lady-isobel-barnett

It's always difficult to select a player if you've only seen them once or twice. I saw Pele at Hampden in the year between 1965 and 1967 and Maradona also at Hampden in '79. Pele was kicked the whole match by Bremner and clearly wasn't going to risk injury. Maradona was excellent but he was allowed to play. Messi, Zidane and Ronaldhino are much more ref protected than the likes of Maradona, Pele and Cruyff ever were. Excluding any player I haven't seen play more than twice the best footballer I've ever seen was Kevin Beattie (Ipswich & England) followed probably by Jim Baxter. The thing tho' with Messi last night that made his second goal so good was the rest of his team were playing out the game and had settled for a one goal win. Messi isn't like that.

I e mailed the Club with something similar to that months ago. Still awaiting the courtesy of a reply

....Well at Forthbank anyway I don't feel anyone can deny that Jocky has done a grand job in turning the fortunes of the Binos around. Prior to Scott's arrival the previous manager, John O'Neil, had seen his team amass a mere 12pts from 16 league games. That's form that would've maybe seen them with a sporting chance of getting a play off place at best. Since his arrival as manager, Albion have picked up a further cracking 5 points in only 18 league games and thus Jocky has directed his team safely into the 2nd Div. Congrats, Jocky, you just can't beat experience. Sadly if only we had moved quicker we could have had him at Firhill .

1/Grand idea about the bing . As manager I'd go with the floral clock but insist on it being digital. 2/A hedge. a)I'd also favour a Brechin style hedge to run the length of the pitch opposite the JHS. I'm no horticulturalist but I believe beech would be suitable as there's no thorns and little chance of a player's top snarling-up. b)The teams could run out thru a natural archway in the hedge. I as a manager, apart from results, want to see the product we serve up more ascetically pleasing and I strongly believe that a beech hedge is a must in modern football. c)Get rid of those tacky dugouts and get some decent wrought iron benches built into the hedge. I'd send Robert Reid to buy them out of Focus on pensioner's discount day. d)As a manager I'm very ambitious and have big plans for Thistle. With that in mind I'd train the beech hedge such that it grows to the size of yon one up at Meikleour near Blairgowrie. That way the Main Stand can be knocked down by those propco people outwith the view of us supporters. Whether we can grow the hedge to a suitable size in the timescale provided is a cause for concern that's why I, as a manager, would have a 50 year plan to take the Club forward. 3/ I'd appoint Gardner Speirs as my assistant not just for his vast football knowledge but also his name sounds like he knows a thing or two about hedges. 4/On matchdays I'm never sure whether I like a manager to be wearing a track suit or a flashy suit so I would wear a tailored jacket with tracky bottoms.

Dryborough Cup semi final played at Firhill early 70s

Ah! but we played QP at St Andrews

How come?

Since our last departure from the SPL I have found myself wanting the team that's ahead in the SPL at around the turn of the year to go on and win that league. So if rangers are ahead I want to see them beat celtic in the two or three remaining league games. If celtic are ahead then vice versa. I don't like to see the title going down to the wire, much preferring the SPL to be undermined by being effectively over as early as possible. This unfortunately is a bad season for me in that respect.

Further Jackie patter here.... John Sullivan isn't even in his grave Meanwhile Maxie has evidently been confirmed as GM.... HERE. Personally I thought wearing his interview suit to the game on Saturday was a bit OTT. Maxie's role now confirmed on official site

Falkirk, anyone?

Likewise. As I posted elsewhere charging us a fiver is still £3.86 too much.

I hope they jail yon annoying thing with the big heid

In time, if not already, the signing of Fox is seen as the turning point of the season. I can't disagree but at the same time I can't put all the blame on Halliwell for our form beforehand. Halliwell had two or often three experienced centrebacks in front of him. Guys like Robertson & McNamara were very shaky at times. You can put that down to lack of confidence in their keeper but I thought they were often as culpable as Halliwell. Another player who was poor in the first couple of months was Rowson. He's usually a slow starter form wise anyway but prior to his injury break he was forever being caught in possession and generally giving the ball away. I mind McCall saying Rowson was playing thru an injury so his poor form could've been down to that. The team seemed to get a boost of confidence when Fox came in. Shame about the number of penalties and just a pity we couldn't score.

You just wouldn't believe the amount of times that came up in conversation in the Star & Garter on Saturday lunchtime.

That wouldn't be a bad incentive but a rollover would create more interest in the following 50/50 and so on. Perhaps that's not possible for legal reasons and anyway as I say I'm not sure how the mechanics could work.

I ticked cash as that gives the option of selling the half time tickets externally. Perhaps another option would be to do away with the 2nd prize and have a rollover prize. Not sure how the mechanics of that would work but imo it would increase sales no end. At this exact moment I've just seen on the telly Charlton Heston parting the Red Sea, so anything's possible.

Can't say the above wasn't on my mind, HJ. Think tho' at present the youth structure is viewed as cost effective. At present

Shames me to say it but I don't think Scotland would draw a large crowd if all our players were involved.

Got a vision of Gus from Drop the Dead Donkey there. As for increasing the price of the 50/50 tickets to get a larger return is on face value false economy. I forget the relevant commercial law but the marketing solution is to sell more at the current price. The tricky bit is of course finding ways of doing that.

That's imo completely correct right up to the last wee bit at least. McCall's principal legacy is not his win/lose ratio rather that he's left the infrastructure within the playing side of the Club that much healthier. That legacy should be enough to ensure the Board don't have to fluke the next appointment. Ironically I sense, despite lunacy in the boardroom, there's a decent chance McCall might not be missed simply because of the playing set up he left us with.

McCall has in the past said Ian Cameron would be a good future manager of Thistle. So I don't find anything startling about him saying it now. McCall also made it clear he envisaged himself, to use the vernacular, going upstairs in the Club in a few years time perhaps with Cameron taking over as manager. I feel tho' his current views are tainted (temporarily at least) since his ultra sudden departure for private reasons. I know he also mentioned professional reasons but, as he hasn't mentioned what those were, they too appear to be "private". There is no such thing this time round as a cheap option when selecting a manager. There's virtually no option but cheap thus the logic would be to go in house. Also I can't believe that there'll be any lengthy initial contract on offer. If Ian Cameron is prepared to give up what I assume will be a sound income and risk it as a Jags manager it shows real commitment and no doubt real self belief as well. If he was to apply I hope the Board treat his application very seriously with or more likely without taking on board McCall's endorsement.

A first step on the ladder coaching role perhaps. Not dissimilar to McNamara this season. Admittedly that's unlikely to happen.

I was told at our last Saturday game at Falkirk there were only four polis inside the ground. That was for a reported crowd of 3735. Obviously our support could have shared the opposite stand with some of the home support but I should imagine the policing costs would have increased significantly. Not sure what point I'm making if indeed any but I'm willing to bet our policing costs will be considerably higher pro rata than that of Falkirk.

I suffer from a condition where I can be both optimistic and pessimistic at the same time. With my glass half full the league has all the makings of being tight and ultra competitive. Apart from whoever wins the play offs, who I imagine will be strong favourites for relegation, it'll be difficult to separate the other nine clubs. Assuming no Dunfermline and neither Dundee nor Livi act silly buggers (big assumption of course) then I can't see an out and out favourite to win the league. Queens have horrendous problems and perhaps Falkirk could join them. Hamilton won't buy their way out of the league and I wouldn't be expecting too much from Morton, Raith & Ross Co (assuming they stay up). With my glass half empty I worry about the pressure on the team to perform. I feel that if they don't our crowd will continue to dwindle. We'll still be stuck with the repetitive boredom of a ten team league. Hamilton and Livinghell bring a very poor support as will the play off winners (unless it's Ayr). The state of our pitch vastly affects entertainment value and so without good results more folk will drift away.

True, but we're talking about the SFL here