laukat

Not sure I understand the comments about turnstiles being a contributing factor. The queues weren't at the turnstiles they were at the ticketing booth. It took me 25 minutes to get a ticket but only a couple of minutes from then to get through the turnstiles to a seat. Only issue with the Hamilton fans was they also couldn't buy a ticket and the nearest window on the ticket booth wouldn't sell them tickets as it was only open to deal with issues when using the tickets. That led to a lot of annoyed Hamilton fans then trying to cut into the lines of mainly Thistle fans. I watched as one Hamilton fan tried to get through the turnstiles and pay with cash only to get trapped and then ejected by security. If we're going to promote online ticket purchases then it needs to allow purchases to nearer kickoff time.

Don't know for definite but in my case I would have bought my ticket via the website but that closed way before kick off. I assumed that meant people like me then all went to the ticket office and it couldn't keep up with the volume. I saw Gerry Britton appear just before 3pm and head into the ticket booth. There was at least one other window in the ticket booth they could have opened and they had the personnel to man it so I am assuming there was some other bottleneck in the ticket booth. I didn't get into the ground until around 3.15 and there were hundred behind me. Don't understand why kick off wasn't delayed

Today was one of those day where despite everyone's efforts and best intentions nothing really clicked into place. Ticket purchasing arrangements were a shambles and I missed the first 15 minutes waiting at the booking office because the website stopped selling tickets around 2pm First half we were doing ok but when we had an overlapping player we kept selecting not to use him. Turner was in acres of space on the right wing 3 or 4 times and McMillan wanted to go left or go long through the middle. Second half again seemed to fall into the same pattern of not moving the ball quickly enough to the man in space. We did look much better with Brownlie at centre half and McMillan at rightback. Milne and Fitzpatrick never really figured out how to create 2 v1 situations and the crossing from either side was non existant in the first half. When McMilland Fitzpatrick linked up on the rightside it was much better. Similarly on the left Tiffoney and Milne were starting to cause real problems. Hamilton never looked like scoring and the goal they did get was mainly a freak but I think Mitchell could do better and Holt wasn't shy in telling him what he thought. Frustrating not to win today but that was the sort of game we were losing last season. Really need to start next week with 2 central defenders even if Brownlie can't finish the game

I'm interested to see how Tiffoney responds with competition for spaces. Hard to drop Lawless or Fitzpatrick for the Hamilton game when they both scored against Dundee. You could also add that their interplay with Graham is integral to the 3rd goal. Whilst Fitzpatrick isn't slow neither he or Lawless have the ability to run with the ball at pace or go past opponents like Tiffoney does so you would hope that when he gets a start he steps it up a level. What a difference from last season when the answer to not having a fit Tiffoney was to play an unfit Tiffoney. With Weston pushing for a place we have a lot of options compared to any time in the last 3 seasons.

One of the other yellow card offences that's relatively new is "simulation". From what I recall of Gary Linker I think he may well of had his name taken for that on one or two occasions. If not his behaviour against Cameroon in the 1990 world cup was at the very least ungentlemanly conduct and clearly a foul.

Its an interesting table but surely Bannigan and Archibald being near the top is in the main because they played a lot of games for us in the modern era? As an average of games played they picking up 1 booking for every 4/5 games played. When you look at the bookings for the midfielders and defenders in the list a booking every 4 games seems par for the course. However someone like Darren Brady was getting booked more than once in every 2 games played so is he the true bad boy or just truly a bad player? To my mind the rules of football changes massively in the late 80's/ early 90's that comparing players disciplinary records is impossible. An example of this is the 1970 FA Cup Final dubbed the most brutal game in English football on the day the referee gave out 1 yellow card but re-refereed by a relatively modern referee who reckons he would have issued 6 reds. 1970 FA Cup final: The most brutal game in English football history - BBC Sport

The problem as I see it with Thistle is we don't tend to last much longer than 5 seasons in the premier before suffering relegation. To my mind if we want to win a cup or get European competition then survival in the in the top league for a long duration is key. Clubs of similar size such as St Johnstone and Motherwell have been in the top flight for a lot longer and we should really ask ourselves why we haven't been able to emulate that. St Johnstone have similar or lesser crowds to us and the days of Geoff Brown bankrolling them are long gone. I don't see any real youth system that's providing significant numbers of players to the first team to reduce costs. Motherwell arguably get slightly larger attendances but not enough to make a difference that equates to them being in the top flight for nearly 40 years. Their youth system has had a few finds but not a lot in recent years and now they are fan owned they have to live within their means. Every time we have been promoted in the last 50 years we have been relegated as soon as the manager who won us promotion left or in our last trip to the top league because we didn't change our manager when the writing was on the wall. That suggests that our succession planning, process for replacing and evaluation of loyalty versus results for managers is still too unreliable. If you are looking for belief that we might change that then I can offer one thought. Last time McCall was manager the subsequent 2 managers were players under him with both being integral to promotion back to the premier league. The current squad McCall has shows similar signs with Graham a potential manager, Docherty getting involved in coaching as well as Scally and Archibald still being young enough to be involved well into the future.

If Akinola and Muirhead are out the defence is pretty much going to pick itself for Saturday. I assume Smith was taken off on Saturday as he too had a knock and Tiffoney won't be risked unless 100% so thinking we will start with the following Sneddon McMillan-Brownlie-Holt-Milne Docherty-Bannigan Lawless - Turner - Fitzpatrick Graham Mitchell looks decent but Sneddon hasn't made a mistake that should say he should lose his place.

We struggled to get going until Smith was subbed. Smith wasn't having a bad game but Fitzpatrick was anonymous on the right side and struggling to get in the right defensive position. Once Lawless came on and Fitzpatrick moved to the other wing we instantly looked a more balanced and incisive team. Lawless is still a very intelligent and clever footballer. Fitzpatrick looked better second half but I can't see him being selected ahead of Tiffoney on the left so he's going to have to find a way of playing on the right or make do with being a sub. Brownlie and Holt were solid at the back but had little to do. Holts freekick was a beauty. Mitchell had a couple of really goods saves and will be annoyed at conceding two because of errors in front of him. Docherty was good and noticeable we lacked a bit of organisation in midfield he went off. Mackinnon was decent but nothing spectacular. Bannigan had a game to forget and misplaced a few paces one of which led to Montrose's opener. Right now our best 3 midfielders are Docherty, Turner and Mackinnon. Up front Graham, Dowds and Mullen did ok and each had at least chance with Mullen's being unmissable. Weston looked very lively and surprisingly effective as a winger however he did have a tendency to lose the ball and not get in a defensive position quick enough. I thought McMillan was unlucky not to be man of the match. His first half display was very good however Milne looks something special. In the second half the balls he was putting across goal were stunning and if I was McCall I would have been asking questions of why my striker wasn't on the end of it. Milne's nutmeg on the Montrose defender was lovely and the sign of a guy enjoying his football. Genuinely excited to see how Tiffoney and Milne combine on the left side this year. All in all a comfortable win but we need to move up a few gears and cut out some sloppiness in midfield.

Was that not against Airdrie who were our main challengers for promotion and had a certain Ian McCall in their dugout? One of the best and to my mind under appreciated goalkeepers we had at Firhill was Nicky Walker. When he arrived it looked like his career was on the slide. If I remember correctly it was a swap deal with Hearts that involved Walker and Wayne Foster heading to us with Craig Nelson going to Edinburgh. It turned out to be an inspired bit of transfer business by Lambie. Both were key to us staying in the league with Walker going on to resurrect his career with a move to Aberdeen and a return to the Scotland squad.

Don't think he's a prolific goal scorer but he is most definitely a striker with decent experience and a different option to Graham or Dowds. When you look at the amount of clubs in our league looking for a striker and the complete lack of the names getting banded about Mullen does look at the top end of what we could reasonably expect. When you compare last season (Graham, Rudden and McIver) with this season (Graham, Dowds, Mullen and Weston) we have definitely added depth and increased the average quality of our striker options.

I was wondering if that's part of the reason why we are holding off signing another striker. An extra £50k would make a huge difference in who we could attract. Might even be enough to bring in another player if we got a draw that meant more tv money and/or a sizeable attendance

Is it no just a right footed player trying to be clever with his left foot and completely misjudging it?

He was playing right side. I don't think I've seen Akinola play on the left side but its noticeable that Mayo and Brownlie would be both be asked to play out of position rather than Akinola. His passing and nervousness on the ball is the biggest problem in his game. To my mind his sending off against Airdrie in the cup seemed to really effect him and then having to play on such a poor surface for the remainder of the season has meant his confidence on the ball has never fully returned.

There have been some good loans over the years. Colin West and Billy Dodds sometimes get forgotten about because they came in at a time when we were really struggling but their goal scoring exploits saved us from relegation under Derek Johnstone and Billy Lamont. However perhaps the most influential loan move was Gerry Collins loan from Hamilton. I'm sure I heard that when he went back to Hamilton he raved about the club and was a big influence in John Lambie deciding to takeover at Firhill?