Tom Hosie

The fixture, due to be played at Aberdeen WFC's home ground at Cove Rangers, was postponed by the league because of the storms that weekend. Aberdeen didn't have access to that venue for the re-arranged date hence the shift to Cormack Park and a 7:15pm kick-off due to, as I understand, a compliance to have the floodlights switched off by a certain time. My own personal view, and I must stress it's a personal view, is that while Cormack Park is a quite excellent training facility it isn't suitable for SWPL football. The pitch we played on was essentially a 4g cage with the dressing rooms the other side of a small car park. No elevated spectating facilities just a rail alongside one side of the pitch, no cover, only available toilet some distance from the pitch, no catering facilities for spectators, no PA so no team/sub announcements and no pitchside media facility, although post match it was excellent. I personally don't think it does the league's credibility, or the growth of the women’s game, any good to play any fixture at a venue like that. It would be like Thistle not being able to use Petershill Park and playing the game at Springburn Park. This is topflight football in the women's game in Scotland and last night's game an important one in terms of top six places. It was hopefully just a result of circumstances, It's hardly Aberdeen's fault that the original game was correctly postponed by the league, and won't be repeated. It was, however, the third time we've had a fixture with Aberdeen rescheduled to Cormack Park, so we''ve been unlucky in that regard.

Brilliant win tonight. Better side from first to last whistle with Aberdeen's goal very much against the run of play. There was only go to be one winner after Rosie Slater's wonderful equaliser. We shouldn't have had to go up to Aberdeen's training ground to fill a SWPL1 fixture but we bossed it tonight. Absolutely bossed it. Just five points behind the other mob from Petershill Park in third as well. There was pizza afterwards and it's a happy bus. Love this team.

It's only the final at Tynecastle. Semi-final with Hibs is a home game.

That "nothing more" would amount to an additional 20 games played at Firhill per season. On occasion 24 hours either side of a men's team fixture. You remember our previous ground sharing arrangements? A pitch needs recovery time. There's probably a reason why no women's team in the two divisions of the SWPL play any more than a handful of their home games at the 'main' stadium, for want of a better word, which has a grass pitch. Sunday's fixture was a special day for PTWFC. It was an opportunity to try and give the girls an opportunity to showcase their talent to a wider audience. Hence the free admission. Hopefully some that were seeing them for the first time will go and see them play at Petershill Park. Numbers watching them at the excellent facilities there have been growing steadily season on season. Personally I hope the Firhill fixture will become an annual thing, but finding the combination of an approriate slot and fixture to play there isn't easy. That's why we haven't played at Firhill since stepping up to the SWPL. Even the most basic of grasp of pitch maintenance should be sufficient to understand why PTWFC making Firhill their permanent home just isn't going to happen while it remains a grass surface.

The only flag that matters today. Brilliant 2-0 win at Hibs this afternoon. Up to fourth in the league.

Meantime to try and avoid this thread being completely hijacked, that was a really significant win today. It was consistentl winning this type of fixture last season that saw us finish top six. It will be by digging out wins like today's that will allow us to repeat that feat. The win demonstrated the girls' ability to dig in and grind out a win against decent opposition as wrll and showing the strength in depth within the squad.

'Interestingly both Aberdeen and Dundee United have stands named after people other than players/managers. I'm sure there are others. I'm comfortable with stands etc. being named after those that have made a significant contribution to a club, on or off the field. Not that it's something I give much thought to. It's a curious debate though to have at our club given how long it is since the Main Stand was renamed. While Colin Weir didn’t work hard to acquire his Euro millions win I don't doubt he was a hardworking man who provided for his family. He got lucky with the lottery win. The measure of an individual IMO is what they do with that wealth rather than how they acquired it. Partick Thistle were far from the only recipients of Colin Weir's generosity. You could argue that there are others that deserve the honour he received at our club as much, or more, than he did but to say he was honoured simply because he had a lottery win is a cheap shot.

Can't believe that anyone thinks that the change in management didn't bring us closer to promotion than had there be no change. If anything subsequent events are an argument that a change should have been made earlier.

I never said I did. Rational explaination. You are actually looking for something make sophisticated than club change well backed manager when failing in a promotion challenge with the financial implications of not going up? You mentioned PTWFC several times. I replied on a subject that I happen to know something about. You like rationale (sic) explanations. Perhaps you can explain then the value in axing something when the financial impact of doing so is negligible to the point of non existent? Finally, making the same point time and time again doesn't make more valid.

And you have no idea if there was a personal agenda no matter how often, or badly written, you suggest there is. You are absolutely a conspiracy theorist. Always have been. You revel in crisis and are rarely heard of otherwise. And btw seeing as you are clearly fishing, I'll bite. If PTWFC were binned as being "non essential" as suggested the impact on the Club's budget would be neglible to the point of non existent. And that I say with some knowledge.

I wondered why a thread about the Hearts game was still going. I now know. JJ has always enjoyed a good conspiracy theory. The Ibrox Rush, boy he's like a dog with a bone with that. FWIW I think annoucing the McCall sacking the evening of the Rangers game was an error. It could have kept a day, or even two, and made no significant difference. That there was some personal agenda against McCall though, a guy I've a lot of time for incidentally, is IMO, well wide of the mark. Football is ruthless. As much as I have a lot if time for McCall personally if it had been my responsibility to make the call (and thankfully these things never will be) I'd have made a change after the 3-0 defeat at Raith Rovers. Perhaps the turmoil at the Club at the time actually kept McCall in post. I wonder what would d have happened had Sneddon not headed an injury time winner at Cove? Anyway, I suspect the notion that there was any personal agenda, in resoinse to outside influences against McCall belongs firmly alongside the notion that 9/11 was an inside job. My guess, and we are all guessing, is the new board came in and saw that there was a massive financial crisis lying waiting to swallow the club up. One (only?) way to address/resolve that impending crisis was to win promotion. We were outside the play-offs, had just lost at home to Cove and Hamilton and the Board took the call that McCall could not win the club promotion. It's inconceivable to me that that decision wasn't made well in advance of Ibrox. The decent showing in defeat was immaterial. It was both a financial and football decision. To address the incoming financial crisis we had to win promotion. McCall wasn't going to achieve that therefore a change was required. I thought at the time the McCall out Doolan in, roll of the dice was a massive gamble. The dice came agonisingly close to rolling our way. From the outside I think the current Board are doing a fair job. Certainly those I know have my trust. Time, league positions and scrutiny of the accounts will determine if they are. Those of us that pretty much just see 90 minutes of football don't know what internal 'non essential', for want of a better phrase have phrase, cuts have been made in terms of internal restructuring. They certainly appear to have provided the manager with a more competitive budget than I suspected he might have ve able to spend. He'll live and die in football terms on how he spends it. That suggests that the Board have been doing anything but ignoring the finances of the football club and have addressed some not insignificant issues . I think this season will be challenging in many ways, both on and off the pitch, but we look to be headed in the right direction, boosted by a good three points yesterday that typically I missed.

I can answer the above. The Club weren't previously printing 2,000 copies. That's a crazy total for our home gates. Yesterday's print run was for a figure circa 25% higher than was on sale for the last two seasons it was sold to crowds. It didn't sell out then. Yesterday's programme was a sell out. The last two available copies I'm told went to Zander MacKenzie, who was the subject of our player interview. The programme is here to stay for the season ahead. Advertising has been sold for the season. There is the subscription service available via Curtis Sports which I'm told benefits the Club. I think I can speak for all associated with the programme when I say that we are really pleased with both sales of and response to the programme. It's been really positive all round. First one is notoriously difficult to put together and we were working to a really tight schedule which won't be the case moving forward. Yes there was an element of dipping our toes in the water yesterday. It gives us a really good idea of what works, what doesn't in terms of content etc. and gives us a good yardstick for future print runs. I'll be making a start on the QP programme later today. We go again (I've always wanted to say that!).

I think Curtis Sport did a great job getting this to subscribers today as the bloody thing didn't go to print until yesterday morning! That won't be as late in future, so subscribers should get their copy in plenty time. I don't know the answer to your first question unfortunately.

You can look forward to whatever you want but that description in absolutely no way matches the content of Saturday's programme.

It would only be an urban myth if anyone other than yourself was claiming that it was an option. The reported Conway/Lee takeover was catalyst for a chain reaction of events that ultimately took the Club down that route. A route with a fair few wrong turns and dead ends.

The finances didn't drive the changes. The extent of the financial difficulties only became known after the transfer of shares to the PTFC Trust and after the resignation of JL and the majority of the then Board. Your last sentence is a strange one. Who wouldn't? But that wasn't an option at the time of Conway/Lee. We had the choice of the status quo or something completly unknown. Something that deeply troubled me at the time and something that looks that we did well to avoid.

To repeat. Nobody is claimimg it was a plan.

Nobody is claiming that it was. It's clear though that the chain reaction of events, the ousting of JL and return of Beattie, the purchase of the club by Colin Weir and return of JL and the highly contentious process of transfering of the majority shareholding has taken us, indirectly, much closer to a fan ownership model . The events are intrinsically linked.

And yes what? The conversation is not about the management of the club prior to, and subsequent to, the reported interest of Conway/Lee but whether or not becoming associated with Conway/Lee was a bullet dodged. You seem to be suggesting that any change in ownership was prefable to the then status quo. A change in ownership can, of course, be a good thing and we absolutely should have been operating with an entirely more sustainable model, but it doesn't automatically follow that will be the case. That any change is automatically for the better was then, is now and will forever be a flawed, dangerous, argument. Had a Conway/Lee takeover happened you can be almost certain that we wouldn't be where we are right now. Working under extremely challening financial constraints but equally a more sustainable and stable football club.

The reported interest of Conway and Lee was the catalyst for a chain reaction of events that have taken us to where we are today. I don't think anyone is remotely claiming that it was a planned, strategic route that has taken us from there to the point we are at now. That's an utterly facile argument. Everything that has happened between Conway/Lee's reported interest and today is irrelevant when suggesting that we dodged a bullet in not getting involved with them. I guess it could be claimed to ultimately have been a good thing as it has, hopefully, lead indirectly to an altogether more sustainable, fan centric, ownership model.

Bit of a special day at Petershill today. Off the pitch it was free admission for all. The result? A crowd three times bigger than our last home gate. Really good atmosphere with flags and drums. On the pitch, we battered Aberdeen for the vast majority of that. Baffling that they got 2-0 up and you did wonder if it wasn't going to be our day. But, and just as a watching Kris Doolan correctly predicted, once the first came the rest would follow. And so they did. Will be watching the 3rd Aberdeen goal back very carefully. Three points away to Dundee United and a top six place will be ours. This less than 10 years after the team's formation. Exciting times.

My previous comment about multiple posts saying the same thing and being clearly not "lost for words" was made for a bit of levity but really, JJ, what does saying the same thing over and over really achieve? Tragetting promotion and a second place finish aren't mutually exclusive in any case. FWIW I think to have a realistic chance of promotion via the play-offs I really think you have to finish 2nd.

Having made multiple posts, albeit pretty much all saying the same thing, words clearly don't fail you. 😂