Fearchar

If nothing else, I think it's hugely encouraging that McNamara was obviously watching the same game as us, and sees where things need to be put right. That hasn't been the impression I've gained from recent managers on all occasions.

This team has no heart (i.e. no effective captain): instead of playing football, they just responded to Rovers' long ball game in kind. We can go and see that kind of rubbish in Sunday league football - for free. Only in the closing stages did anyone seem to realise that playing the ball on the ground just might give us an advantage, but by that time the game had been lost. Surely McNamara should have torn a strip off them during the break and told them to play the ball on the ground.

So, to sum up: 1) Because the Jags Trust decided to abstain, the Trust is a "deid duck". 2) If the Jags Trust had voted to oppose the motion, it would have been savaging the current angelic board's progressive aims and abusing its position because it had no mandate from the majority or backing from a quorate meeting (according to people who haven't a scooby how many members the Trust has, or how many would form a quorum). Indeed, they have no intention of participating in forming any opinion, since they've rejected membership of the Trust. So the Jags Trust is a "deid duck". 3) If the Jags Trust had voted to support the motion it would have been ignoring the opinion of the vast majority of fans vast majority of commentators on this forum, setting obstacles in the path of the current board's progressive aims and abusing its position because it had no mandate from the majority/backing from a quorate meeting (according to people who haven't a scooby how many members the Trust has, or how many would form a quorum). Indeed, they have no intention of participating in forming any opinion, since they've rejected membership of the Trust. So the Jags Trust is a "deid duck". Who on earth would want to try to serve on the Jags Trust board or even write in defence of the Jags Trust, given this kind of unreasonable antipathy? Perhaps some commentators on here need to learn something about combining to influence events: if you don't participate (at the very least by paying a subscription), you don't get a vote nor do you have any right to have a say. You don't count, and that's your own choice. Those are the rules in a democratic society for any trade union, political party, pressure group or other legal body. If you expect anything else, you're just trying to sponge off others' commitment while contributing nothing - freeloading, in other words. Why not whinge about some other organisation you're not a member of? I suggest starting with - oh, I don't know, the Chinese Communist Party, or the Pentagon, or the Cats Protection League.

If our team keeps putting 5 goals past them, can you blame them?

The crowd seemed to be less of a mixture, i.e. it was mostly adult males. That may be a consideration for the future, too. If we regularly give out doings to visiting teams, visiting support numbers will drop, which makes encouraging a growth in home support numbers more important. Although it was warm, it was also very wet, and Friday nights in the winter will probably be even less inviting for anyone considering going out to see a game. This was the first game in a long time when I've seen the Jags threaten the opposition noticeably more on the right wing than on the left. Tommy Stewart is still too slow. A number of our goals are coming from rebounds because players (especially Elliott, Doolan and Erskine) are positioning themselves well to take those after the initial attempt on goal is blocked.

I agree.

Fox was left exposed on several occasions by our slow central defence. In order to survive in this division, we probably need one tall central defender whose task is to head the ball clear, but using two slow central defenders is costing us. Today Fox had to act as sweeper as well as goalkeeper on more than one occasion. The winning goal was scored because he was being manhandled in the box (after which the ball broke). Certainly, the officials should stop that immediately, but today they weren't interested: so the central defenders should have been protecting him. Exactly. Corners and free kicks into the box from him today didn't even look like reaching one of our players, let alone providing a scoring opportunity. Admittedly, Sinclair had been assaulted earlier on, but surely he could have been deputed the task of taking one or two corners, if only to change things round a bit. The linesman on our side wasn't keeping up with play at all. Many instances of offside weren't given, and as for the assault on Sinclair, it's astonishing that it didn't result in a straight red card. Exactly, but Fox's "errors" only arise when he has slow central defenders in front of him.

Poor play in general. Second to the ball for most of the game. Failing to close down players with the ball, allowing them to spray around long passes and catch our slow defence on the hop. Failing to defend high balls into the box, in particular, led to this becoming the preferred option for County. Among other penalty-box incidents, this led to the handball which won County a penalty. Erskine saved a point for us, and it was a joy to see the obvious pleasure he took in scoring. (If his shot had not been handled in the box previous to that, he would have scored earlier.) He is the only player who is creative enough to turn a game for us in midfield. Hutton was anonymous, and added another defensive midfielder to Rowson and Cairney, to no great effect. Stewart was incapable of seeing where to position himself: at one point he checked himself as the play went past him - among the other Jags players. Either he needs to be trained to position himself, or he needs to be dropped. Against ten men, we just scraped a draw. Oh, dear!

Arguments about the past are irrelevant when we're discussing now and the future. Is Archie effective now? The goals scored by opposing sides getting past our central defenders, and the way in which both fullbacks have to come back to cover suggest that this is not the case. Jackie McNamara is in a difficult position, but he should be backed to do what's necessary for the team. That may include slaughtering some sacred cows.

None of the lad who did the halftime draw? Shame on you!

My apologies: the glass darkened before the end of the game, so that I didn't see the Thistle winner.

I can't agree: Archie should have been hooked early on: he had a complete 'mare out there, and spread his indecision to Balatoni and Fox. Elliot is good, but he needs to sharpen up on his decision-making: he tried a shot when defenders were putting him under pressure, instead of passing to Robertson, who would have had a free shot on goal. The game was a punt-fest, perhaps because Queens are poor, or perhaps because they spotted early on how vulnerable our central defence looked whenever a high ball came over - slow to pick up forwards, to turn and to track back, as well as incapable of dealing with the ball behind them. Fox was put on the spot on numerous occasions as defenders passed the ball back, so that all he could do was punt it up the park to nobody in particular. Today both Paton and Sinclair were called on to cover for the central defence. How long can such woeful performances in central defence be tolerated? We were very lucky not to have a penalty awarded against us, but a penalty at the other end would have been soft. Well done, both fullbacks and Paul Cairney - and Kris Doolan for his positioning, which got the first goal. It looks as if Cairney and Sinclair are developing an interesting partnership, since they complement each other in many ways. Once he came on, Erskine was keen to make a mark, and he created problems as well as having a shot.

Rain. 1-1 and a stonewall penalty for QoS turned down.

I'm relieved: Willie is slow, ungainly, needs a big turning circle and frequently commits fouls in the penalty box. He's also paired with another slow centre-back who will never be dropped. As a result, the central defence is the current team's biggest weakness, and it has resulted in us conceding 9 goals already this season despite having one of the best goalkeepers in the division. Our young, inexperienced left-back is being forced to sweep up behind the centre backs, even on the right, when they're caught out of position. As if that's not enough, when the defence does try to spring the offside trap, oor Wullie is too slow and plays them onside. Willie Kinniburgh has one useful ability - snapping up high balls punted down the middle. However, even at that he has not been so successful this season. Maybe his injury has affected his ability to play, but in any case the last thing we want to see is him coming back too early.

If you're a joiner, you learn to use both power tools and hand tools. If you're a print journalist, you learn to type using all your fingers. If you're a footballer, you learn to control the ball with both feet - unless you come from the nadir of traditional footballing nations, where it's considered acceptable not to try to become a competent, rounded player. (We're not talking about talent here - simply gaining competence in the basics.) If Scott Fox can do it, then so can any outfield player. If a defender favours his good foot and only tackles using one leg, it's easy for an opponent to figure out which side to go by. No prizes for guessing which side to take offensive play past Paul Paton. In this instance, the favoured leg was used, but it couldn't quite reach far enough: so Willy K tried to pretend he was the alternative goalkeeper instead - 00:32 at http://www.ptfc.co.uk/media/video/match_highlights/2011-2012/1308_falkirk We could so easily have been down to ten men then, and nobody would have had any reason for complaint. A defending player (in this case, Flannigan) can try to avoid using the leg next to the attacking player, of course, like here, at 04:02 in: http://www.ptfc.co.uk/media/video/match_highlights/2011-2012/3007_berwick_rangers See what that led to! Here, Balatoni puts out his favoured leg, at 00:56, and some referees would have given a penalty. Fox thought it was (another) one: http://www.ptfc.co.uk/media/video/match_highlights/2011-2012/2008_hamilton_academical Plenty of scary stuff in defence, but, as Mr Bunny pointed out, how many chances are lost when attacking, as a player dithers and tries to get the ball to his "better" foot? If you're a professional footballer and you don't see that it's necessary to practise regularly with your weaker foot, your footballing career is limited to Scotland and a handful of other minor outposts of darkness.

Not to mention people moaning about moaning - and staying up until after 2.00 am to do so.

If he's too fat, then Aaron Sinclair is too thin. Surely body shape is less important than what a player can do on the park. There may, of course, be other issues such as diet or timekeeping. At any rate, I agree that such a sturdily-built, direct young man could be a good foil for the lightly-built Doolan.

All good points. If you keep doing the same, you'll keep getting the same results, and it looks as if McNamara is learning this the hard way, to the cost of the club. One of the things that really impressed me about McCall when he first took over was that he had no favourites and he was prepared to ditch players if he thought he had overestimated their effectiveness. In particular, he obviously assumed from the start that the then captain Jimmy Gibson had what it took; once McCall saw that wasn't the case, it wasn't long before Gibson became an ex-Thistle player. To be blunt, I'd like to see McNamara taking a similarly dispassionate view of the current captain, Archie, who is too slow on the pitch and too reticent as a captain. Any leader, including the manager of a football club, needs to be able to shake off sentimental attachments to personnel if he's to succeed.

I suggested moving Sinclair to centre back, so that Lindsay, who appears to be a competent left back and has played at a higher level, could come into the team. Sinclair has the ability and the pace which our current centre back pairing doesn't. (In practice, it happened by default against Falkirk: at one point, Sinclair had to cover at the right of the centre backs' zone because the actual centre backs were caught out.) The suggestion arose out of watching what happens. I only hope that McNamara is doing the same.

Buy out PropCo and the debt, and then keep them to ensure - well, you know. I can safely say this since the only lottery, raffle or anything else that I win is the Centenary Fund - and there are only so many signed footballs I want to have kicking around the house.

Surely your ladyship isn't suggesting that some player down south has to be better just because he's foreign and didn't come from the Juniors like Doolan?

The second Falkirk goal came from a free header in the box, and for the whole game the two centre backs had no clue how to deal with the pace of their opponents, unless it was with an offside trap - which is a very risky strategy. Kinniburgh won very few balls in the air - the one part of the game at which he is very adept. At one point Sinclair had to sweep up after him on the right. There's no indication that as a captain Archie is giving this team the grit it needs, and, as a defender, every opponent he came up against outside the box was pushed. Maybe it's time for him to look for a new career. The current centre backs aren't doing the business, but we have alternatives. Here's a radical suggestion: put Sinclair in at left centre back and Lindsay at left back, and draft Balatoni in at right centre back so that there's enough muscle in the centre. Here's a non-radical suggestion: get all strikers and midfielders practising shooting daily, including from the penalty spot. (Scott Fox could do with the practice in saving them, anyway.) Before the game started, all and sundry were practising shooting - and they were almost all off target. For good measure, get one day a week where all players who favour one foot have to play using only their poorer foot - passing, shooting, dead balls and the time-honoured favourite of kicking a ball off a wall. Ensure that players who can make the grade with both feet don't have to come in that day. That should give some incentive. If we have too many hard-luck stories in a row, then the message the world is giving is that existing problems are not being dealt with. They won't go away until something changes. The typical change in football is the manager, but ours is still learning and he may be willing to learn from the experience.

Well, we can see where some of the 94p in the £ was spent, anyway. Dundee FC really epitomise so much of what's wrong with Scottish football - not just the tedious long-ball game and the lumbering, physical centre-backs, but the succession of professional fouls. It would be inconceivable at any level of the game in Germany, that when a professional athlete is brought down and left lying in the penalty box, the game is neither stopped nor anyone penalised. It would not be allowed to happen there that a player (Erskine) outran another and took possession of the ball cleanly, only to be penalised for his effort. Erskine, Sinclair and Doolan will all have a fair few bruises after today's outing, I'm sure. Unfortunately, we're looking at a game that's losing paying customers because it rewards both financial profligacy and on-field physicality - it's a return on and off the park to the origins of the game in the 19th century. Scunnered with that display, but there are two lessons to be learned: it's pointless hoping for officials to get things right, and our shooting needs some serious practice if it's to result in goals.

SFL football is shown to some extent on BBC ALBA, the digital Gaelic-language channel, which is now available on Freeview channel 8. This means that, apart from the option of your telly, some SFL matches can be viewed on the BBC iPlayer. (In general, because the channel's budget only stretches to commissioning one production company to cover SFL football, you won't get the extensive roundup of highlights such as you get on other channels for the SPL.) BBC ALBA is no longer the main sponsor of the Challenge Cup (hence the change of name), but it is still involved in that competition. There are more details here, although the content is in Gaelic: http://www.bbc.co.uk/alba/ A useful glossary: football = ball-coise TV = TBh BBC iPlayer = well, you've got the idea by now, I think. You can apparently use the BBC Vocab switch to see English translations, if you really feel you need it. Alternatively, just watch a bit and pick up the football vocabulary as you go along, or even enrol for Gaelic classes if you're keen.