable construction removed, scaffolding rigged and the suspicion of gnomes hiding in the long grass.

While the defence seems too slow to get back, it doesn't help when, at the other end, everyone seems to think they must deliver the ball to Graham's head. As for midfield, keep Bannigan pivoting to get his kicking foot on the ball and you've snuffed out his passing.

Ah, that explains it. I thought I'd bought 4 but was charged £6. Mystery solved.

A fishing expedition, obviously.