Hopeless Unbeliever

How do you keep a board that don't want to be there?

She's definitely pushing a few people's buttons.

Quite a few members of the squad need that op.

I've been reading Thistle forums for, I think, 20 years going back to the first days of Over Land and Sea. This is, without a doubt, the worst thread I've ever read on any of the various sites over the years. Anyway, carry on.

Genuine question as I must have missed it - what was/is the GDPR issue?

No suggestion at this stage that he's gifting the cash. I think (should it go ahead) that the presence or otherwise of Ms Low on the board will give a significant indication as to the intentions behind this approach. At present, the fact that it has emerged first as a fully formed media 'leak' is not ideal.

Where did GC unearth these hidden gems McDonald, and Miller? And Zanatta for that matter.

How anyone can think we have a good squad or Caldwell is the answer I do not know. It will be a miracle if we scrape 4th. Got lucky last season convincing an old pal to come out of retirement and having a player like Spittal (massively underappreciated), we've lost our two best players from last season and replaced them with Championship rejects, crocks and has-beens (and combinations thereof). As suggested, the fact our best player by a distance is a guy who has been decent but never excelled at this level says a lot. We still look more likely to bother the relegation playoffs than the promotion ones.

So we had the lowest wage bill of all teams on which information was available? Finishing above a team with a wage bill 35% higher than ours? Shows what a remarkable job Archie did to keep us in that league and get us a top 6 finish (and what an incredible job Clarke did at Killie).

So he's our top league goalscorer over the past 2 years, despite hardly starting in either season?

With Erskine starting we've won 3 of our 9 league games this season (he scored the winner in 2). Without him we've won 1 of 12. He may not be playing at his best level ever (pretty difficult in the circumstances) but this idea that we can afford to let him go is utterly absurd.

Nobody is suggesting he has, more that this statement reeks of the club 'getting their side of the story across' in the event that he does leave. I don't think in 25 years of supporting Thistle I've ever been this disappointed in the way the club is dealing with a situation.

Maybe they would have, maybe they wouldn't. Who knows. It's a short career and not particularly lucrative at this level, Bannigan absolutely has to look after himself first and foremost.

Gigi Buffon couldn't organise a defence with Danny Devine in it. Yet more revisionism here - even during this supposedly terrible final season with us, Cerny was statistically the 3rd best goalkeeper in the league (https://www.modernfitba.com/blogs/2018/5/31/season-review-goalkeepers ) - incidentally also shows how poor Scully was at Premiership level.

Relegation has made a lot of people very bitter on here. He had his weaknesses (he did play for Thistle after all) but over his time here he's the best goalkeeper we've had since Nicky Walker.. Best of luck to him wherever he goes.

No you don't.

A draw makes no difference to us on Saturday, we need to go to Dundee looking to win the game. If we can't be more motivated than a Dundee team who've just booked a week in Magaluf we're in serious bother.

Archibald's team selection and performances against the 'Old Firm' (and other big teams) may be called into question, but they must be balanced against the team selection and performances against teams around us in the league, in which games we have performed consistently well (it could hardly have been any other way given our relative success in the league over the last few years). It could be that Archie may take a gamble on our chances of winning a 'good' point or three in these games against winning the games that define our season against the teams around us. It doesn't necessarily need to be exclusive, but history to date shows Archie has done very well at striking the correct balance.

Suspect our inferior stamina cost us in the first 10 minutes. Sort it out Archibald!

This is just absolute shite and is seriously calling into question the professionalism and integrity of our manager, staff and players. We were playing one of the best teams in the league, who retain the ball well and make you do a lot of running to compete with them - it's inevitable in games like these we will do more chasing and are therefore likely to tire quicker. We don't have the luxury of a squad the size of Rangers so can't bring the same level of reinforcements either to cover injuries or from the bench. We had two central midfielders both of whom are still making their way back from injury and who played well on Saturday (I'd like to have seen Archie trust McCarthy to cover but that's a side issue). There is absolutely zero evidence that we have a fitness problem compared to other teams at our level, indeed we've seen games out well against Ross County, St Johnstone and Hamilton recently (scoring fine counter attacking goals in two of those games). We even managed a last minute equaliser against Rangers earlier in the season, and should have had one against Celtic. There are clearly issues with our results against the Old Firm that predate this squad of players and managers but to lay the blame for this on our fitness levels is just utter nonsense.

Maybe it's just me but I don't see the fun in singing songs that the Rangers fans have heard from 40 different teams visiting Ibrox already. I'm going to the game tomorrow to support the best team we've had by a distance in my 25 years supporting Thistle. Last time at Ibrox I had the misfortune to stand next to a couple of morons in our support who were genuinely so interested in winding up the Rangers fans that they weren't watching the game. There is no doubt that these games bring out the worst in a lot of our fans, who are just as bad as some on the other side of the barrier. The last couple of weeks have probably been the best 2 weeks in the 25 years following Thistle, probably our best 2 weeks in 40 odd years. I'd rather go to Ibrox and continue that celebration and support our team in what is a very winnable and important game, than get bogged down in trying to wind up their fans. Ibrox is generally an unpleasant day out, why not try and make it a bit more fun?

These games always bring out an idiot element in our support. Really hope on Saturday we can concentrate on celebrating our team and their achievements and not spend our time trying to wind up the Rangers fans. If I can get through the game without hearing "You're not Rangers anymore" or "Glasgow Rangers, you let your club die" I'll be happy.

I'd like to see us go after Crawford. Six months ago we would have been nowhere near him but he's fallen out of favour at Accies a bit by all accounts and may not be quite as sought after now. In my opinion he'd be perfect for rotating with Erskine and Lawless behind Doolan. I still think it's a long shot as he's under contract at Accies for another year I believe (as is Devlin if Lindsay/Keown goes) and they are likely to be looking for a decent fee for him, but if they did go down they might decide the time was right.

At the risk of repeating myself from the other thread: Off the top of my head recently, goals we've scored from crosses (of various kinds) include: - Saturday's goal (overhit cross then short cross inside the box) - Doolan v Hearts (long free kick) - Lindsay v Hearts (free kick followed by cross from the wing) - Doolan v Hamilton twice (full back/winger hitting the byline) - Barton against St Johnstone (winger cutting the ball back for onrushing midfielder. In fact I make that every goal we've scored in 2017 excluding the goals against Formartine. Add in the fact that Lindsay has another 6 goals this season (all from crosses?) and I think we're doing OK in that department. We certainly need a midfielder that can throw in a few more goals. Edwards has the pace to get in behind the striker but not the composure. Welsh has the composure but not the pace. Ultimately though our improvement this season has come from making ourselves much harder to beat. That inevitably takes a toll on your attacking potential, but we still have the talent to take a reasonable number of the chances we create. It didn't happen on Saturday (we lost our best attacking player on the day and then had to adjust for Osman going off too) but it's not something that I think is overly concerning.

Saying we were lucky to come off the park with 1 point is ridiculous. Off the top of my head recently, goals we've scored from crosses (of various kinds) include: - Saturday's goal (overhit cross then short cross inside the box) - Doolan v Hearts (long free kick) - Lindsay v Hearts (free kick followed by cross from the wing) - Doolan v Hamilton twice (full back/winger hitting the byline) - Barton against St Johnstone (winger cutting the ball back for onrushing midfielder. In fact I make that every goal we've scored in 2017 excluding the goals against Formartine. Add in the fact that Lindsay has another 6 goals this season (all from crosses?) and I think we're doing OK in that department.