exiledjag

Firstly let me say that I like Jamie Sneddon and consider him to be one of the best shot stoppers in the Championship. I also think Marshall is a competent keeper. Shot stopping is the big box to be ticked in the modern game. The other is good distribution. The ideas that keepers should dominate their 6 yard box, command their penalty box and catch everything in the air are old hat. Coaches take the view that these are now the responsibilities of the defence. This is why you see very few keepers wandering too far from their line. To the ICT game. 1. First goal. Jamie was left totally exposed as the left side of our defence , including Fitzpatrick, completely abandoned that side of the Park. While recognising the above my first thought when I saw where Jamue was positioned was that he had got it all wrong. He was far to close to his near post and IMO needed to be at least another yard towards the middle of his goal. From that position he could cover both sides of the goal more effectively. So regrettably my conclusion is that he was partly at fault and would have saved the shot had he been correctly positioned. 2. The second goal. Again partly to blame. The ICT Player blocked him but he got little support from his defence. We should have had two defenders between Jamie and the ICT player who sould have jostled him out of the way even to the extent of forcing the referee to delay the corner kick and warn all concerned.. Also IMO the ref should have awarded a foul against the ICT player for obstruction. With hindsight Jamie has to be much better at dealing with these situations. Third goal. I didn't see Jamie at fault here. The defence though allowed ICT to make too many passes in our box Jamie moved to his left than to his right going with the flow of the game. He was moving from his right back towards the middle of his goal (again following the flow of the game) when an unmarked ICT player received and then passed the ball into the side of the goal Jamie was moving away from. That was why he couldn't get his body down to the ball but he was a whisker away from blocking it with his foot. No blame for Jamie with this goal but poor defensively especially in failing to mark a player standing 12 yards or less from our goal. In summary I feel Jamie was partly to blame for the first two goals and our defence for all 3. Who would want to be a Thistle Goalkeeper playing behind that defence? Get O'Reilly in and let's be more aggressive in dealing with opposition players trying to block our keeper.

I agree that for us the critical games are v Hibs and Hearts. To finish 6th for the second consecutive season represents an amazing achievement. To finish 5th would be excellent and to finish 4th would be unbelievable. To achieve 5th we have to keep our record v Hibs by taking at least 4 points from the two games we will have with them. To finish 4th we have to do something we haven't done this season - take points from Hearts! I have followed Thistle for over 60yrs and no one will be more pleased than me if our Ladies can finish in 4th or 5th place.

Thanks for mentioning that but I was aware of the further fixtures. Notwithstanding the great season and progress the Ladies have made under Graham do you really think our league position will be better than it is at the moment once we have completed the remaining fixtures?

1-1 v Hibs is a good result and I think I am correct in saying they haven't beaten us this season. Unfortunately to finish 5th we need to beat Celtic (away) and hope Hibs dont beat Rangers at home.

graham on the other hand was clearly fuming and correctly saw it as two points dropped. Apparently he is the same with the ladies team. At a recent post match interview in addition to lots of praise and constructive comments he mentioned he is "always banging on about hitting the target"

That was because Livinston were an exceptional Championship team but more to the point we were crap. If I recall accurately we also had some players who appeared to have given up and who didn't seem to care, such as Osman. Against RC we had a very good team, playing great football and had the right attitude - no comparison to the Osman team.

I agree with your views about the size of the leagues and the timing and the ability of the 3rd or 4th place club when it comes to planning and signing players for the following season. As far as your other comments are concerned we remain apart. The 36 v 38 game comparison just doest register with me. By completion of the play- off games Ross County would have played 40 games, the Jags 42. I don't see any detriment to the SPL club in the number of games played. In fact there is a definite advantage for the SPL club especially when the timescale over which the play-off games are played Is taken into account. I would find the system a bit fairer and therefore more acceptable if the play-off final games were played a week apart rather than 2 or 3 days. This should give the Championship team enough recovery time to complete for 90 mins and not 70 mins. We also have to consider if the SPL Club in 11th place is worthy of retaining their place in the SPL in addition to whether or not the Championship Club is worthy! I have no doubt the Jags team that played Ross County was more than worthy of SPL membership as we outplayed RC for 160 minutes of the final until fatigue and the referee intervened. I agree with the Brechin Chairman who has stated the Pyramid System is past its sell by date in its current form and that for Non-League Clubs, League 2 should be more accessible. This would I suspect mean reconstruction all the way through to the SPL. Try getting clubs like St Mirren and Ross County to vote for this!

There is no doubt finishing second is financially significanly more beneficial that finishing 3rd or 4th. The benefits of playing 4 play-off games though instead of 6 should not be underestimated. I did not detect any signs of fatigue in the 4 games we played beating Queens Part and Ayr. I did detect fatigue in the second half of the 5th game against Ross County at Firhill. I believe this is why we failed to build on our HT lead.. Had we finished second instead of 4th then I believe we would have won the play-off final by virtue of being required to play only 4 games and been promoted to the SPL ( inspite of the referee's performance). We weren't beaten by Ross County we were beaten by a play-off system which is fundamentally unfair, lacks football integrity and is stacked in favour of the SPL club which finishes 11th.

I was only able to watch the second half but saw the first half goals in HT highlights. Nice to see Rudden score but he was offside. Goal should have been disallowed. Raith got a break there. The winning goal was a beauty. A goal of the season candidate. One thing that was confirmed for me tonight is that we aren't as good as Raith or Dundee Utd. I don't think we are able to play at the speed or intensity of either of these teams. If budget allows I hope Doolan can inject some pace, toughness and resilience into our squad for next season. We are capable of beating both RR and DU in a game of football but I don't think we can live with either over a season with our current squad. We may well have a fight on our hands to stay in 3rd place holding off Morton. Sorry to be so cheerful tonight.

I would like a Dundee Utd win tonight. Raith appear to be having a difficult time recently. A defeat tonight and a win for us at ICT will cut their lead over the Jags to 4 points. This might make them feel the pressure building. I think we will beat ICT 3-1 with Graham scoring 1 or 2. Would also be good if Morton lost away to Queens Park. My forecasting has been poor this season so expect wins for Raith. ICT and Morton.

⁷.8 Thanks for this. We can add this decision to the many ridiculous decisions given against us over the years by at best incompetent or at worst biased (and therefore by definition, dishonest referees. I include the 3 decisions given against us at Dinwall. Sorry I am having difficulty moving on from this because I find it difficult to accept that any referee can be incompetent to such an excessive degree. On the positive side that was a wonderful performance by the ladies. Although aided by some poor finishing by rangers and often on the back foot the ladies were determined, dogged and resilient. The players constantly harassed the rangers forwards and forced them to take their chances first time and always under pressure. When they did get through they found an inspiring performance from out keeper. Easdon was so agile and assured. She must have given the defence confidence. An excellent all round performance. A big well done to players and management/coaches and a big thank you for cheering me up after Livingston.

Aren't Livingston, in addition to SPL revenue, also heavy spondored by the Tony Macaroni Restaurant Business.

I was at both these games as well. Alex Ferguson was Dunfermline's centre forward. The league game was a very exciting 0 -0 draw. Both teams missed good chances. But I recall we were fortunate to get away with a draw. According to the Jags Official History Book the attendance was 7000. The following week the Jags, after failing to score the previous week, scored the opening goal in the first or second minute. The Official History credits Billy Cunningham with the goal but I thought Tommy Rae was the goal scorer. However Dunfermline grew into the game and I think Ferguson equalised half way through the second half. The attendance is recorded as 19,104. I think these attendance figures prove your point about the magic of the Cup. The replay at East End Park is best forgotten 5-1 Dunfermline.. Arthur Duncan scored a consolation goal and the attendance was recorded as 16500. At least we got some dosh! That season 1966/67 we finished 12th in the League with 30 points. Hearts were 11th also with 30 points but with a superior goal difference. Dunfermline finished 8th with 38 points. Celtic wom the League. St Mirren and Atr were relegated.

How did Mr Walsh do. Bbc shows we had 4 yellow cards and Livingston had 2. Also, seems we didn't have a goal attempts in extra time. Have to say? Like many others when it went to 2-1 I had nothing but negative feelings.

Why are we not playing O'Reilly. Not even on bench today. Is he cup tied/ Injured?

I read that in an earlier post and didn't mention it in mine because I don't think the players should be thinking about historical fact. They should be focused on beating the opposition. Morton have beaten Motherwell so if we beat Livingston that's one Championship team in the quarter final we can beat!

Regarding the actual game. Given the current circumstances/form of both clubs, normally I would ne confident we could take Livingston.. However, there are two conditions: - firstly, we must play well for the full game and not just for 45 mins - secondly we need a fair crack of the whip from the referee. I feel certain we won't get the latter therefore it's a Livvy win! As a Jag I will say c'mon the Jags in spite of Mr Walsh.

We simply can't not react with regards to Walsh. It won't matter if we give him abuse or not he will still give major decisions against us! So IMO we should let him know, that we know what he is and that he is not welcome at zFirhill. I also hope our senior people treat him with the minimum respect and courtesy acceptable and at the end of the game tell him there is a plumbing problem and therefore no hot water available to the referees/match officials suite. I hope the above is vindicative and petulant enough for the moment. I would be grateful for any other ideas in the above mould!

The thought of playing the Jags will have them all shaking at the knees, especially Rangers who will also have to play a cup final against us!

If Nick Walsh is the referee then without doubt Livingston will win. I have never seen the Jags win a game with Walsh as they referee. I know many Jags will dispute this but IMO he cheated us out of promotion at Dingwall with those three outrageous decisions given in favour of RC. He also gave a penalty against us v Killie at Firhill the year they were promoted. From his position he could not possibly have seen what happened. As far as I am concerned he is not impartial when it comes to refereeing the Jags and I hope our fans let him know it.

That's because they have good players, especially Ross. Great win against Spartans tonight. Boyce is proving to be a very good acquisition. 5th place is definitely on now. Assuming Hibs fail to take points versus Rangers and Celtic and we also suffer the same lack of success 5th place will come down to our home game against Hibs. Win and 5th os almost assured. Well done to PT Ladies and of course the management and coaches etc. What a season you are having!

Agree completely with the above. I think BBG will embrace the toughness of this tie and instill into his team that they should enjoy and be positive about it. If we can start on the front foot we can win this tie. What a season the women are having: - a confirmed second top 6 in the league - a cup final v Rangers - a scottish cup quarter final. The women shouldn't have any problems with belief or confidence given the above achievements.

Yes very impressed by the QP no.20. - would be a good summer signing for us. I also thought our keeper was very good. Two very good saves which showed her agility (to get up to the postage stamp corner)and super quick reactions (saving a shot from about 10 yards). Her handling of the ball llooked secure, assured and confident. looks like we are achieving strength in depth in our squad. Very best of luck in the next round and on Wednesday night v Spartans.i

As much as I liked Lyle Taylor I think he is now at Cambridge Utd. So even if he was willing to come back to The Jags I doubt we could afford him. Anyway I think we are OK for Strikers given Doolan won't play two up front.

I agree Dennis was magical. I saw a young McQuade absolutely twist and turn young Danny McGrain inside out in a reserve match at Firhill v Celtic. I think the score was 1-1. He was also brilliant in the League Cup Semi-Final v Falkirk and I think he scored both goals in a 2-0 victory. A great Jag!