exiledjag

It's a difficult set of decisions facing the manager. The first decision is do we want to win the game or not? If so then we have to field a team that will achieve this (or at least not lose the game). This decision also has to take account of Ayr's position as well and the determination they will show to avoid being sucked into the play-off position. This means a strong team along normal lines with perhaps only one or two regulars rested - on the bench. If the strategy is to focus on the play-offs then it's anybodies guess what our team will be tonight. I hope the manger decides we go for winning the game and fields a strong team! Afraid I still fall into the one game at a time scenario as I don't think resting 5 or 6 players is right if it will risk a 4-5 goal thumping. Means Raith only need to beat Killie by 4 or 5 goals which could be easily achieved against a hung over or very weakened Killie!!

I would love to go tomorrow but stuck for transport so have to give this game a miss. We need to win this game tomorrow to ensure a place in the play-offs.

As I have said previously I have not been particularly interested in who owns the club as long as the owners have the best interests on the club at heart. My main concern as someone who has supported the Jags for over 60 years is the continuing existence and development of the club I love. I am now particularly concerned that the transfer of shares has become a political issue and fearful that participates lose sight of the main objective and that is the well being of the club and all that it stands for! At some point the Board of Directors (of PTFC) and the fans representative body be it TJF or some other body are going to have to sit down and talk through the issues. The adversarial positions now being adopted will not serve the club well. I am will in future pay more attention to this issue as I am now mire than ever fearful that we may not have a future.

An very good weekend for us but a pity Hamilton couldn't make it a full house!

Totally agree. The play-off system iin Scotland s a nonsense and unfair We should have the same play-off model as that in England that is, two semi-finals and a final.

I have never been convinced about fan ownership compared with the traditional model of ownership. I am however more intetested in the transfer of the land back to PTFC. Does this represent is a significant advantage for the future development of the club or a millstone around our collective neck. The tone of the statement from 3BC sounds like they want to wash their hands of PTFC and as quickly as possible.

I know we weren't very good tonight and we haven't been very good since the turn of the year or as his admirers might say since post-Rudden. I do think though we should give the team credit for sticking to the task even when the flow of the game was going against them. I didn't see any lack of fight or commitment - but read the next paragraph. I still feel our main problem is that we have players who make very little real impact on the game excepting the occasional good moment. Players like Smith, Crawford and I hate to say it, Turner! Consequently our midfield always seems to be on a scale of struggling to being overrun! I don't doubt the commitment of these player but I do doubt their ability to make a difference. Turners dead ball skills being the exception. One thing though, and not an excuse, but I haven't seen a game where the run of the ball favoured one side so much. Every loose ball, deflection, rebound and ricochet seem to go to a Queens player. Not to take anything away from the VG play of Gibson Paton, and Connolly and other Queens players this run of good fortune certainly made their good performance easier! We can now look forward to the Raith game and more so if Morton can beat them tomorrow. .just one question - where has the free flowing football of the first half of the season gone?

Hope your 'wee feeling' equates to a win for the Jags. Games v QotS, excusing the rare exception, always seem to me to be hard and tight! Three points would put a bit of pressure on Raith who don't have an easy game on Saturday.

Correct - read that yesterday. Dundee Utd already promoted to SWPL so one more team to go. This is great news for PTWFC and allows Graham and his management team to plan earlyvfor next season (where have I heard this before?). As far as I can see we need the squad to: - improve fitness and athleticism - have more pace throughout the team but especially in defence. I think but not sure about the goalkeeper position. I thought we signed a really good keeper but did we have two keepers on long term injury absence. A keeper who can reach the high shot where the flight of the ball is just under the crossbar would be good. I think though this is true of most teams in the SWPL. We have some really good players and the technique and commitment of the players is impressive. Cup semi-finals - brilliant!

A promising golfer then!

You are probably more correct in your assessment of the game than I am. There is so much negativity on this thread about the management, team and individual players I felt the need to do a bit of flag waving! At the start of the season with less than 350K compared to every team we would be playing most fans had settled for a mid-table position with no mention of relegation or at best 4th place. Yet two to three weeks ago we were actually in the mix for the Title and definitely punching above our weight (at least compared to our financial resources)! Some chickens have come home to roost in the past few weeks, for example, our lack of depth up front, injuries and ill-health, the state of our pitch and the impact on the team generally of playing two games a week. Others would add losing Rudden to the above. Yet here we are still in 4th place and at worst perhaps 5th after today's result. In other words exactly where many fans at the start of the season hoped we would be. I agree that the squad needs a big overhaul for next season but I think a lot of the criticism of all things Partick Thistle comes from the built up and now diminished hopes of possibly winning the league or at worst finishing second to now struggling to hold fourth place. We need to be realistic this squad was never SPL quality.

We can take a lot of positives from the Killie game. We played well, looked more like a football team and but for a late save by the Killie keeper might have got a draw! So looking forward to tomorrow's game and the fact we appear to have grass on the pitch, another positive, I think we will finally beat Arbroath. Going for 2-1 the Jags!

Good so many positives! Just in time gor Arbroath next week. A win against them and our confidence will soar!

Raith Rovers and ICT have had their bad spells of runs of games without a win. In fact didn't ICT go 11 or 12 games without winning and only ended that with the recent victory over Arbroath? It looks like it's our turn now. The worrying thing is the manner of our defeats. We seem to be a total shambles and the goals we are losing are many and ridiculous. It's worrying that not only do we appear to have lost confidence but the great team spirit and never say die attitude I have praised before appears to have gone as well. This is why I am inclined to think there is more to the point made earlier that there is something going on behind the scenes at Firhill. The loss of confidence and belief is sudden and frightening. McCall will need all his experience to sort this out.

Apologies for quoting myself - i know its not the polite thing to do. Well looks like I got the score correct but not the way I thought or hoped it would be! Obviously a very poor result today confirming we are clearly on a bad run and unless there is a big turn in fortunes a top 4 place is now in serious doubt! I think what this result shows is that we are dependent on too few players, Tiffoney, Graham and Foster would certainly have made a difference today. So another season in the Championship beckons. Smith must go as will Hendrie and McAllister. Jakubiac and Mayo will return to Dundee and Rangers respectively. I think we will be fortunate to hold onto Tiffoney while Graham has a limited shelf life. So big changes next season regardless of what happens from this point to the end of the season.

If we dont win tomorrow I may even begin to do the our ability to finish in the top 4. 4- 0 Jags.

I liked Fox in his first spell with us thereafter no! I think this mistake illustrates the arrogance of the man!

Just seen this post so I am a bit behind. The explanation, going back to 2012 and the general debate, was that the Company that owned Rangers FC had gone bust but Rangers FC had not! Try getting your head around that for an argument. This rationale was offered at the time by Neil Doncaster as part of his reasoning that Rangers should not be relegated from the Scottish Premier Leasgue as they were in fact not a new club! He clearly lost that argument!

I am not sure it was a loan signing and given the name of the striker I assumed it was a "proper' signing! The striker was McKenna (Arbroath). Can't recall where I read this but seemed our offer of FT football fell through because we couldn't match his combined PT football & FT job earnings. I have no idea if this is factual or speculation but IMC I believe knows what needs to be done to improve the team so giving him the benefit of the doubt I believe he would have tried to sign strikers in the window. I think we ended up with Jakubiak and Alegria because he simply couldn't get a striker and the window was closing.

A good topic as its always good to stop the clock and take stock of any situation. As usual a lot of interesting points being made some reflecting a half empty view others a half full. Although I am prepared to be critical of some things our manager does or doesn't do he has nevertheless got my full support. There is no doubt in my mind that in a football sense the club is in a better position than it was compared with the last 18 months under Archibald and Caldwell's entire period as our manager. I am not familiar with our financial position but the two main detrimental issues were the distribution of the funds from the Scottish Govt and the pitch sharing arrangement with Queens Park. The former left us £350k adrift of other FT clubs and the latter with a playing surface that fails to compliment the way the manager wants to play football. However as a football team I think we are doing well and I can see progress. I won't repeat all the points already made but if we can finish second I think we have a reasonable chance of promotion. If we finish lower then I doubt we will be promoted. In terms of the balance of the team I give the manager the benefit of the doubt in that I am sure he knows were he needs new players and what type of players and I am sure he has tried to address this. He does though have to work with the funds he has which are potentially significantly less than he would have had due to the unfair and in our case the malicious decision to distribute the support fund already mentioned. In closing I don't think it's news to say that in the past 4/5 weeks we haven't been playing well, at least not for 90 minutes, I think this has added to the normal frustration levels we as Jags fans suffer and I think may have influenced some of the negative opinions on this threadwe need therefore to keep focused on the big picture and not let the bumps get out of perspective. After all, we are thistle. .

Agree. Good post.

I tend to agree with most of the post match points made on this thread. IMC's post match assessment puts most of the blame for the result on 'tired legs' after the 60th minute. In summary we were OK for 60 minutes but after that struggling. The cause too many games in too short a period. I think this makes sense and as has been said many of the players looked leggy! What I don't accept is that after scoring in 5 minutes that we can't score more goals especially when on top in those 60 minutes. I am not too bothered about Rudden going for reasons already stated but notwithstanding my support for IMC he really needed to bring in a striker who can score goals. I have heard he did try to bring in a goalscoring striker but in the end we couldn't match his wages. So he did try. But the facts are our goalscoring since the turn of the year has been poor.

This is definitely a poor result and brings Raith and ICT back into the race not only for 3rd but also 2nd place. We are going to have to find a 90 mimute game and some goals to secure not only a top 4 but a 2nd place finish. I w was intrigued by Dick Campbell's remarks after our recent draw when he said there were a lot of tired legs in the dressing room. I wondered if this meant Arbroath, being a part time team, were starting to find it tough going. If so I expect them to drop points which will open up the fight for 2nd. We really have to beat Hamilton and Dunfermline.

Just read Alan Archibald's match preview and find it a bit worrying. He is expecting Morton to be "in our faces" to stop us playing. I agreecwith this assessment. However the general tone of his preview is that Morton will play as they did at Firhill - be on the defensive. I hope he is correct because as the home team I think Morton will attack us at every opportunity and try to dominate possession. If they are defensive it will not be because they choose to play that way it will be due to the Jags dominating the game. I think his tone is a little on the arrogant side.

We now need to win at Cappilow tomorrow to maintain the 'advantage' of our games in hand to stay in contention for the league. Walking the tightrope goes on!!