Fearchar

If Mitchell, for whatever reason, isn't up to scratch between the sticks, then the priority has to be a reliable goalkeer. A defence can be built to cope with a poor goalkeeper, but not an inconsistent one. Sneddon's slips eat at any confidence among defenders.

That was the most drookit game I've seen since we were playing Gretna.

Weren't we, though? I thought that was the point of bringing Robinson in - to give the other team a man advantage.

This may be more serious than any other event: if a player needed a medical check afterwards despite being given permission to carry on during the game, we could enter an era when any blow to the head results in immediately removing the player, even if there is no apparent injury according to the medical staff present.

The thing that has impressed me about Williams is his ability to steal the ball from opponents. Could he be the defensive midfielder that is needed? As a player used to defending, he might fulfil this role.

New owner bounce?

Yup. 2 goals conceded at the near post is poor for any goalkeeper.

Out of likes, but yes - we're facing at least two clubs with much bigger financial backing (one of them tonight's opposition), yet we're well in the running for a playoff position.

Poor from Sneddon and Milne, who left position repeatedly, giving room to RR again and again on their right wing.

Isn't calling them "Raith" like calling us "Partick"?

How can the same team manage to dominate in the first half and then give the ball away, stand well off their opponents, concede a goal and just about throw the game away in the second half. Was it something in the halftime drinks or talk?

On this form, it's difficult to see Milne gaining the left back position from Williams.

According to the BBC, we've had just 2 shots on target: shockingly wasteful when we've threatened in their box. Our defending is sloppy, too, allowing them far too much room to play.

Tbf, nobody wanting to understand a game should be in a dugout: the vision is too restricted. It's amazing that all managers don't watch from a higher vantage point and relay instructions to the dugout. (Phone, walkie-talkie, wifi, even a runner - why not?) Without modern communications, Brian Clough opted to sit in the stand.

A poor game, but at this level preparing for the predictable should surely be a must. It seems to be the Thistle way to leave set pieces to chance. I've lost count of the number of times throw-ins go straight to an opposing player. Williams played competently at right-back, but he was one of a long series of our players to do this. 🤡 Then there are the corners: luckily, this evening the ball broke repeatedly to our players, but aside from Sneddon's header, have we scored from the first touch of the ball after a corner? Do we have any players allocated the task of attacking the ball at corners? This is a team set up to use wingers crossing into the box, yet corners seem to be left in the lap of the gods, or to Graham's poaching skills.

It was evident at 89 minutes that Doolan had settled for a draw and used up all the subs possible to give lads the opportunity to play at Hampden. After the referee overruled his assistant, the latter might just as well have gone for an early bath. Putting players' pleas before your own assistant's view was bound to undermine the latter, and visibly affected him for the rest of the game.

Perhaps we should go all-out for a continental arrangement and appoint a Director of Football to hire and fire, leaving Doolan to coach the first team. It's clear that we have one or two gaps: an outright hard man that won't accept defeat and a defensive midfielder. (They could be the same person.)

Perhaps there is a lesson in this for the future: that the club (CEO?) should have mediators lined up to be used when (not if) such disagreements erupt. The local football club to my mother in Germany had a similar problem, when the Aufsichtsrat (a non-executive board) disagreed fundamentally with the executive and resigned en masse. Luckily, former board members stepped in to mediate, and the board resumed its position, with an agreement between the two factions. In a club owned jointly by many people, differences - even stark ones - are bound to arise, and it would seem worthwhile to prepare for such disputes so that they don't take on a life of their own to the detriment of everyone's aspirations for the club. Retaining professional mediators must surely be better than conflict in social media.

It's useful to know where to look for the ticket numbers: loudspeakers at the game may go unheard or announcements missed.

No football team attains consistent success without a sound defence - whatever the witterings of journos make out. Ours needs a lot of work. The central defence is adequate, but we have a right-back, albeit a stand-in, who will not make it there; a left back who has lost interest in the game since last season; and two goalkeepers who aren't prepared to put a firecracker under their defenders' backside when they make an error. (They need to take a lesson from Manuel Neuer, who shouted and screamed at his defence, cursing them all ends up when they let Brazil score against Germany; at the time, Germany was winning 7-0.) As for midfield: they have to be impressive to carry the passenger Bannigan (slow, still one-footed at the end of his career) AND cover their defence. No wonder Graham feels he has to come deep to help out. Lyon might at least offer support to attack, but Robinson and Alston also offer better options, at least coming forward. A mean, aggressive defensive midfielder or centre back should be the priority in the next window.

Zander is playing at right back.

0-2. Playing Banzo in midfield is like playing a man down. Meanwhile, we are in serious need of a goalkeeper who commands his area and tears into defenders that don't do their job.

Contrary to popular misconception, the German diet is not mostly composed of beer and Wurst: it's largely bread and cream - lashings of it, on everything, including salad.

Where is our b******d? We don't have a dominant player in midfield or among the centre backs, and one or other is essential for a winning team. The great Brian Clough put two in as centre backs. Where is the grit in our team?

Robinson was all but invisible.