eljaggo

If that is true it's very late in the window to release a player. Maybe it means that the Club are freeing up some cash for an expected signing.

My impression watching Thistle over a 30 year period is that the team is at its best when it has strong, quick attacking midfielders, who have speed to go past an opponent - Erskine, Higgy at his best, and Lawless are recent examples. Many of the current problems rest with the slow pace of our play - too slow in making decisions, too slow in executing them, the passes are not hit hard enough, too slow in controlling the ball and the response from other players moving into gaps is too slow. The result, as we are witnessing when teams lie deep, is too many square passes, which are effectively passing the buck. One of the features of the Lambie era was that if a player lost a ball, he was responsible for retrieving it by tracking back. That does not happen now to the same extent, and has two consequences. First, it places extra pressure on defenders - and might explain your point AG about the 4 defenders on at the end on Friday. Second, passes out of defence are more cautious (or blutered 50 yards as per Friday) to avoid rapid counter attacks with little or no help from our midfield. As many have said it is largely about confidence, and for some reason, that is in short supply at the moment.

Fascinating article AG, with some strong arguments. However first of all it doesn't really compare how effective other tactics are to crossing, only how inefficient crossing is in terms of goals scored. Second the effectiveness of different tactics will change over time according to the players used, which may account for the reduction in crossing cited among particular teams in a 3 year period. Neither does it look at changes in the effectiveness of crossing during that period in the clubs named. These points may not be relevant of course, but the article overstates its case given the data cited.

True GRE. Do you know which ones have signed a pre-contract agreement apart from (allegedly) O'Donnell?

If that's the case, they have a strange way of showing it.

Probably points failure at Ibrox.

YEP!!!!!

Story was that the Lufwaffe came to bomb Paisley, but when they saw it they thought someone had beaten them to it - so bombed Clydebank instead.

This topic should be closed by the moderator. It is serving no useful purpose whatsoever.

Great performance all round - especially attack in first half and defence in second half. Everyone played their part, but I think Balatoni should have been given man of the match for the way he marshalled his young defenders - he hardly put a foot wrong. Stevenson has to play in an attacking midfield alongside quick players such as Lawless who can go past a man. The success of the first half was based on quick passes forward into space and not the usual slow sideways stuff. I'm sure Archie will have learned a lot from this match, and the success of Lindsay, McDaid and Keenan will take a bit of pressure off Archie during the transfer window by allowing him to be more selective in new signings now that he knows that the young players are so capable.

Somebody is bound to get fleeced then,

A neat idea Firhillista. However the problem arises first of all with the appearance of the hordes of Old Firm supporters who are prepared to pay full price to follow their team, and so PTFC and other clubs would lose out by reducing prices. Second, as someone has pointed out, away supporters are not particularly sensitive to admission prices, and so attendances would probably not increase sufficiently to compensate for the lower prices. You are nevertheless right to suggest that "something should be done", and perhaps the answer lies in acknowledging (as many clubs including PTFC have partially done) that pricing should differ according to who the opponents are. In other words, charge what the market will bear.

Did you notice how far back the tent with directors in it was from the shareholders at the Ibrox AGM? It must have been 30 metres, and too far to hurl anything but abuse at them and hope to hit the target.

30 percent of league goals conceded this season have come in the last 5 mins of games. That is not explained by describing the final shot on goal or the absence of key players as other posters suggest. Of course the defence has improved over last season, but it does not explain the disproportionate number of goals conceded at the very end of games. Something else is happening, and the Club needs to find the cause.

My point is a simple one. The defence has improved this season, Archie's tactical skill seem not to have improved, which has been a contributory factor in the number of late goals we have conceded. Hence my suggestion that he gets some help and advice in that area. Any other business would help their manager to plug gaps in his/her skills. Why not in football management?

Losing so many goals in the last few minutes of games cannot be put down to chance: it has to be a consequence of bad decisions made on and off the pitch by both players and management. The central defence has been improved hugely since last year (yesterday they looked very comfortable for 85 mins) yet this season (using The Cup's data above) we have lost 6 points before Christmas compared to 7 for the whole of last season. That suggests that Archie has to shoulder some responsibility for these late goals. He has many qualities, not least the ability to find players within his budget that have markedly improved the team (Taylor, Frans, Seaborne, Osman) where it has been weak. He does however have his blind spots like all of us, and these are undoubtedly the lack of tactical nous in the use of subs, especially in counteracting changes made by the opposition. Given all these late goals, he should by now be more proactive in using subs to defend leads for the last part of the match, No one in their right minds wants to see Archie replaced, but every manager throughout business gets training to improve their performance. Football managers should be no different, and yet are far as I can see, they receive none. Why can't he be given some guidance/training (John Lambie?) about tactics and the use of subs. There must be experienced retired managers about who could provide help for our young manager, and which would pay undoubted dividends. I cannot understand why the Club should sit back and do nothing to improve the performance of its key employee.

Higgy had a nightmare from the off and should have been subbed at half time. He is obviously protecting an injury given the number of tackles he pulled out from. Osman and Seaborne were outstanding and the defence looked comfortable until the last 15 minutes. Balatoni played reasonably well, and the deflection was very unlucky. Overall however the midfield squandered pass after pass. and Stevenson should never have been subbed - he was the only reliable target that could hold the ball up. Dundee probably deserved the draw.

Sympathy? Look it up in the dictionary - its between shit and syphilis.

Yeah possibly, but what have they to gain? They can't/won't bring in players in January, and a new manager would only add to the costs with no realistic improvement in the chances of gaining promotion.

BBC reports that McCoist will meet the Board on Wednesday. Ashley will probably have written off promotion this season, so will allow McCoist to continue to the end of the season, that being the cheapest option, while setting up a new manager at that point.

BBC now reporting that Rangers Board have rejected his resignation. May just be posturing.

Wouldn't argue with that list PT, but it assumes that Rangers will still be trading on January 7th, which will probably be down to Mike Ashley's Christmas generosity.

I see that Sports Direct have lost a legal case involving zero hours contracts, and the thought occurred to me that Ashley might want to put the Rangers manager and other non-playing staff on zero hours contracts as a way of saving money. Process would be: 1. Go into administration (again), 2. scrap employee contracts, 3. new zero hour employee contracts with newco. Makes perfect sense to me.

I believe football is played occasionally at Ibrox or whatever it is called now.

No repeats of Hamilton pleaseeeeeeeeee.