eljaggo

First game this season. What a disappointment! The whole team lacks pace - they are slow to think, slow to move into spce, slow to pass and the passes lack the pace on the ball needed to pressurise the opposition. The players are also slow to react to thier own mistakes, and towards the end, heads were down and they were clearly knackererd.

Yep LIB, it was the QOSB regiment he was in, and I have to come clean and say that it was a bounce game between the squaddies and my school's army cadet force. Surprisingly the squaddies won. My only recollection is trying to tackle White, and before I had worked out what foot to use he was past me.

Frem the BBC website "The SPFL warned clubs to guard against online fraud in August after Annan failed to receive an £18,000 payment from the league at the end of last season. The funds had instead been paid into a fraudulent account and police launched an investigation after the money was retrieved." Not sure where culpability lies - league, bank or club. Presumably other clubs may have been affected, but you would expect that they would have spotted any shortfall by now.

My only footballing claim to fame was playing against John White, while he was doing his national service at Berwick upon Tweed. Unbelievably quick.

I too would like to see a root and branch review and subsequent reform of Scottish football, but I very much doubt whether the search for a new manager will be the trigger to set that in motion. The only hope for change would be if they managed to attract a really top-flight international manager who had sufficient leverage to demand changes as a condition to accepting the job. The chance of Scotland attracting such a person is vanishingly small, and I think we will end up with the status quo in terms of coaching and league structure, with SFA talking up another manager that their limited budget can afford. The split in responsibilty (I use that word loosely) between the leagues and the SFA is a huge impediment to change, and the Henry McLeish review was an opportunity wasted (perhaps the choice of Macleish was a way of limiting expectations of radical change). We have become a poor footballing nation, and nothing will fundamentally change unless the Old Firm's grip is removed. Why the chairmen of the rest of the clubs cannot grow the cojones to sort this out is beyond me.

With Strachan now gone, the BBC have O'Neill as the favorite to succeed him, but with some difficulties for the SFA to sort out regarding compensation and salary. A possible risk to Thistle is that the SFA won't pay for a top quality manager with international credentials, and instead recruit a club manager, and that starts a domino effect that sees Archibald move.

All the more reason why we should have something similar that provides transparency and fairness.

I think though that clubs can ask the citing officer to review the incident(s). I'm sure you're right on the detail, but the process and arrangement is light years ahead of what we have in Scottish football, and gives an avenue by which redress is available and mistakes are corrected.

Rugby teams can "cite" an opposing player retrospectively within a certain period for foul or dangerous play that has gone unpunished, and a league or international panel reviews available TV footage and can ban the offending player. There are issues about who should be on the panel if such a system was used in Scottish football. However over time the evidence iwould be difficult to ignore especially since it would be given a higher profile, and should result in less bias and better refereeing decisons - if the authorities take a more active approach to managing their referees.

Don't get cocky pal, I think you peaked too early.

I can't believe I am bottom of the league - I demand a recount. Relegation looms. 3 7 16 22 (but hope I'm wrong) 29 31

Really sad news. I hope he makes a speedy and full recovery.

There was contact but not with the raised foot. The contact as far as I could see was with the hip, was only glancing, and Erskine never touched the shin that the Sevco player grabbed to feign injury. High time that referees and their equally usless assistants are subjected to a much more rigorous appraisal, and more severe penalties imposed retrospectively for players that cheat and referees and their assistants who are found to be incompetent.

Was never all that struck on the black and white strip.

To be fair Bryza, it wasn't their strongest team either. But you're right about progress, and the last two performaces should give the team some encouragement and confidence for league matches against lower ranked teams.

Aye, jings crivens as well!!

Too easy to be pleased with a draw - should probably have won but for that stupid sending off. Settling for a draw just sums us up, when a bit more nous and level headedness would have won it.

We never make it easy for ourselves - playing really well - SEVCO forced to make changes- then we gift them a sending off. ******* stupid.

I just hope that Archie starts with a positive team selection, and that he responds more quickly than usual with substitutions. I think pace of movement, passing and effort are the key to winning.

You really have to compare the number lost in the last 10 mins to the total goals lost. I suspect that would show a different picture.

How about a good cop (Archie) bad cop (Shaggy) approach to player management?

What is probably going on in their minds is that I don't want to make a mistake. Therefore I will make a safe, square pass that absolves me of responsibility and passes the buck to someone else. This is repeated ad nauseum until lack of skill gives the ball away, by which time the oppo have got themselves set up nicely. Players have to take on more responsibility and we badly need someone on the pitch who will make sure that happens.

I agree Thistlebright. In the games I have seen where late goals have been conceded, the players did look tired, played deeper and were a bit slow to react. I also thought that there was no-one on the pitch who was giving any/enough encouragement and was mustering the troops. Sorry to bang on a bit about this subject, but it sticks out like a sore thumb. I can't see any reason why the squad should not have reached full match fitness by this stage of the season - other teams seem to have managed it.

There has to be an identifiable reason why we lose so many late goals: The extremely high proportion of late goals compared to total goals conceded cannot be a matter of chance! I don't know what the reason is, but the Club has to make a much more determined effort to sort the problem. It may be in the minds of the players, or it may be in the team set up, or the need to make more intelligent substitutions late in games. This cannot be allowed to continue - its been going on for far too long.

We could do with another goal for the reason we all know!