eljaggo

First match - 20th April 1977 away at Kilmarnock. Thistle won 3-1, so it's almost exactly 40 years since I started watching the team. My memory of the match is the banter from the Thistle fans. My mother's family from Glasgow were all Rangers supporters, and they used to joke about the Jags, so I thought that working near Kilmarnock at the time gave me the chance to check them out. One of my better decisions.

What a great season, and for me the best part about it is the continuing improvement as the season has progressed. The club should now be much more stable both financially and in footballing terms than they have ever been since I started supporting them over 40 years ago.

Recovering from op. so can't make the game today. I'm a bit surprised that some don't give the result the importance it deserves, given that a top 6 finish secured today will allow the manager more time to plan for next season with the extra income that comes with that. Not sure how much that might be, but I'm sure someone on here has done the sums.

Aye, right.

What arrogance! He thinks that every Scottish team's function in life is to make it easier for both cheeks to compete more easily in Europe: No more lengthy qualifying rounds before meeting something approaching a half decent side and getting hammered. Scottish football is in a dreadful state if it allows this sort of attitude to prevail.

Sevco's new manager Caixinha claims in today's press that " Celtic and Scottish football want Rangers to be strong" What planet is he from? He is yet to meet King apparently, who has been naughty again to the tune of £10m. This comedy will run and run.

DNB? Did not bat?

Great result: Maybe, just maybe, we can start to look up the table and not down the table.

I stand corrected (unless it is a 3 year rolling contract)

I might be wrong, but isn't Archie's contract a rolling one (maybe 6 months), so it might cost less than you think to lure him away from Firhill.

True - but they're still boring.

Would be very surprised if St Johnstone asked or allowed Wright to leave: They know exactly what to expect from Wright - boring, predictable, mid table safety, and he provides it year in year out. If they wanted something different, they would have tried it a good while ago

It's only a matter of time before reports of him being seen in Maryhill are posted.

The BBC Final Score programme didn't even have the Scottish Cup scores other than goal updates on the "teleprinter". Maybe the Tories are right about the BBC (law of averages?)

That was my first thought when I heard the news. But then I thought that with King half promising more money to the Club, Rangers may go for a big name manager. Lets hope so.

My Reading supporting pal has not seen Keown play - he has only appeared once on the bench as far as he knows - but he has heard good reports about him playing in the reserves.

Our players looked knackered towards the end, and began to make mistake after mistake - especially in midfield, which put the whole team on the back foot. By contrast, Killie seemed much quicker and won most of the 50:50 balls towards the end as our players' reaction times slowed. I know the conditions were dire, but it was the same for both teams (although the wind favoured the side playing to the North Stand). Maybe, given the number of goals shipped towards the end of matches, there is a question mark over our fitness levels.

"You guys need to get a reality check. We have a low budget, we usually punch above our weight. Yes we could have taken the points today, but such things make us stronger." Problem is, Sandy, they don't.

Jags fans may be as likely to trash the bogs as Sevco fans after that performance!!

Saw the game on TV. The defence made mistakes, but the main problem continues to be in midfield, where ball after ball was lost by poor passing or dwelling too long on the ball and losing it, so that Rangers were then in control of the midfield. By comparison, Rangers lost far fewer balls in midfield, and it was only the combination of their poor strikers and our defence that kept the score down. Rangers looked a far fitter side, and I wonder whether the spate of last minute conceded goals is at least partly down to our fitness levels. Rangers were not a good side, but mentally they were much tougher than us throughout the game, and that is something that you don't need cash to instill. Its about the level of expectation put on players - Thistle have always seemed to have been content with second best, and that must feed down to the players, even on a one to one basis on the pitch. Rangers expect to win games, leagues and cups and their players respond to that. Maybe we need a real tough nut as part of the management team to act as a foil to Archibald/Paterson - good cop - bad cop. I've never seen Archibald or Paterson animated in the slightest during a game. There is a place for calmness, but it isn't the whole answer during a game. The amount of games lost in the last few minutes has now reached a critical level, with sides knowing that late pressure will pay off. I don't pretend to know what the answer is, but surely has to involve a stick rather than a carrot.

One of John Lambies' doos shat on a cousin of mine who used to date the girl friend of a man who taught Dick Campbell how to put up soffits and guttering, and who, realising that Campbell would never make a competent tradesman, introduced him to football management and has regretted it ever since.

Do the rules forbid players to lift team mates as per rubgy line-outs? If not, that might prove useful for corners, and for free kicks and long throw-ins into the box. Nothing else we do seems to work.

Saw the highlights on BBC Alba. What a performance - not a single failure and again Barton was the outsdanding player on the pitch. He was confident enough in himself and his team mates to go forward with the ball, and that confidence spread to the rest of the team. Welsh, Edwards, Amoo and later Erskine all ran directly at opponents, which made a workmanlike St Johnstone team look pedestrian. That confidence and skill in defence and midfield makes the strikers' job so much easier, and should make the rest of the season something to really enjoy.

Playing 3 at the back with Barton in the centre seemed to work well until the injury to Lindsay, and assuming he recovers quickly, should stand us well. I think of greater concern was the complete lack of any attacking nous - I saw no shots on target yesterday from open play. Unless we start scoring more goals, the evident lack of confidence among defenders will continue to result in lying deeper and deeper at the end of games and the shipping of more late goals. The source of our problems lie in the attack not the defence.

The continuing problem of conceding late goals cannot, after all this time, be put down to tiredness/lack of fitness. If it was, I presume someone, somewhere in the club would have the gumption to sort the problem, given that it has lasted for at least 3 seasons. If not, we have the wrong manager. I suspect that the problem is linked to the captaincy, and in particular the lack of leadership on the field. In the matches I've seen, it is by no means obvious who the captain is. There are no shouted instructions, no gesticulations or remonstrations, no fingers pointing to where the ball should be passed to. We need a stronger captain who will kick arses hard and repeatedly during the game.