lady-isobel-barnett

The irony as I see it was, while we were justified in releasing Roberts, a club with a little more finance would have been daft to let him go. Also if we had guys with genuine pace playing up front alongside Mark then we'd have been just as daft not to have kept him. Off the park I don't know if Marko will make it as a coach but on the field I reckon forwards who've played alongside him will have learnt one helluva lot. Gotta strong feeling we won't be seeing Roberts play 1st Div football next season. I just wish we had more dosh to have him back on the books as some sort of player coach.

Tuesday 19th KO 7.30pm

Twinny, think you're wrong. I'm sure a deliberate handball is enough to warrant a yellow card. A deliberate handball preventing a goal is an automatic red card. Certainly seen countless guys get booked for handling the ball when there's no obvious goal scoring opportunity.

Brilliant to see these clips again. Most of them naturally showing his goals but like a lot of truly world class forwards if he'd hardly ever scored Best would still be very highly regarded. Best didn't need to go "to ground easy" simply because of his incredible balance and of course confidence. In a roundabout way that's maybe why so many of today's "stars" fall over at a touch. They lack anything remotely like Best's balance.

Yip. The only thing I can take solace in is if/when we go back up we won't make the same mistakes. By that I mean not having our SPL class players on longer contracts. I'm not sure why I just said that as I've no real confidence we do/will learn from our mistakes. Craigan, Burns, Archie, Hardie should've had extended contracts tied up almost from the outset. edited to add...great tho' it is seeing that clip again there really should've been a CDA* warning posted. *Chick Dung Appearing.

Traditionally in cup finals refs are nearly always over lenient. Tackles that would normally be routine yellows go unpunished and really wild ones that would be reds on another day get downgraded to yellow. Nothing untoward about that and I'm probably in favour of refs using that latitude in such games. However a deliberate handball is an automatic yellow or red and the ref not sending off the big Celtic centreback (already cautioned) is incredible, or more correctly if it didn't favour one of the ugly sisters should be incredible. I'd love to note what the ref puts in his report about that instance.

63 days and counting.

So what? FFS this isn't about column inches.

Agree entirely. I think there's a fine line between promoting an event and glorifying in it. The Club have handled this well. I wasn't aware of any fundraising directly thru PTFC and so imo this remains an enterprise instigated by twelve individuals. The fact eight of those twelve have direct links to the Jags is thus immaterial. We should be both respectful and in admiration of each of the twelve participants. It is tho' great to support a team that can muster so much support for this most worthwhile event. Jags fans everywhere will agree but, deserved or not, it's not the sort of thing you want to court publicity over.

Quite a big if.

Smyth & McCaffrey look a useful pairing. Add in Ross Forsyth at left back and Morton's defence is taking shape. Btw there's a story in the Greenock Telegraph headline "'Ton's Cash Cuts Cost Me Contract" but you need to register to read it. Maybe means Morton think a lot about McCaffrey.

Not too sure you could call Higgins a traditional centre forward or not but he's a nice line in the traditional cliché “It’s all about putting the ball in the back of the net.” (courtesy STV online).

Do you know something we don't. Should we be heading to Willie Hill's before 3pm Sunday?

If you look at it from a positive point of view we're doing this as youngsters have moved up into the first team squad thus weakening the under 19s. I think Bannigan, Fraser, Scully, Lochhead & McGrotty would all have been eligible for next season's under 19s (I'm assuming anyone not 19 by July 11) so requiring trials could be seen as a good think.

I think you're splitting hairs. If we hadn't sold Harkins we'd have owed HMRC so the debt would have been that amount higher.

I can see many a situation arising where we sell a younger player to an SPL or a major English league club and he's immediately loaned back for a season. I wouldn't particularly want to see that with Erskine as he's potential and enough of a contract left to get serious money but it makes financial sense wherever poor cash flow is evident. The buying club are jumping in to get a player that's not quite reached their playing level and the selling club are buying a bit of financial stability against the risk of just potential. The more financially stable a club like us is then the more we can hold on to our prospects and chance realising serious money. To get to that stage of stability first we've got to sell players ahead of that level. I don't want to see that with Erskine but I fully understand why we might have to sell him at a lower fee.

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.