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 Btw I'll be astounded if Welsh's red card isn't rescinded.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.

I was (along with most Jags fans) behind the goal where Connor picked up the injury. Gotta say I didn't see any studs up tackle. Neither did I hear anyone at the time comment on such. That's not of course to say it didn't happen. I'm also not condoning Muir's overall performance on Saturday but can excuse him missing this specific incident if it actually occurred.

Really sad news. Looks a cracking player. Trust Connor makes a complete recovery and goes on to have a grand career.

An A for me please.

We were almost as lucky to not have anyone sent off. However our discipline was such that by and large we didn't overreact to provocation. Refs who have lost control of a game are every bit as likely to red card a player for reacting to a bad tackle. Plus we had six players walking the tightrope on yellows yesterday. Perhaps if the ref had done his job yesterday the game might have flowed better and there would have been more football played. In that respect we could consider ourselves slightly unlucky, but that would be clutching at straws. eta paras 5 & 6 comedy gold https://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/23379885.dougie-imrie-accuses-referee-making-himself/

Maybe like at Arbroath one of those games we'd have lost earlier in the season. The injuries to the centrebacks maybe affected things. Both Holt & Brownlie didn't look fully fit and it kinda had a knock on effect with those around them. Neither side deserved to win.

Not buying an advance ticket either. It's only because of our recent turnaround in form that I'm likely to make the trip. As I'm not under 5 feet tall the DVT Stand is out. Besides you're lucky if you can see two thirds of the pitch from in there. So it''ll be standing out in the open for me, tho' you can sit down occasionally if you bring enough paper towels. Being charged £22/£16 for that privilege. Sometimes wonder if part of the gate money is going to Scottish Heritage. A short while ago I'd be keen to see us play three at the back at Cappielow. Indeed if Holt returns it'll be hard on the centreback who makes way for him. However all five of our starting midfielders are on form and the 4-2-3-1 set up has worked well recently. If we're winning I can see Dools bringing on a third CB and tightening things as he did at Ayr.

Next season's Championship could have a lot of busy grounds. Where we miss out is in not having these bonus crowd "derby games" as such. Pars will be playing Raith and very possibly Falkirk. Other possibilities are the Ayrshire & Dundee derbies being resurrected. Whereas the only derby we might have to look forward to is our traditional defeat to Queens Pk. Even if our finances were hunky dory other clubs mentioned above will be able to budget favourably knowing they're assured big crowds against their traditional rivals. Given all that the incentive for us to get promoted this season couldn't be much higher.

Good point, I'd overlooked that, but I could still believe McCall's card was marked from that date.

It would be difficult to argue against that assumption. Again you have to read between the lines on that one. Even if true I still believe it would only be a contributory factor. Something tho' that's obvious to me is that the performances against Dunfermline, Accies and Cove were far from acceptable. Regardless of the injuries the squad should be strong enough to cope. Injury excuses should only be valid when facing top table sides. Certainly not when at home against lower division teams. Another way of viewing McCall's dismissal is one I give a good bit of credence to. That's the Jamie Sneddon goal saved McCall theory. I know I'm not alone in thinking had we got beaten that day at Cove there was a strong likelihood McCall would be sacked. That would make the wins against Ayr & ICT, good results tho' they were, still requiring us to push on thru January. So you get a situation where the manager is 1 minute away from losing his job up at Cove following up with three league wins on the plus side against three league defeats to the deficit. No improvement when you factor in five of the league games were at home you get a significantly less than average return. If McCall was indeed on a shoogly peg up at Cove then subsequent results were obviously not enough to save him, and his sacking all the likelier.

Hodson is the regular DM sub. Dools has brought him on in all four games to strength the midfield. Almost a cert to start if Doc isn't available. Defensive mid is possibly an area where we're a tad vulnerable in reference to ball winning. Especially if one picks up an early yellow. Docherty tho' had a good game yesterday despite being booked after only 20 mins.