Armand2

Not seen much comment on this but we appear to have a developing problem with Gary Fraser. He delivered another totally forgettable and anonymous display on Saturday, punctuated by his obligatory wild swing at goal and overly ambitious cross-field passes when an easy option was available, before having the audacity to try and trudge straight up the tunnel when he was deservedly hooked; only Shaggy physically dragging him back and telling him to sit down prevented that happening. I understand that he may be frustrated with his performance but he isn't going to last long with a mentality like his. Great talent in his feet, none in his head.

Beaton is an abomination of a referee. Some of his decisions are indicative of a guy who has little experience of actually playing football; he gives fouls for the most innocuous of challenges, the type of collisions and tackles that are simply part and parcel of a contact sport. Eremenko conned him all afternoon, from going down under minimal contact from Bannigan (whilst he was repeatedly swinging an arm in his face, may I add) to the absolutely blatant dive for the third goal. As for the altercation between Magennis and Hamill, had that been two opposing players, a red card would have been flashed. The fact he was looking straight at it and took no action whatsoever yet was happy to enforce other "Rules of Play" for the slightest breach was reflective of the sheer ineptitude of his performance on Saturday. I've no complaints about getting beaten - irrelevant of whether the fouls were merited or not, we have to defend those situations better - but what rankles is the fact the referee's (inaccurate) decisions have had such a bearing on the result.

It's a sensible move from a financial perspective but what irks me about the decision is that it appears to have been made without any fan consultation. I would have hoped Beattie would have learned from the Board's mistake last year. From a budgetary stance, I think season tickets excluding Celtic (and potentially Rangers) games is a non-starter.

Not sure how anybody's list could fail to include the Morton and Airdrie games. Admittedly, the Airdrie game was a turgid affair but the last five minutes made up for it. Tynecastle certainly top of the list, though.

Yep, as JuanJag says, a comment on Twitter would seem to indicate he's on the lookout for a new club. That would explain his recent unexplained absence from the U20 squads too.

Suspected that Christie would be looking for more security so not overly surprised to see him handed a two-year contract; nobody can begrudge him it, he's earned it. If we're happy to offer longer contracts to our current players, I would be slightly more confident about retaining Craigen who I think would be looking for similar security as Christie. Happy to see Booth retained; he fits in well, suits our style and it gives us some continuity in a position we've struggled to fill. Wondering whether we have our eye on another left-back though because I expected him to be on a longer deal. It would appear Finnie has already been released.

The number one priority this summer has to be securing Taylor on a permanent deal. As far as I'm aware, we have first refusal on him but his affordability may depend on which position we finish. I imagine we have budgeted to finish 10th so anything above that and the prize money could theoretically be put towards any transfer fee although it would seem that crowds have been down on projections so any extra income might be needed to cover shortfalls. I would hope that he's seen that the grass isn't always greener and that his career will benefit from staying in the one place for longer than a season. Secondly, I'd be keen to retain Booth who fits our full-back archetype and has performed very well in recent weeks. He's very handy going forward, has been relatively solid defensively and still has time to develop and perhaps be sold on. It wouldn't be ideal having to assimilate two new full-backs so if we could have a bit of continuity and keep Booth permanently, it would be good business. On the other side, we'll need a new full-back to replace the outgoing O'Donnell and I don't think Finnie is ready yet although I hope to see him kept on for another year. Gary Miller looks likely to be leaving St Johnstone and despite not being the best going forward, might be a solid enough replacement to give Finnie time to get up to speed if he remains well regarded as a prospect. If we were looking for a longer term replacement, I've seen Shaun Rooney at Queens Park only once this season but left suitably impressed although like Finnie, he probably isn't ready yet. Fox has played quite an important role in our recent good defensive form but I think we should be looking for an upgrade in this position. Over the course of the season, it appears that time is slightly catching up with Gallacher yet many still consider him the better goalkeeper. With the highly-rated Scully returning from Dunfermline, it seems like a good time to clear the decks, thank Foxy for his service and allow him to leave. That said, I'd only permit that if we had a replacement lined up; with Jamie MacDonald, arguably the pick of the available keepers, having (allegedly) already agreed at a deal at Kilmarnock, that might prove easier said than done. I suspect we'll be in the market for another centre-half in the summer. I think Balatoni has more than earned a new contract but I imagine he'll be keeping his options open; his and Fox's newspaper articles had more than a pinch of self-promotion about them and I wouldn't begrudge him a better move. I think he's been considerably undervalued by some Thistle fans since our promotion and many were too quick to embrace his absence from the team. I think the difference between him and Frans is negligible yet they make a far better partnership than any that Seaborne featured in. That leads onto Sicknote. For some time, I've doubted whether we'll ever see him play in a Thistle jersey again despite being contracted for next season; I expect him to head back south. If he stays, I'll be happy to have him provided he can prove his fitness. Individually, I think he's our best defender but the Balatoni-Frans pairing has been greater than the sum of its parts. I can't see us keeping Richards-Everton on for another year after a patchy six month spell at Airdrie; it was a reasonable punt given his attributes and stature but I think he's probably just short of what we're looking for. I would hope that we will be interested in Mark Durnan from Queen of the South who looks like he'll be moving into the Premiership, irrelevant of the play-off outcome, but talk that he's been offered a deal with Hearts. Supposing any of this comes to pass, the main replacements needed would be a goalkeeper, a right-back and a wide attacking player to replace Higginbotham (wouldn't say no to Lionel Ainsworth although he'd cost a pretty penny in wages) in addition to Booth and Taylor signing permanently and the possibility of a new centre-half to replace either Seaborne or Balatoni, should they depart. Would be very happy with that business this summer and have every faith in Archie getting it right. Again. And hopefully, folk won't wet their pants if we haven't completed all of our business by the time our first friendly comes around.

MacDonald is pretty much a done deal to Killie so think we can rule him out, unfortunately.

Except for hitting 9 goals in 20 starts for the team currently sitting in fourth in the league? Just because he's knocked us back before doesn't make him a poor player. Archie couldn't get near him in the 3-2 home game against Raith in the promotion season and that's why I reckon he made him a prime target that summer. He's now proven himself as a capable enough goalscorer at this level and as such, I imagine we'll be in for him again this summer. Think St Johnstone will obviously be in pole position to sign him, though.

I would tend to agree with you on this but there were a few last year: Dundee United played (dirty) Leeds at Elland Road Inverness played Birmingham at St Andrews Admittedly not Championship any more but Dundee played at Sheffield United I don't know whether the Inverness game was agreed as part of the Andrew Shinnie transfer, right enough. Like you, I don't expect any trips to Championship opposition but you never know.

Barely. He's a carthorse. Potty Trained might have a better idea but I seem to remember his old man who is/was a director playing some kind of role in his return after McPherson binned him.

Possibly. Or that he's more at home in a playground than a football pitch.

Which is a telling sign.

Just to echo two sentiments already expressed by others; great blog post (albeit slightly hyperbolic when talking about the weather) and Alloa is definitely the coldest that I've ever been at Thistle game. One other related point; I don't think we'll see Seaborne again. I know that he's under contract for next season but I've had a feeling for a while that he'll be away back south in the summer. He's a good centre-half, probably our best, but his unreliability allied with his probable lofty wages means I wouldn't be terribly disappointed should he depart.

As Ian has said above, a number of us are of a generation who will remember Jimmy Bone for one reason alone; and for that, he only has himself to blame.

From our perspective, the development loan is great but I don't know how pleased I would be if I was the manager of a lower league team who had signed a player (and one who seems to have had such an impact like Nisbet has at East Stirling) who was playing 90 minutes elsewhere in between games. The players will love it but it's hard to imagine that today's game won't have some kind of effect (tiredness, both physically and mentally) on Nisbet ahead of East Stirling's fixture at the weekend.

to Nesbit's goal at the weekend. Think he's got a chance. Caught my eye during pre-season where he seemed to have the knack of being in the right place at the right time. According to East Stirling fans, he's showing that he has quite a well-rounded game for someone so young. I'd definitely be renewing Duggan's deal for another year and if Murray was still keen, wouldn't have any problem with him staying at Dumbarton for the first half of next season. Despite McDaid having more first team exposure, I rate Duggan along with Div Wilson as our best prospects just now and would be disappointed if we allowed either to leave.

What is for certain is Fox is in absolutely no position to be issuing those sort of demands and the club should feel under no pressure at all to offer him a new deal. I think he (or perhaps the agent that he makes a point of mentioning) knows fine well that he's probably going to be out the door at the end of the season and this is an effort to make it seem like he is in control of the situation and to alert potential suitors. Either way, he's been a good servant for Thistle, played a big role in our promotion and like everyone else, I was delighted when he earned an international call-up. But he's not without his flaws and had Gallacher been a couple of years younger, Fox wouldn't have had a sniff over the last 18 months. Folk at the club have had very high hopes for Scully for a number of years now and I imagine he'll be a strong candidate for the number one jersey next season.

Delighted to see The King recognised for his fantastic service after the despicable and unforgivable treatment he received from a now fellow Hall of Fame inductee.

Not impressed with that statement in the slightest; the matter is far from closed. One of our best players has just been punted with no reason given and as fans (and customers of a business) we are just expected to swallow it, no questions asked. What utter contempt for paying customers.

Hearing Seaborne is out for tomorrow's game so a (welcome) return for Balatoni. I don't particularly rate Frans very highly at all and tend to think our strongest pairing would be Seaborne and Balatoni so hoping the latter impresses. Would like to see Lawless return but not very hopeful of that. Trying to reignite the partnership that flourished last year between Higginibotham and Taylor would be a good idea, and will likely happen if Christie doesn't make it. Would be very "Thistle" to get a result tomorrow. I live in hope...

On paper, yes, but it's going to take more than a striker to improve that Motherwell team; they are comfortably the poorest side I've seen this season and will be doing well to avoid automatic relegation.

I think Eccleston had two main issues which limited his playing time, neither of which were entirely his fault. Firstly, I don't think he can play as a lone striker; his movement always looked like it needed to be complimented by a fellow striker. Secondly, I think he thrives on playing on a defender's shoulder which relies on a more direct style of football - something that we seem to be playing more of now that Taylor has returned, ironically. Subsequently, I think he might do reasonably well at Killie should he stay beyond the end of this season. Their style may well just suit him perfectly and pairing him off with a physical partner like Magennis could be fruitful.

I'm not yet at the stage where I agree with the notion that Archie should be dismissed but it's becoming more difficult to defend his team by the week. His tactical inflexibility is at a stage where is can be considered sheer incompetence, in my opinion. People will point to the fact that we switched to a 4-4-2 yesterday (although for most of the time, it looked more like a 4-4-1-1 verging on the same tired old 4-2-3-1) but that is most certainly the exception to the rule. I seem to recall the manager suggesting in pre-season that the reason for the inflexibility last season was because he never had enough time to work with the players on an alternative. What's the reason now? We play the exact same system installed by McNamara with very little variation and it's exceedingly easy to negate - sit high on our full-backs and we're onto plums. There's also this fallacy that we play exciting, free-flowing football, a myth perpetuated by our own fans at times, but the style is far more reminiscent of McCall's flawed, often impotent system rather than anything on view in the Championship season. We constantly hear of luck from the manager, and our lack of it, but that only serves to absolve the players of responsibilities towards their own level of performance. Our players appear to be told on a regular basis that the only thing that prevented them from a favourable result was luck - hence they continue to contribute the same level of effort/performance in the belief that factors out with their control are to blame for poor results. Take yesterday's opening goal for example. Some may look at that and say it was unlucky. It wasn't; it was a catalogue of individual errors that culminated in a goal. The errors in no particular order - the team adopting zonal marking apart from our centre halves who follow their man into wide positions which deserts any defensive shape; Osman and Booth's misplaced passes; three players appealing for handball and stopping play; Seaborne still not back in position and therefore getting in the way of an attempted clearance; O'Donnell daydreaming as usual and losing his man. No luck about it. However, yesterday was concerning for reasons apart from the result; to me, that didn't look like a team. It appeared that there were guys playing for themselves and who didn't fancy the fight that County were offering. Additionally, Lawless' tweet however ill-advised it may have been doesn't point to a harmonious dressing room. I'm not going to jump to conclusions and suggest the manager has "lost the dressing room" but there is certainly mounting evidence that something isn't quite right. Indeed, despite our inconsistency affecting us beforehand, this lull can be traced directly back to when McMillan dropped out the picture. Some clarification on the matter is long overdue, not least because he is arguably our best player and certainly our most adept defensively. What this team needs is a leader on the pitch, a guy who leads by example, a guy who will hold a defensive line and tell his fellow players where to go, a guy who will tell a petulant wee fud like Gary Fraser to stop taking swings at goal from 30 yards, a guy who will play until the final whistle and who won't accept defeat. A guy like Alan Archibald ironically. And that's why, despite all of the above, he still has my support because I'm still hopeful he can instil the qualities he possessed as a player into those who pull on the jersey today.