Duck snort

Tokely was supposedly seen at Dunfermline yesterday. Can't stand the guy. Wouldn't want him anywhere near Firhill.

Absolute gent, as his letter to the fans on the official website proves. Our most consistent player of the last few years too. Been a pleasure to watch.

I hate the 12-12, 8-8-8 thing and I reckon most SFL chairmen do too, but suspect they'll bite the bullet for now to enable the other changes to go through such as the fairer revenue sharing, changing the 11-1 voting structure and the move to one league body. In 3 or 4 years if the structure of the leagues as failed, as we suspect it will, they can re-visit it. I'm sure I already heard one of the SPL chairmen, maybe St Mirren, say this.

Thought we played some great stuff yesterday, but it was just one of those games where the ball wouldn't fall for us in the box. So many crosses and passes that were just behind or beyond players. Having said that we did hit the woodwork twice and their keeper made a couple of quality saves, on top of us scoring twice. It does make for a nervy last few minutes though when you haven't got that 2 goal cushion. Erskine was a joy to watch for the 2nd week in a row. They just couldn't handle him and he deserved more out of the game than he got. Bannigan and Paton were also terrific.

The guy not far behind me who shouted "get him off" about a minute before he scored the header wasn't a younger fan! Yes, he makes mistakes but they're always when he's trying to be positive and make things happen. Give me that sort of player any day of the week. He's one of the few players around that's worth the entrance money on his own. The 2nd goal today was a thing of beauty.

Ridiculous decision. Even if they'd been relegated under him his job shouldn't have been in danger. It's a miracle he's got them to where they are given that when he took over they were 21st in League One.

While everything coming out of Ibrox is probably all bluster, it's bound to make the SPL etc think. I assume that all their future financial projections on the ridiculous 12-12-18 proposal are based on both Celtic and Rangers being in the top 8 once Sevco make it back to the top flight. If Rangers don't play ball it's going to throw a massive spanner in the works. The thing that really annoys me about Doncaster is he keeps telling us a top 16 isn't financially viable but never tells us why.

Tend to agree that there are a few more deserving players that haven't made the team. The full backs are definitely questionable choices. Voted for by journalists and the captain and coach of every national team so interesting that it turned out that way. Spain's success in the Euros has obviously registered more than Chelsea and Bayern making the Champions League final.

There are so many reasons for hating this proposal but for me the main one is that leagues should be decided over a full season, not a half season of one league followed by a 2nd half of another league. Let's not kid ourselves, the only reason for this proposal is to ensure 4 Old Firm games once Rangers have made their way back to the top flight.

Welsh has tweeted that it was a deliberate foul and thought it was a good yellow to take for the team but he'd forgotten he'd already been booked! It's costing us dear. We'd be walking this league if we could keep 11 men on the park.

I honestly can't remember the Jags profiting from cheating in the recent history. Calum Campbell took a few dives late 80s/early 90s and I hated that. I was shocked to see the number of tweets praising Cazorla for "earning" the penalty last week. I'm sure they all came from Arsenal fans who would have been just as quick to tweet their disgust if it had been a West Brom player doing the same thing at the other end.

Crowd for the Morton game will probably be above average as the away support will be better than average. Not sure there'll be many more Jags than usual. I always miss the Boxing Day game because I spend Christmas with family in the north, although this is compensated by a mate who lives down south but spends Christmas with family in Glasgow so this will be one of his few games of the season.

It's possible that folk who had originally been planning to do Christmas shopping next Saturday may have had to do it this week instead because of the planned train strike. I think it's more likely that there's just too many other financial priorities at this time of year.

This is one of my favourite memories as a Thistle fan. Was a cracking day. However, it's time to move on. To me there's one reason to move to a March - Nov season, and that's to get more people through the turnstiles. The hardcore fans will go and support their teams whenever the games are played so we have to be looking to get the occasional and lapsed fans in the door more regularly. You're not going to do that by asking them to turn up with layers and layers of clothing on in Dec and Jan. I've a mate who used to follow Thistle home and away before having a family. Understandably he wants to spend his weekends with his kids these days. He's brought them to games and they both enjoy it but they're both under 8 so he only brings them early and late in the season when the temperatures are decent. That's 3 that would attend more regularly in a Mar - Nov season, and there will be more in a similar situation. The argument that the weather in Dec and Jan may be "good" is a red herring. Yes, the pitches may be playable so games aren't postponed but one thing you can guarantee in Scotland is that it's going to be cold. The occasional fan who's considering going to a game on a Saturday currently has a choice of going along and sitting in the freezing cold or enjoying the warmth of his own home while watching a couple of English Premier League games. Let's face it, most of the time they're going to choose the latter. By playing games in May, June & July you've got a much higher chance of getting these people along and once they're in the habit they're also more likely to come along when they do have the choice. As well as the temperatures you've got the Christmas effect on attendances in Dec and Jan. Folk have extra financial pressure at this time of the year and spending money on football is down the list of priorities. As someone else has mentioned Christmas party hangovers are also likely to have a negative effect on attendances. There are other advantages to summer football such as better pitches and reduced costs for clubs on things such as floodlights and undersoil heating, but it's the chance to increase attendances that is by far the overriding factor and I just don't see how they wouldn't go up. I could be wrong, but surely it's worth a try? I'm sorry G-SUS but your list reads more like a set of excuses for not making the change rather than reasons. All are addressable: 1. Mar - Nov would be a 9 month season, same as we have now (Aug - Apr). 2. Other countries such as Sweden, Norway & Brazil seem to deal with it ok, and to be honest how many players from international countries playing in World Cup and Euro finals are playing in Scotland? Most of our national team is playing in England. 3. The domestic season would finish at the end of Nov. The last Champions League group games are the first week in Dec. 4. It's true that the first KO stages of European competition would be played before our season started but in reality this isn't a major issue as how often do our teams make it this far. We currently have the problem of dealing with preliminary European stages before our season has started. I'd rather have the problem of dealing with this at the latter stages of the competition than the preliminary ones. 5. The league season would finish mid Nov. Rare that there are postponements before Dec. The cup final would be played at Hampden so no danger of a postponement. 6. Seriously? How many glamour friendlies have Thistle had recently? We always play other Scottish teams. Only the OF play glamour friendlies and we're already postponing games so they can do so. 7. This may be an issue, but I'm sure those that know anything about pitch preparation could handle this. Over the last few years there have been instances of teams relaying pitches during the season. More and more clubs are moving to artificial pitches anyway. 8. Players at all levels miss games through injury or suspension so suggesting teams could be affected by holidays is nonsense. If guys want to play professional football there are sacrifices they have to make. 9. Comparing attendances at friendlies to competitive games is ridiculous. I attend as many competitive games as I can. Never go to friendlies. 10. Doesn't seem barmy to those in other countries with summer seasons. To those that would prefer our season to stay as it is fair enough, but would you go to less games if we changed? I'd prefer a Mar - Nov season but I'll be at games whenever they're played. The debate should be about getting higher attendances and what's best for the game in Scotland, not our own preferences. Interestingly, in the Sun article last week about whether or not we were going to turn the undersoil heating on our own manager advocates summer football. Unfortunately this wasn't regarded as the main part of the story.

The only way any of our players will be leaving in January is if there's interest from south of the border. No Scottish club other than 2 have the funds to spend any money on players and one of those isn't allowed to.

Maybe Welsh can have a word in Erskine's ear and warn him what Fenlon's like!

Read somewhere that United are considering not allowing TV coverage of the game.

How can anyone in the SPL think the 12-12, followed by 8-8-8 idea is sensible or fair. If the proposal goes ahead the split will come after 22 games in early January. Using this season as a guide, Hearts are currently 9th after 16 games, but only 6 points off 4th place. It's quite conceivable given the way this season is going that the standings will be similar after 22 games. If so Hearts will find themselves trying to avoid relegation post split when under the current structure they would be only a couple of wins away from European qualification. The attendances they'd get under the SPL proposal in the 2nd tier of 8 will be considerably lower than those they'd get under a more conventional set up. Apparently the 2nd tier of 8 will start on zero points post split. How is that fair? Thistle and Dunfermline are currently 9 points ahead of Raith in 4th and that's likely to increase over the next 9 games. The whole idea is total nonsense.

I don't think I've ever hated another human being as much as I do Doncaster. The man is an absolute joke. All he cares about is 4 Old Firms games a season. He should be removed from the position immediately.

How Jefferies thought they controlled the early stages I've no idea. Yes, they forced Smith into 2 straightforward saves, one of which was going wide anyway, but other than that we were the team controlling the ball, albeit without testing Gallacher. I think the sending off decision was correct, although I will say Dargo was looking to be fouled rather than trying to get an attempt on goal. I hadn't realised it was Geggan that fouled Erskine at the penalty. Given that he was booked very early on for trying to crock Forbes surely he should have been off for a 2nd yellow.

Agree. Worked fine for me. No problems at all. Only takes about 10 minutes.

The more I think about this, the more I think it could be a good move. Ideally we would go back to a proper European Champions Cup where only the winners of each league qualify, but we all know that is never going to happen. The Champions League has killed the UEFA Cup, and now the Europa League, as an attractive competition for both the clubs and the fans. Of the 3 English clubs in the Europa League this season only Spurs appear to be taking it seriously. Liverpool and Newcastle are both playing 2nd XIs in it, and the crowds they're getting reflect this. If they were playing in an extended "Champions" League they'd have their 1st XIs out, they'd be getting full houses and it would me more attractive for TV audiences. I've watched very little Europe League stuff over the last few years although I did love watching Bilbao last season. Ultimately there's likely to be 7 or 8 English, Italian, Spanish & German teams in the 64 team group stage so there's only going to be 32 - 36 places for the rest of Europe which is less than 1 per country. While Scotland may have 5 teams qualifying for Europe only 1, possibly 2, are likely to gain direct entry to the group stages so the others would have to attempt to negotiate up to 3 or 4 preliminary knockout rounds. If Scotland did get 5 places I assume 4 would be gained via the league and the Scottish Cup winners would get the 5th. How much of an incentive does this give clubs to do well in the cup! It's very difficult for Thistle to win, but we probably have a better chance of that than a top 4 league finish. It may only get us one preliminary game but I'd take that in a heartbeat! I don't go along with the argument that increasing the group stages to 64 dilutes the competition. If anything it will make it harder to win. In addition to the 3 English clubs the likes of Inter, Lazio, Bilbao, Athletico Madrid, Marseille, Napoli & Lyon are all playing in the Europa League this season. Add that to the additional knockout round that would be required and it's going to be a very difficult competition to progress in. It's only going to result in 2 extra games for the teams that do well so that's not an argument against it either. An additional advantage could be that it might make players less likely to move to the so called top teams in the big leagues. Someone like Fellaini is likely to be in demand from Chelsea and the Manchester clubs, but if Everton are playing in the same European competition he may be less inclined to move, and Everton will have the greater finances required to keep him. The knock on from this is that over time more teams may be able to challenge for their own leagues. One thing they would have to do is change the name of the competition though! Just call it the European Cup.

Agree totally. How spoiled are we this season if folk think Doolan's not playing well? Thought he had a very good game on Saturday. He's scored 7 this season so it's not as if the goals have dried up for him either.

Wish it was just the older brigade. At one point on Saturday O'Donnell played the ball forward to Bannigan on the half way line. Bannigan was facing the Jags goal and being closed down by 2 Livi players so passed the ball back to Muirhead, at which point the 30 something guy sitting a couple of seats away from me said "what's the use in that Bannigan"!! We were 2 up at the time! Unbelievable.

Poor for the first half hour. Passed the ball really poorly, partly down to Livi pressing us in our own half. Worst culprit was actually Sinclair who barely found a Thistle jersey in that first 30 minutes. He made up for it over the last hour of the game. Gave their right side a torrid time. Thought it was Erskine's run and shot that got us going. Deserved a goal for that. He'd have been my man of the match. Took up some great positions and was a real handful for them. Once we went ahead you could see the players relax and the passing improved hugely. Had some really good spells of possession. The attitude of some fans is beyond belief though when we keep the ball in our own half, murmuring away for us to get it forward. At one point when we were 2 up we kept the ball like that for a while and the murmurs started. Thankfully the players ignored them, kept the ball and eventually drew Livi on to them before exploiting the space they'd left. It was only a poor final ball from Lawless that prevented a chance for a superb team goal. No failures today against a decent Livi team. They also played some really good passing football, but didn't have the cutting edge we currently have, partly because we looked really solid at the back. Balatoni is improving week by week and playing with a lot of confidence.