mgow

Head and Heart are falling out big style on this. In the end, I have applied TTIL (Thistle Theorem of Inverse Logic). Even so, it still pains me to type: Lose.

That was me paying £1 cash about 5 mins ago. Thanks mgow

I'm in!

Could I have 2 please?

In a game full of memorable moments: Barton's tackle in 2nd half that literally broke the ball.

No, you saw him on the pitch. ;-) Thankfully his contribution as manager was massively better than his 3 (I think) appearances.

Excellent, thanks Phil. Jagman already installed as favourite though. Unless the comp turns out to be predicting what I am having for dinner one week next March, when he drops to joint favourite. ;-)

A belated congratulations to Jagman, a worthy winner who led from more or less the start. Thanks also to BowenBoys who not only put some additional interest into Euro16, but he also (by the outside chance of owning Doolan's boots) got both mgow juniors interested in what their old man was up to, so much so they also provided the majority of my best predictions!

I am in for Erskine's away top. Thanks.

Slightly embarrassed but as a kid there was an old guy called Tom who lived in our street. My dad knew him to talk to and he mentioned to Tom that we were Thistle fans (for long and complex reasons, mostly girls & specifically my mum, my dad didn't attend games in the 60s). Tom said he used to play for Thistle but in those pre-Internet and official history days, I had never heard of him. Shame on me! It was a Thistle hot bed round our way as Joe Craig briefly lived over the road too. I mention it to his son Steven once at Firhill and he looked at me blankly. Then unreleased to my horror it was before Steven was even born. Felt old.

Oddly enough, I was thinking about 1990 WC too. Uruguay scored an injury time winner over South Korea to nick the last qualification spot as 4th best of third place teams. Otherwise, Scotland & Austria were in a dead heat for that and suspect it would have meant drawing lots. I have a very vivid memory of one game finishing and the TV station flipping to the Uruguay game at 0-0 in injury time. I had just finished telling everyone that if it remained the same Scotland weren't out, and 10 seconds later they scored and we were out! On the same day, RoI & Netherlands played out a draw and they both went through. Had there been a winner, Scotland were also back in the hunt and there could even have been a 3 way dead heat for the last spot. In 1986 WC, Bulgaria & Uruguay got through in third with 2 points (2 draws), edging out Hungary on goal difference (they had one win but was only worth 2 points back then). As the SPL can tell you, convoluted tournament structures can lead to farcical issues sometimes.

Pretty much guaranteed that next season the spfl will return to the usual practice that all clubs get 3 OF home pre-split. Partly due to the current hullabaloo but mostly because their algorithm seems to rely heavily on a team having been in the league the previous season.

Is it: 100 x pi / ( l x w), where l is length of pitch & w is width in yards?

Frans just posted this, not sure what it means:

You do not measure Kris' boots by size or inches, you measure them by goals & greatness!

And a contract at Firhill too. One of the few occasions that I can recall Thistle doing a "big team" on anyone.

In, please. I am hopeless at these predictions but the prize is just too tempting. That said, the boots would be of little use for anyone wanting to wear them as no one else is good enough to, ahem, lace Kris' boots.

Why, you could never fill them? ;-) Mind you, many have tried but no one has ever succeeded.

I find pitch invasions a bit like going for a pee in the park: technically never acceptable, tolerated for young kids but when it comes to adults there is a significant potential for misunderstanding & disaster.

I am greedy, I want a cup win sooner than 2021 and stuff the poetry! ;-) I do indeed have the DVD. As outstanding as both the win and the manner of the win were, I think the 1921 Scottish Cup was more important. Certainly in the present day the League Cup has been allowed to be devalued and the Scottish Cup is the premier tournament. [pun intended] If we can do the double one year then we can discuss relative merits.

Cup win every time, on the basis that it is relegation and not some Gretna-esque demise. Also, would prefer the Scottish Cup if we have to go down too. I must admit that I am a bit surprised at the number opting for staying up. When did we all get so sensible? ;-) I have seen the horrific aftermath of all our top flight relegations and I don't underestimate the potential for more pain. However, relegation is INEVITABLE and I say that as someone who believes the team has made great strides over the last few years. Right now, our lot is to be in almost everyone's bottom 3 prediction (and then prove them wrong). We could graduate to being a "safe" SPL team but with such a tight league we would always be one bad run away from disaster. Now look at the up side of a cup win. No one under 50 is likely to have been at our last one and TV footage is limited. However, the result is still venerated by Thistle fans of all ages the world over. It is even part of the club's phone number (when surely 1876 was a more logical choice). Staying up in 93/94 after being bottom at Christmas was great to witness but no one is planing a 25 year anniversary celebration are they? Now, if the offer was a choice between getting to the Scottish Cup or Relegation, that would be a more interesting dilemma

I am usually NEVER in the know but was recently speaking with a couple of people who know SB quite well. Their understanding was he wouldn't re-sign with Thistle regardless of injury status [proved correct] and that Barnsley were the front runners. Annoying, Aberdeen were still keen. To me, they would be the only Scottish team that would make sense from a footballing step up; any other SPL could only be cash related - understandable from his perspective though that is. It is generally a "good thing" if our young players are seen to go on to obviously bigger and better things. Although SB is not a direct result of our Thistle Weir set up (along with ATS and SOD here is more the last of our recycled Youth approach!), it could help get parents over the line when signing up youth players.

Archie as player and manager.

The change to Law 12 seems clear, but will be interested to see it in practise: Denial of a goal-scoring opportunity Where a player denies the opposing team a goal or a goal-scoring opportunity by a deliberate handball offence the player is sent off wherever the offence occurs. Where a player commits an offence against an opponent within their own penalty area which denies an opponent an obvious goal-scoring opportunity and the referee awards a penalty kick, the offending player is cautioned unless: - The offence is holding, pulling or pushing or - The offending player does not attempt to play the ball or there is no possibility for the player making the challenge to play the ball or - The offence is one which is punishable by a red card wherever it occurs on the field of play (e.g. serious foul play, violent conduct etc..) In all the above circumstances the player is sent off.

http://m.fifa.com/about-fifa/news/y=2016/m=3/news=ifab-agrees-to-introduce-experiments-with-video-assistant-referees-2768643.html Sorry if this has been raised elsewhere but some interesting changes being brought in: - no auto red card for denying goal scoring opportunity IF penalty awarded - initial assessment on field for injured player if opponent gets a card - TV ref trials - sin bins for youth football