lady-isobel-barnett

Not too sure but definitely wide. Strong enough to play full back and fast enough to play in wide midfield. Echo partickthedog re the quality of his cross for no5. Excellent build just before as well. Thought our only fault today was letting them get too much of the ball after the break. We'd previously not given them much of a touch. The third goal was all important.

Agree tho' why we can't do it with an attacking threesome of Lawless, Turner & Tiffoney is surprising. I find playing two up front a bit negative as it restricts an attacking midfield. Besides we've no pacy forward to compliment Graham. So I'd like to see Turner bit less of the covering everywhere and get closer to Graham. Suppose I'm making a case for playing someone in a "Cammy Smith" role. But not......🙃

Valid point but Holt, Brownlie and Graham are all very experienced players. It's hard to believe that they lack the gumption to vary their positioning. Can't speak for Friday night but I've noticed Turner's deliveries have been for want of a better expression more "floated" of late. The ball hanging in the air that second or two longer. Much may be due to a blustery wind, which we experienced at Cappielow and against Dundee. What we probably can agree on is our attacking set pieces haven't been as effective of late. Something we relied on earlier to compensate perhaps for a lack of scoring from open play and particularly goals from midfield.

Cammy Smith hasn't disappeared. He's still here but just extremely difficult to notice.

Always prefer to hear from folk that actually attended the game rather than relying too much on those making judgement by TV/Stream etc. Didn't go myself last night but I'm glad to hear my view of the game didn't differ. It looked indeed, terrible.

True we gave away a cheap goal but not scoring at the other end was by far the bigger failing. One bit of bad luck was Ridgers making an excellent save but I can't mind any other occasions when we could claim a bit of misfortunate. Btw I'll be astounded if Welsh's red card isn't rescinded.

Like DD I wouldn't be upset with a draw. That would undoubtedly also please the teams above us but we also need to look over our shoulder. There is however no reason we can't win this tonight. No excuse re plastic and/or narrow pitch plus we've now had a couple of good away wins recently. Milne back is big bonus. When he gets forward it makes the opposition think again about double marking Tiffoney. Also means if necessary we can get more effective use out of Hodson as a sub.

Mostly about the Women's Team but second part more about the Men's Team. Interesting podcast with Brian Graham https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0f9x1n5

Sorry for the very selective quoting. Saturday's game was indeed dire but I don't even think it ranks as the worst game this season, never mind "ever". Albeit we're talking subjective here. Certainly poor as we were we've played worse on a good few occasions this season and there's been nearly as many poor spectacles. Unrelated to the quote the result, a home draw to one of the league leaders, isn't in itself as disappointing as a fair handful of our other results. I suppose I shouldn't be the least bit shocked but the fact we were averaging a shade under 5 goals a game with Dundee, a goalless draw was still a bit of a surprise. A draw didn't do either team a favour league wise so you'd have thought a few goals would've been in the offing. Thanks to The Thistle Archive for highlighting this but I think the average starting age on Saturday of nearly 30 years old significant. And also alarming. Milne missing only raised the average marginally. So folk that see parallels with Archibald taking over from McNamara and Doolan from McCall are overlooking one huge difference. Even if we were in a situation where we could re-sign out of contract players we'd still be facing a major headache for next season. Regardless of whoever the manager he's facing a major problem.

My view of Dowds is roughly along the lines that he's more or less similar in every department to Graham but just not as good in every department as Graham. A tiring Graham after 60-70 mins is possibly no better or worse than a fresh Dowds. One aspect of the Dowds for Graham substitution is we don't require to change tactics/formation mid way thru the 2nd half. I don't think that's usually that beneficial as I sense Dools is going to be more prone to change and less inclined to like for like subbing.

Not sure McCall did say that Brownlie was the best defender in the League. If he in fact did perhaps he got mixed up between Darren & Tam O'Brien, who he's constantly referred to as, eh, the best defender in the League?

May well be correct. Sometimes attacking wide players are totally inept at the defensive side of things. Either too frail or give away unnecessary fouls. Not so with Fitzpatrick who can do all that hard work. Last game against Cove he was everywhere and really worked his socks off that day, especially after Graham was sent off. Why we've not really seen that sort of work rate from him since has been disappointing. Considering he's usually only on the pitch for less than 30 mins rules out tiredness on his part. The irony being (not gonna read too much into it) in yon game against Cove he played the full 90 mins. His running/ground covered stats that day will have been impressive. Again not reading too much into it but he's not been selected to start since.

Yes I think that was a better chance than when Mullen thought he was van Basten. Two incidents both with poor decision making.

The game may have been absolute piss but worth watching if only to see the state of Dougie Imrie's coupon after full time.

Bad tho' it was losing both centrebacks last week, the fact they went off early gave Holt & Brownlie much needed game time. I'm hoping then that they'll both be more or less match fit tomorrow. To a lesser extent Dowds getting a bit of game time was also a bonus. Obviously a big game for both clubs. May indeed be a bigger game for Dundee. If they get 3 pts they can win the league under their own steam. Lose or draw and they join us in needing QP to slip up against other sides. A win for us and we'll look more than likely a top four club. In that regard not losing at Cappielow was most important. However if we don't win tomorrow we'll have lost that momentum we've built up since the management change. With our defensive injuries Hodson becomes an important player, even if only to have on the bench. He's crucial to a number of formation changes Dools may want to make during a game and of course would be required if any further defensive injuries occur. Agree with above post that the big pitch is a help. To that extent it's important we play with width. Encouragingly Doolan has been setting his side out to do just that.