lady-isobel-barnett

Never too bothered whether we draw or lose a league match when we don't score a goal and never look likely to do so. Folk that weren't there tonight might naturally think that we fell into some Accies sucker punch or Billy Reid won some tactical battle. Truth is that Hamilton are every bit as dire as us and looked even more content to come away with a goalless draw tonight. Our lack of cutting edge is now at such a low state that we can't get results against a team that hasn't even the will to win. There was a time in the 2nd half, (early to mid way thru) when.their defence and defensive midfield (Mensing excluded) were in total disarray yet we couldn't.even force our way thru a shower of bottlers to get one shot on target or even worry Cerny. We could have stretched them by going wide but didn't. We could've run at them thru the middle but didn't. I know fans will suggest that there's an obvious lack of motivation and blame the manager. That's a natural response and justified to a degree but questions have to be asked of the players on the field. If you agree with that then you probably will agree that those questions asked should first start with the more senior players. Lambie was forever saying every team needs a bampot, a bit of a nutter who'll mix it where others will back away. I don't for a minute believe he was meaning a mild mannered captain who plays adequately if rather ineffectively thru the best part of ninety minutes only to get riled after the game's all but lost. Above may well be disjointed but I'm not long in from pub so apologies in advance.

The midfield has done comparatively well enough in scoring goals this season. Cairney should have no difficulty getting double figures for the season. Still not shooting enough all the same. I thought for most of the season the forwards were getting unfair stick as they were largely starved of decent thru balls from midfield. I'm now more of the opinion that regardless of the lack of quality balls the strikers aren't throwing themselves about much, no anticipation or taking a gamble. Gotta agree with the OP, too much buck passing upfront for my liking.

I think he's meaning Raith. Nine points out of every twelve is exceptional but it's got to be balanced by only having one away game.

Being abroad you're probably unaware that Tuffey played on Saturday and made a howler, which not only cost ICT a goal but led to the sending off of one of their players..

We don't have "real lives", we're Thistle fans.

I think you may be mistaken, Grant. To be fair that's what I (and probably everybody else in the room) thought he said in a detailed answer to a question from the floor. In fact evidently he said (and I have this in good authority from folk that weren't at that night) that he thinks our entire youth system is crap, doesn't rate any of our home produced players and from now on he'll be only signing youngsters from Northumberland and Belfast. You may recall the microphone wasn't working that evening so it was perhaps easy to mishear the softly spoken Mr McNamara..

Said in jest but if Kenny could only pass on his penalty saving skills to Mr Fox??? Things said in jest and all that but saving penalties most certainly can't be included in Arthur's list of faults. Conversely Scott has unquestionably a lot going for him but he certainly hasn't to date exactly put the fear of death into the various penalty takers he's been up against.

I don't understand if there's much science involved or not in the decision making but I'd have thought Jackie deserved recognition more for our September showing than last month. I thought we huffed and puffed a bit in December tho' the first two games were played with a good bit of spirit. Points wise nine out of twelve is league winning form so I'd be happy if we huffed and puffed with similar results for the rest of the season..

If Jackie was to leave, and there's always a strong possibility he could go to a bigger club as an assistant, we'd be kidding ourselves if we think we'd appoint any other than Archie & Sid or Sid & Archie with maybe Maxi thrown in somewhere as well.

That's very true. .Now is now and then was then. Things like satellite TV football, tellies in the bookies, pubs open in Saturday afternoons and so on make a difference from decades past. It's also true that Chicofan's post (171) could have been heard in a pub during more than half the seasons for as long as I can remember. Don't get fooled when some long time Jags fan posts how things were just as bad in eighties, late sixties etc. It's not that tolerance levels are any lower these days it's just that there's more on offer elsewhere.

There'd be some fall out from that!

more a doggy paddle person myself.

We've evidently had to send Dargo a-packing as we can't afford to sign him. Craig has been playing for nothing so perhaps we can use some of that to finance the mystery Irishman deal?

Ah, but are clubs not arranged alphabetically and given numbers accordingly, Aberdeen= No1 and so on? If so then with Peterhead knocked out Partick Thistle would've got Queen of the South's number.

Just a gut feeling and an aside but the community aspect of a senior club running youth teams regardless of quality throughput should neither be overlooked or underestimated. Apart from knowing the cost I'd like to know the profit clubs like Hamilton & Livingston have made out of their youth set ups.

I've been critical of the service for ages and it really hasn't improved. That said if you're standing in a queue for so long is it really beyond some folk to work out what they're going to get charged? Howzabout two queues? One, no change given, which would be ideal for Jags fans that actually appreciate prompt service and watching the game and a second queue for the ditherers who seem to relish the social pleasures of standing in a queue.

That's news to me. I think you must've picked me up wrong. Post below more than adequately sums up my views.

If correct, and just for clarity say "a greatly reduced attendance" rather than "500", then that's one of the reasons I ask about the true savings of going part time. A lot of overheads will remain constant. We could save on the likes of stewarding, general manpower etc but things like the floodlights and routine costs of staging a match remain constant. We'd have to anticipate advertising and sponsorship to fall away in proportion to the reduction in attendance. I'm not saying we shouldn't go part time but I do question the actual value of such a move. It appears to me that going part time is something that we'd be forced into rather than some sort of comfort zone we could drop into. As it is we're regularly told that our player budget is very low in relative terms to most other full time SPL/SFL outfits. I think it's fair to assume that some of the young lads (Burns, Campbell & Bannigan for example) plus guys like Elliot, Sinclair & O'Donnell are currently on pay that wouldn't be much in excess of a part time wage. Rowson is already part time, Dargo playing for little if anything at all and Rangers probably paying the two new loanees in full. I feel we'd be deluding ourselves if we believe that going part time would bring about necessary financial stability to the Club.

I'm not going to repeat myself yet again on that one. I suppose scrapping the youth system would be considered but I feel that would be ill advised. When we were part time in the 70s, with only Roughie and Alan Hansen as exceptions, there was near to full Monday to Friday employment. So different these days.

I thought a deal was close to take him to Dunfermline?

I'm not really criticising Hughes, or Calderwood for that matter. Point I'm making is that when they were at their most successful they were managing a club who were paying unsustainable wages or more correctly what turned out to be later proved to have been unsustainable. That's why imo McCall was the right manager at the right time for us. If you excuse his excesses at Tannadice McCall was experienced at working within a modest budget. The last thing we needed back then was to appoint a well known manager who hadn't that experience. I believe that is even more important today.

That's so very very true and can be backed up by the fact that with virtually all SPL fudged decision making they've voted en bloc. Personally I'm only interested in following PTFC (even the standard of play and our division status comes secondary) and also the welfare of the international side. Perhaps a collapse of Scottish football triggered off by Rangers demise would have a negative effect on the latter, I really have no idea, but that would only be temporary. So in my mind I can only see any re-alignment in Scottish football as a good thing. In fact believing that the status quo has no future I don't even see the risk factor involved. As the other cheek of the arse would undoubtedly suffer is a most welcome bonus.

There were folk on here reckoning that Gus McPherson should've been approached to replace McCall on the course specialist ticket. Are those same folk who by now have possibly witnessed his Q o S play 4 times this season still so keen on him? OK it's hypothetical but I'd rather watch a Jags side managed by a guy sure to make errors as he learns his trade than a Jags team managed by a course and distance specialist playing the McPherson way. Same goes for a lot of out of work names (eg Hughes & Calderwood) who by and large made their careers by putting their respective clubs in debt..

I've asked the question before but never really got an answer as I suspect no one on here really knows. once again then does anyone have an idea how much we'd save going part time? Myself, I believe that the modern day equivalent of part time football is a squad of players made up largely of products of our youth system, discarded products of other clubs' youth systems, a few younger players from the Junior ranks and senior pros phasing out their careers. I would imagine by just reducing the player budget year on year we'd arrive at above anyway. As reduced budget is inevitable unless gate receipts etc miraculously I can only presume we're well on our way to this part time equivalent. The original poster highlights Ayr Utd. I don't think it's any coincidence that the same club has a creditably youth academy and by location easy access to leading junior football clubs. Probably the way we should be heading but I don't believe there's any plunge taking and bullet biting necessary. All we need do is reduce the player budget to arrive at the same outcome.

Over the last few games I've also noticed our forwards don't attack the ball enough. It's true tho' the service they receive is not of sufficient quality but yesterday in particular they did receive a lot of balls from O'Donnell & to a lesser extent Sinclair. By sheer percentage alone some of those balls in could've been challenged more vigorously. Instead of waiting for the inch perfect cross, which is unlikely the strikers could put themselves about a more. Try a little bit of anticipation, it's worked for a lot better strikers than we've got.