Hopeless Unbeliever

Next three games are huge for our season. Six points minimum.

I have nothing whatsoever against McNamara or anything he's done since he's gone to United, that's life. I do however find it difficult to understand people who are desperate to stick up for McNamara at the same time as doing down Archibald. It was noticeable this week that McNamara was saying United's away form will prevent them from challenging for the league. Plus ca change.

Game off.

I make it 1 in 25,251. (2/3)^25 no?

Some seriously embarrassing posts in here this evening. Dundee created almost nothing the entire game. Balatoni failed to deal with a long ball effectively and even then it was a freak own goal. I would agree that Stevenson should not have gone off. Higginbotham didn't have his best game but it was his quick thinking and combining with Stevenson that set up the goal, he played a great through ball for Craigen's first half chance and picked Craigen out excellently for his second half chance. If that's contributing nothing I'll take that every week from him! Nobody is saying Archibald is completely blameless, I didn't agree with his substitutions and lack thereof at times today, but Hartley made his first change ten minutes into the second half and then we scored soon after. Archie would have got slated for that too if the tables were turned. As I say Dundee were not creating chances, and we had 5+ excellent chances to finish the game, you can't blame Archie for some poor finishing. I thought we played very well in the second half against a pretty decent Dundee side. Oh and those two Gary Fraser passes in the second half, unbelievable. Edited to add: anyone that cannot see serious improvement under Archibald is utterly clueless.

Was sad to see him punted by Ayr tonight. Probably the single most important Jags player in my 20+ years watching Thistle, it doesn't bear thinking about where we might have been had Campbell not chanced upon him. I know there's not much room for sentimentality in football etc and we probably don't have the spaces anyway, but if he were to turn up at Firhill again one day I'd be very happy.

My problem with Sportscene is situations like last week. It's not unreasonable to assume that there's a few armchair fans out there who haven't made it along to Firhill much this season. Hearing our game described as a turkey and constantly being talked down isn't going to do much to get these people back to the games. Barry Hearn was spot on, we have a terrible tendency to talk down the game here. Half the games in the English Premiership are just as dull to watch but Sky and the Premier League have done one of the greatest marketing jobs in history (second only to whoever convinced people that they needed to eat popcorn in the cinema).

Great effort. I think I'd vote for the Fraser one regardless, it's just such a clean strike, and I can't separate the goal from the match which is perhaps unfair. I'd have had this one in from the Ross County game as one of my top 5, and another Christie assist I think (commentator says Higginbotham) [Edit: can't get it to not embed the video, so skip to 4 minutes in here] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrP36YiGlMQ&t=4m0s

Think it was Canning, who is an absolute haddie. Clancy had a word with him afterwards but declined to book him surprisingly. To be fair to the ref he could have blown for a foul, so did well to play the advantage.

Don't really have a problem with Bo'ness and Spartans getting a bit of extra coverage, that's what this stage of the cup is about. Giving Dundee v Aberdeen about 5 times as much coverage as our game after it had been on live at lunchtime on the other hand is pretty poor.

I think Gallacher could have done a bit better with the ball, but he can't move across to deal with it until it's past Goodwillie. He was criticised in the other thread I think for not playing to the whistle, but playing to the whistle is exactly what he was doing, he can't move across to deal with the ball easily until he's sure Goodwillie isn't going to touch it, he can't rely on the linesman getting the decision right (even if it was clear cut). Even under the new interpretation of the law I think there was sufficient movement from Goodwillie to constitute offside and we were unlucky. Agree with the above point that Fraser was clearly not ready for 90 minutes, he was gubbed after one sprint early on in the second half supporting someone (Lawless?) but he is so important to our play that even half fit yesterday he improved the team. His long range passing was excellent and we need that to break up the predictability of a lot of our play. I think yesterday may be the last time for a while that we see Craigen and Elliott both starting together, against a team like Aberdeen they just don't offer enough ability to hold the ball up in the final third of the pitch or any genuine attacking threat. Coupled with Doolan getting little change from the giant centre halves and Lawless being tiny, we were really struggling to maintain any meaningful possession in the final third. Finally, I think Aberdeen are a better team than people are making out. Once they go ahead they are hard to break down, strong physically and retain the ball well. They will finish second in the league this season I reckon and certainly weren't 'there for the taking.' I still think we weren't great, although we improved in the second half and could have snuck a point, but I don't think we should be too disheartened by that performance. This side really should have enough to stay clear of the bottom two.

I would think DP is referencing in particular the incredible unbeaten run we had with Welsh in the side. There is no doubt that all three of those players deserve a huge amount of credit for that season and I wouldn't necessarily agree with singling any one of them out, but if we are, I think you can make as good a case for Welsh as any. On a related note, it really underlines what a great job Archibald did last season, he had to re-invent a midfield that was (with the benefit of hindsight) probably the most SPL ready area of our team, and has done so well enough that even after losing arguably our best midfielder half way through last season, our current midfield remains the strongest area of the team (and for me probably the strongest central midfield in the lower half or even 2/3 of the SPL).

Agreed on both points (although I wanted Doolan to start beforehand). The second free kick was better than the first, if someone can get the ball over the wall with pace almost any goalkeeper in the world is going to struggle with that. I've not seen any replays but wonder if our wall could have done more to get in the way of them as they must have taken a fairly low trajectory.

I'll pledge £20. Only risk is people falling through on the cash and leaving Willjag in the lurch. I'd vote for sponsoring Sean Welsh's home top first.

This is about the only interesting post in the whole thread. Where and when is this information from? Would be interesting to see the full breakdown.

It's obviously very early on, but I think Lawless has been our best player so far this season.

How are you managing to vote No based in London?

What?

Crazy that there isn't a clause in his contract that he can be recalled if we suffer injuries at the back. Stupid Archie having him out getting match sharpness instead of sitting in the stand at Firhill. Glad we all know intricately the details of the club's transfers.

Piccolo wasn't good enough. Archie made a mistake signing him to a two year deal and his release is an admission of that. Gabi had a contract until next summer and will have suitably rewarded for his early departure, otherwise he wouldn't be going, I can't see how there is any argument that he has been done over in any way. Best of luck to him, but he wasn't good enough and once again Archie shows a willingness to learn from his mistakes by terminating this deal early and giving Richards-Everton a shorter deal.

I do grudge the fiver when it's Dundee! Will settle for 3 points compensation though.

Also just got the loading circle.

It was definitely Fraser.

Trying to get this thread back on track somewhat, how would people feel about Jamie McAllister at Firhill? Not sure why/if it's not worked out at Killie and he might not be the most inspiring signing at 36, but he's got plenty of experience, played 40 games captaining a Championship club last season (albeit one that was relegated) and might be a good option to allow Keenan and/or McMullan another year to develop.