exiledjag

And of course this bad run happens to coincide with injuries to 4 of our best and most influential players. We are not wealthy enough as a club to to have 15-20 players of the standard of the 4 missing players. I agree with you that we should be able to defend a 2 goal lead but this squad has had the confidence knocked out of it and defensively has very little resilience. Given that there is no sign of Docherty, Tiffoney, Holt or Graham returning then we must not lose to Arbroath or Hamilton or we will be fighting relegation. Things not looking good for the immediate future but doubt IMC will be sacked!

Just need Rudden to score and its the Ross County game (of the Caldwell era) all over again.

20 mins to go, 2-2 and down to 10 men. Draw would be a great result but can anyone see us getting it. Come on Jags give us a breakaway goal!

Dundee's substitutes suggests they are really going to go after us this half! What can we do if anything in response???

Let's not get carried away. 2-0 up still the second half to come. I reckon we need 3 more goals to be safe!!

Sorry gor stating the obvious but we are clearly on a very bad run so it's not a surprise the management team are under pressure. I think this pressure, which has been there even prior to our bad run and has now increased, is in part down to the fact that as fans we have never been convinced of the effectiveness of the current management structure. Two assistant managers just doesn't seem to work and especially when one of them is Archibald whose recent tenure at Firhill has been one of failure. We also as fans are becoming immersed in the politics associated with the ownership of the club, the influence of Jacquie Low and of course the abject failure of the team on the park. We have to bear in mind we are without, arguably, our 4 best players at the moment - Graham, Docherty, Tiffoney and Holt! In addition we are playing others who are not fully fit. Any team in the league would miss their 4 best players. What is not acceptable is the total lack of spirit, fight and the attitude that defeat is inevitable. I have been a supporter of IMC and still am but even my clock is ticking. If this run does not stop soon he shouldn't be with us at the end of November. I wouldn't be against Graham being given a chance.

1-1 (Hodson) My heart is beginning to beat faster. There's still hope! Come the Jags.

I think we are setting up the team to minimise the number of goals we lose. Not being wise after the event (Aberdeen and QP) I had concerns about this game when I looked at the forthcoming fixtures a few weeks ago. I was concerned, as others are, with the big striker Akinyemi, who seem to be able to play football as well as being big and strong. Can we sign his in the Janusry window.

Not at the game today. Agree we have been sailing close to the wind for a few weeks but honestly didn't see this hammering coming. For some unexplainable reason I had a bad feeling about this game but not as bad as this scoreline. When I saw the 'weird' formation I thought it was dictated by the absence of Docherty and Holt. Perhaps, like the end of last season we are starting our 'bad run' and hopefully it won't be terminal!

Took the words right out of my mouth. IMC was, with some on this thread, in a no win position. Attack and get beat and he is clueless, useless, got his tactics wrong etc, etc. Set up for a defensive approach lose 1-0 and he lacks imagination, courage, not trying to win the game and we should have gone for it because Aberdeen were there for the taking and so on. Aberdeen had 17 goal attempts and got 6 on target we managed 10 & 6 respectively. Dundee went to Ibrox made 5 goal attempts and got 0 on target. There manager said he was proud the way his team contained Rangers but felt they could have done more! I prefer our statistics. When we talk of our manager not having a clue I think we need to look at the league table in Scotland's most competitive league! IMC is doing a lot better than Gary Caldwell , who didn't gave a clue!

I agree with all the sentiments expressed on this thread about belief, going for it etc. I believe we have players who can stretch Abredeen, Tiffony, Graham, Lawless plus two good attacking full backs in McMillan and Milne. We can also bring on from the bench good players like Turner, Dowds, Brownlie and Fitzpatrick I don't see why we can't give Aberdeen a good game. They are starting to find a bit of form but they are nowhere near as good as Aberdeen teams of the past. Let's get right into them. As a morale booster tonight's result at ICT means our result v Hamilton is looking a lot better plus we play this cup tie as Championship League Leasers. Come on the Jags.

Reading the comments about how we didn't play well or move the ball around etc made me wonder if there was a reason for this other than we were just off form. It didn't seem to be because Hamilton were better. I noticed from the games statistics Hamilton committed 21 fouls. The highest of any team in the championship by far! Perhaps this was a deliberate tactic to fragment the flow of the game and stop us playing the free-flowing attacking football demonstrated in the 6-1 hammering we gave them last season. If this was the case then some Hamilton players must have been repeat offenders so would have expected more than 2 yellow cards for Hamilton players. However such a tactic would be to subtle for Barry Cook as he doesn't know a goal when he sees one even when the ball hits the back of the net (ghost goal v Morton)!

Brilliant. Another one please. Up the jags

Had a feeling a Hamilton goal was coming. They seem to have started the second half better than us! Their tails will be up now. Come on the Jags- up the tempo!

Good point. Smith would have been nowhere near anything.

I agree with this. At the moment it's all about the Jags. I mean that if we turn up with the right attitude there is no team in this league we should fear. We must though apply ourselves and do so gor 90 mins. I also agree that it's too early in the season to be thinking about titles. I do though expect much from ICT and I am waiting on Dundee to get their act together (or get a new manager). When you consider there is also Raith, Ayr, Queens and Arbroath the league looks competitive to me. Queens are showing some consistency, Arbroath are staring to win agsin and still have a couple of big players to come back into the team, Raith can take points off everyone but are inconsistent and Ayr might be slipping a little. Everything up for grass. 3 points tonight would be great but if ICT play well, which I think they will, I would be happy with what would be a good point.

Agree with all of the above. I think the point I was leading to was that to gain the maximum from these results a win on Friday v ICT would be great. Nothing more. I do though have one or two concerns. It is inevitable (I think) that we will have a run of poor results and that challengers will have a run of good results. My concern is does this squad have the character and mental strength to regain the momentum? My other concern is our manager's ongoing belief in Smith over other players such as Turner. IMO Smith contributes nothing to the team and has had a more than fair chance to show what he can fo and has failed. IMC needs to make a decision here. We can't go up against, for example the likes of Aberdeen, ICT, & Dundee with a passenger in the team.

Cove 3 - 1 Dundee Queens Park 1 - 2 Morton Tuesday nights results are IMO unexpected. I did think Cove might sneak a draw against an inconsistent Dundee side but thought that after our 5 - 1 defeat of Morton on Saturday Queens were sure to pick up 3 points. There is no doubt we should have beaten Cove but last night's results make our results against Cove and Morton look even better. Now if we can beat ICT on Friday we will put a little more daylight between ourselves and the rest.

Imrie will set Morton up to frustrate and to hit on the break. In returnand in general, our midfield has to move the ball quickly to our wide players and keep the pressure on their full backs. This will (I hope) destabilise their central defence. We also have to play to the final whistle. If we can do this then we should win.

In October we have 4 away games (ICT, Hamilton, Ayr & Raith) and 2 home games (Morton & Queens Park). If we are still top of the league after these games then I would say we are genuine title contenders. However I would settle for still being in touch with the leader and in the top 4. Why are my aspiration so modest? Well we can't defend against set piece plays and we are not clinical in front of goal! I won't be looking to sack the manager as long as we are in the top 4.

Please excuse the many typos towards the end. Contribution was too lengthy for someone of my age and like the Jags I ran out of 'energy and concetration' at the end.

Totally agree wit your comments about possession turning into goals. This weakness of not scoring enough goals is a historic one and not unique to IMC. The greatest forward line in red and yellow in my life time was Cowan, Whitelaw, Hainey, Duffy and McParland (add Flemming I think when Whitelaw left) and according to Neil Duffy they failed to win the league because they couldn't score enough goals. That forward line was against the likes of the Rangers 5 of Henderson, McMillan, Miller, Brand and Wilson. Kilmarnock had players like McInally, McIlroy, Sneddon and the aging Andy Kerr. We have just never been able to afford a prolific goal scorer and when we occasionally find a good goalscorer we can't afford to keep him, for example, the afore mentioned Andy Kerr, McAdam, Melrose, Somner and Bone. Dominating some games snd not turning possession into goals has been a Thistle trait for as long as I have been a Jags fan and that's over 60 years. I suspect this isn't going to change anytime soon. The answer if we can't score enough goals at one end of the park is not to lose them at the other end. The number of goals lost from set plays is serious. This is something IMC and others can do something about. He has to look at this as a defensive unit problem and that to me means bringing Sneddon back In goal. When he was our No.1 I felt the defence played better as a unit by showing more alertness, awareness, organisation and discipline. With Mitchell in goal the defence seems nervy and disjointed. This isn't all down yo Mitchell as we must forget we are looking, with the exception of Holt and entirely new back 5. All good players individually but not knotting together do far.

So the Cove bogy strikes again. Will probably have to settle for addressing only one bogy (Arbroath) this season

Thanks

No McKinnon?