exiledjag

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!!

Booking seats, online system and travel all seem very shambolic. Hope the Morton team is the same.

I suppose this game is one of 9 mustering games!! Only joking. I have been to Cappilow a few times but not for many years given I live in NE Scotland. Its a ground that never impressed me and from vomments on this thread nothing seems to have changed. From memory though I recall it as a ground where we tend not to do well in terms if results. If this is incorrect please feel free to correct me. With Kilmarnock and Arbroath facing potentially difficult games I would settle for a point though would prefer 3. I think we arecgoing to have to score more that 1 goal to win this game andvperhaps as many as 3.

Going back to the ICT game. If ever there was a case for believing in Karma it was that game. Billy Dodds in his after match interview said losing the goal so late in the game was a sore one and hard to take. The rest of his comments implied it was unfair on his players etc. I was waiting on the balancing comment that ICT scored an even later goal, subject to a big deflection as well, 3 weeks earlier getting ICT a 3-3 draw. Isn't Karma sweet when it's good (and especially with reference to Dundee's current plight. Seems I haven't moved on!! I am really interested in statistics and trends etc and find the previous comments interesting. But to simplify matters would we accept a 1-0 victory in all of our remaining games? I would. I'll just phone IMC and order 9 x 1-0s!! That will keep things simple.

Please add: We now score late goals (because we never give up)

The League table is looking much better now and Saturday's games now look even more interesting. Killie away to Ayr who after their demolition of Raith will be full of confidence and know they are able to give Killie a game. Should be close. Arbroath are away to ICT who following Dodd's comments after last Friday's game about "now needing to win every game" will be going for it. Should be another close game. Now if we can just get a win at Morton on Saturday and Killie and Arbroath drop points the League Table will look even better. Time an old codger like me was away to bed. Think tonight I will dream about Saturday's games, results and a magic 90 mins away to Morton finishing in a 5-0 for the Jags! I know, I know its sad dreaming about a football match!!

We have been saying this for months now. Hope IMC has been reading our posts.

Brilliant post - being a Jags fan for 50 years I get this completely.! Well done..