lady-isobel-barnett

Hot potato, off his drawers, pluck to make amends.

I'd rather see it go towards a beech hedge.

I can fully respect that. We're never short of suggestions how the Club can put more bums on seats. But whether it's pricing initiatives, half time entertainment, making hospitality more accessible or whatever we're still stuck with this repetitive nonsense once again. It's bad enough the four league games but the SFL in their wisdom go out of their way to ensure we'll be playing some teams in our league at least five times all down to the two cup competitions they run. One of those cups being a total joke of a competition.

Some get a kick from cocaine

Came as a complete surprise to me as well. Mind you I'd never heard of him.

Riordan has got a reputation as a bit of nutter off the park. That's possibly as he's exposed to his home town Edinburgh. Perhaps putting some distance from Scotland and the fact he's no longer a young man will give you a maturer signing. On the pitch the player is reportedly played in a wide position that's no doubt curtailed his goals to games ratio. Riordan is reasonably two footed and isn't bad at all with a dead ball. The guy's a bit typical of many a Scottish player of the past. No shortage of skill but has a well used self destruct button. How much his attitude is down to his home environment is the gamble your club is taking.

That's uncanny! I keep my trombone in an imaginary kitchen.

Up until a day or so ago I wouldn't have believed Paul Hartley would be playing for Alloa next season. Seems he's not hangin' up his boots after all and will be player manager instead of just manager. That's if Brown Ferguson doesn't keep him out the team

I'm not really au fait with facebook stuff but I found these photos HERE Presumably they get updated regularly. Think it's excellent that Thistle are represented by such a large contingent.

18 months is a hell of a long time for anyone to be in management at Livingston. Bollan I reckon has been there even longer. Some sort of record .

That's why I can't follow HJ's assertion that Livinghell is the best away match of the season. Falkirk Stadium must be about half the travel time from Linlithgow than Almondvale. Main road, cheaper taxi fare. and less likely to throw up.

Worth remembering they have absorbed the VAT increase as well

Not a mail bomb we're told but a suspicious substance turns up in Cowdenbeath. My guess, it was a bar of soap.

More or less what I was saying in a previous post tho' by using a bit of creative accounting I think we can expect to score more than 44 goals. Doolan scored 7 goals in the last third of the season suggesting he could manage over 20 next season. Similarly our scoring rate over that period of 17 goals backs that up. Just an opinion but if we could sign Stewart he'd chip in with a good few and certainly make more chances than we were doing. Fraser should improve and Burns is a lot stronger than he was this time last season. Bannigan has scored a few for Ayr as well. Still feel even using above optimism that we'd fall short of that extra 22 goals. Obviously we need to get the left back situation sorted and imo re-signing Stewart is almost as crucial. To repeat after that we'd need to send one or even two of the young strikers out on loan to bring in a proven Div 1 striker. Not sure the budget will even stretch that far.

Don't know if this is the point HJ is making or not but to challenge for the league we need to score considerably more goals than we did this season. Dunfermline's goals for was 50% higher than ours. Whether or not Doolan was top league scorer is largely irrelevant. I do tho' think that the momentum towards the end of the season suggested we would score more freely next season and with that in mind re-signing Tommy Stewart has to be a priority.

I suppose even the blandest of grounds have some attraction if you're willing to travel the best part of ten miles to that ground. But by your logic surely then Falkirk must be a better away match than Livingston?

We finished 13 points behind Morton that season. Even with Rae bankrolling them they only won the league by 8 points the following season. We wouldn't have been at the races. Would have been virtually a one man team (Roberts). Tho' on the bright side we'd have been able to hold on to the likes of Stevie Nicholas

I guess we're more or less in agreement. It's just I believe that clubs further up the peckin' order will be aware why he's been poorer last season. One thing tho' if both Harris & Boyle are looking to better themselves it will make it more difficult for both to get sorted out so you might well be right about our chances.

If it was of no real league significance to us I wouldn't turn up for that game. At the same time I'd be more than miffed if I did turn up I was getting turfed out my usual seat for that mob.

I've just been assuming Harris would be well outside our wage structure. I reckon the only reason he was a bit off the ball last season was what happened up at Dundee coupled with the Q o S situation. Harris also looks adaptable. Seen him play in the McNamara/Storrie role (albeit at reserve level) and I think he played left centreback at the last game at Firhill. I do tho' find it hard to believe we could sign him on terms that Boyle would knock back.

Even if Swankie was a player we wanted I gotta feeling he's tied to the East. With the wages we have on offer his travel expenses would be relatively high. Now there's a charming young lad on Arbroath's books that is from our neck of the woods. Think he's called Adam somebody or other

Think the lad's name is Baxter*. If that's him he has tremendous attitude and in that respect reminds me of Big Boab. I'd be surprised if he steps up. I've seen another lad Pierce(?)* as well but never looked as accomplished as McGeough on the other flank. Also seen McGeough play left back for 45 mins and he looks like he would, if we re-sign him, be alright as cover in an emergency. In answer to your question I don't think we have a younger player in waiting for that position. * got a feeling I might have got a name wrong.

Could it not be that your Dad brought you to Firhill for those reasons? My Dad wasn't a Glaswegian tho' by the time he took me to Firhill he'd lived in the city for about 25 years. He still supported his home town team but steered me away from the ugly sisters, who he detested in equal measures, by introducing me to Firhill. Later that first season neighbours took me to the Rangers v St Mirren cup final. I can still remember clearly enough being put off that evil lot even tho' they won the game and that was supposed to be them happy. Celtic fans had rioted like spoiled kids at Ibrox in the semi when St Mirren beat them so I was already turned off that ugly lot as well. Think the point I'm making is that if it wasn't for the bigotry etc that goes hand in hand with following either of the OF I, and I suspect a lot of others, would not necessarily be supporting Thistle. That's different from stating you support the Jags because they're anti-bigotry etc.

Assuming both Hodge and Boyle are leaving we need at least one genuine left sided defensive player. If we only sign one he has to be primarily a full back of course but ideally also versatile. I don't think this is going to be easy and it's possible Boyle won't sign with another club for a couple months. So if we don't give up on re-signing him finding a replacement could be very last minute. Re-signing Rowson and to a lesser extent Stewart have to be the next priorities. I would hope that in either case getting decisions won't drag on.

I don't know if HJ is meaning in addition to Stewart or not but I'd put Stewart on as a priority signing. I still think if financially possible a Div 1 experienced striker should be up there in the priority stakes with maybe one of the younger players going out on loan. All tho' secondary to signing Stewart.