lady-isobel-barnett

I reckon Harry is the best header of a ball in the entire squad, tho' I've mainly been judging him defensively. I can imagine sometime in the future (when his pace has dropped off) he'll be deployed as a left centreback. He's a good tackler as it is and genuine left sided centrebacks are often hard to find. On another note I read the Pars lad, Fisher, had to go to hospital due to his head knock. After initial treatment he'd been allowed to play on. Not apportioning any blame, he'd not been fouled and the Dunfermline medical folk had initially check him out. Just rather alarming all the same.

Sneddon could've got booked for time wasting at Starks Pk and we were getting beaten at the time! 😀 To be fair to Jamie he was a bit better with his distribution today. Thought Doolan at least got the substitutions correct and timely. Once again we struggled to keep possession as the second half progressed and didn't see the game out with any comfort. But apart from a couple of errors the backline defence held out well. We were the better of the two teams but we'll play a lot better this season and not come away with three points often enough. Awful match but crosswind conditions like today more or less dictate a poor game.

Maybe getting involved in semantics. Even the best of teams will want to defend a lead, insomuch as they'll "sit back" and try to see a game out. It's more to the point we don't do it well. Many teams may well back off, even defend deep to protect a lead. But it's what they do with the ball once they gain possession. I doubt it's in any manual to immediately punt the ball back to your opponents.

I'm sure you're correct. The only other reason could be fitness/stamina issues. Tend to think that won't be the case, especially with so many subs these days. Tho' of course if you're backing off, ceding possession, you tend to tire faster than a team with the lion's share of the ball.

That's one maybe for Thistle Archive. High scoring one way traffic results in the Reserves/U20s are not that uncommon, tho' I've not been at one in double figures. Over recent years I've witnessed a good few mismatches both for an against. Teams seem to be at their best when they're made up primarily of youngsters bolstered by no more than two or three genuine squad players. The former try like hell and the latter provide that wee bit of experience but don't give anything like 100%. Certainly there's usually two agendas going on. Play to win and play for fitness reasons. I'm just speculating but in this instance with so many squad players there was a making up the numbers/keep my fitness level/don't for ****s sake get injured attitude prevalent. So you can end up with one team taking the game completely serious whilst the other plays partly under a different priority/attitude. Just giving a guess what happened here. Certainly not justifying it.

Agree entirely. With that in mind it may not be a good idea to have someone as incompetent like Alan Muir reffing any games involving Inverness for the foreseeable future 😀.

Going with a bit of logic here, we should get a result. Raith are clearly a better side than the Pars and we'll be playing on a fair sized grass pitch this time. Therefore we should improve on a one goal defeat. Our home results against Raith & Pars back that up. So a Jags win or at worst, a draw. Unfortunately using logic to predict Thistle results is as pointless as what I hope the Pars will come away with. If we get ahead we'll have to win those second balls higher up the pitch, and hold onto a bit of possession . Can't just back off waiting for loose balls to aimlessly punt back to the other lot. Thinking if there's a change in goals it will be as much to do with poor recycling as individual error. Jamie did have a couple of good saves at Starks to compensate for any goals he was responsible for, and besides I wouldn't normally want to see our goalie dropped after one poor game. Factor in his regular poor use of the ball and I feel a change in goal is warranted. For sheer shot stopping Sneddon may be slightly ahead of Mitchell but the latter recycles the ball a fair bit better and quicker.

Not sure I like the idea of signing "player z". Would that not mean we've missed out on twenty five others?

Go back 6 months and I'd have been delighted to think we would be in third place. In all honesty I'd have been pleased to be third bottom. I worried about having to rebuild our side and introduce the younger lads to regular first team football. I doubt there'll be any complacency within the squad. In fact I sense we're a bit the other way, running hot and cold confidence wise.

Was thinking that myself. However the overriding factor imo is Jamie's slow deliberate distribution is more or less inexcusable. The opposition just see more of the ball and launch more attacks and in turn give him more work.

I'm on your side of the fence but I don't tho' think it's all tactics and there's a wee bit of dynamics involved. The tactics part of trying to hold onto a lead is centred around all getting behind the ball and avoiding tackles that if lost can wrongfoot the team. That is understandable as our ball winning ability is poor and picking up second and/or intercepting balls more to our taste. The bit of seeing a game out I don't believe is tactics is the lack of possession once we've reclaimed the ball. Just clearing our lines and speculative punts upfield inevitably result in yet another attack to defend. Apart from Bannigan (Lawless to a lesser degree) we don't have a player who will retain the ball and pass to a player only when he's in position to retain the ball himself. Put simply our lack of possession defending a lead is very poor. The very thing that gets on a lot of the support's goat earlier in a game (over deliberate lateral passing across the back four/Bannigan's non positive passing etc) goes missing when all we have to do is retain possession. When we do get the ball forward we lose it too quickly. Cliché alert, if the opposition haven't possession they can't score and do your defending in the opposition's half. Btw I'm generalising rather than singling out last night. A good few mitigating factors in play, mainly re conditions and Raith are obviously a good outfit well versed in playing 90 plus minutes at good pace.

I'd like to thank fenski for his las three posts 👍. Saves repetition from me.

Absolutely daft

St Jude?

Our first outing on plastic for sometime. Been enjoying the grass parks. Raith seem to win all their games by a single goal and they've a habit of scoring very late on as we found out to our cost. And we've a near chronic habit of defending too deep and generally not seeing a game out very well. Besides maybe Easton they don't appear to have any out and out star players. And apart from the one solitary match they lost, Rovers have scored in every game. Reckon we could score a few goals and still not come away with three points. Not that confident and would consider a draw a decent outcome.

Mens HHHH HAAA AAHA HAAA 👍

Said better than I can put it. The Club asking for volunteers isn't that far removed from the Club asking for donations. Time is money and all that.

He probably could plus he very good with high balls. Far more likely to see Neilson in that role if we were to sign a left sided centreback. Like defensive mids there's not likely to be many if any suitable LCBs available in January. Think Doolan would be biting hands off for either position.

Good point. I thought we deserved the three points. If the two halves were reversed (poor first half/good second half) then I reckon views would be more favourable. That tho' is not to say that we "managed" the game well. A recurrent theme, so obvious yesterday, is ceding possession when we're ahead in a game. I understand the idea of not competing for first balls, backing off to pick up the loose ball. It's when we get the ball we lose it again cheaply. Even when he's not at his best at least Bannigan (to a lesser extent, Stanway) usually helps keep team possession. Too much perhaps when we're chasing a game but helpful when we're ahead. Not enough players appear to have the same mindset. All that punting the ball contributes to defending too deep.

I'm sure you're not alone in thinking that, and it would be a very hard task to convince people of the same opinion anything otherwise. It is tho' what we've got in place at the moment. I guess it's up to us* to come up with another vehicle, which will be at the very least just as effective. *deliberately being vague in using the word "us".

Gotta mind Williams is playing on his weaker side and I don't think he's played much as a fullback on either side of the pitch. Certainly tho' wouldn't want to see him play as casual in his preferred central position. Don't really feel Wasiri is much of a worry as a stand in fullback. Would tho' be a concern if he was being played for a prolonged period especially on the left flank.

One thing that can be said is we kept our discipline. Constantly getting behind the ball, not committing to tackle and soaking up attack after attack takes some organisation. Not that such a tactic is necessarily a game winner. The difference between first and second halves was where we were ceding first balls all match in the first half we were winning most second balls. After the break we just backed off time after time content only to win loose balls. I actually think there wasn't that much difference today with the way we approached Queen's park game. Certainly much the same with regards to today's second half and the way we played after going three up last week. Not seeing a game out effectively has been a recurrent fault all season.

You're not know, Aberdeenjag, but the "wee man" is around 6ft 2 in 😃

Am I alone in thinking there's two completely different discussions going on in this thread?

Our win against QP was a real team performance. So apart from Adeloye I can only see any enforced changes thru fitness. I'm assuming Williams will start ahead of Milne as the latter won't be near 100%.