milhouse

Sounds like a re-do of the Moneyball concept. Player recruitment based on statistics hasn't really proven to be particularly effective in football.

What are the qualifications required to be a Sporting Director? If there was a financial role to it I get that might require specific things on the CV.

He would be a candidate certainly with some risk. Only managed at lower leagues; overall win % at Edinburgh City actually not great; also been relegated with Edinburgh. Seems to have a variety of other 'business interests' as well, and has been declared bankrupt previously. People also seem to be keen on Rhys McCabe, who has Airdrie bottom of the league with only 14 points, suggesting something must be badly wrong all season. I'd argue both these candidates are actually higher risk than keeping Doolan would have been, looking at Doolan's record over 2 seasons in the Championship.

McCabe surely has to be a big risk. He must be doing something wrong, based on Airdrie's performance in the league this season. From the Thistle Archive post, you have to say Committee has a solid record and must be in with a shout. Gary Caldwell just behind McParland as well - worth another look?

Completely agree. Pulled back Falkirk player facing his own goal, near the touchline, midway in his own half, very strange yellow card.

If we had won these most recent 2 games we would have been 4 points off top...instead it's season effectively over. I'm not sure it makes any sense for Doolan to leave this season - I don't think we will end up with any manager who will overcome a 10 point gap to win the league, it would be a financial risk with very little to be gained.

Usually with 26 points after 15 games at this level we would expect to be closer to the top than we currently are. Falkirk's current ppg is fairly out of the ordinary and would equate to 85 points at season's end. If they were to crash though, it wouldn't be the most bizarre thing that's ever happened in football...

Airdrie are bottom of the league... Which is nice

Our most experienced players in Holt, Bannigan and Docherty all missed penalties in the final last season. Don't think having Diack taking a penalty is an error on Doolan's part. "Inexperienced" Ben Stanway was up 1st and hit an excellent penalty.

Perennial bottlers? Not in 2001, 2002, 2006, 2013, 2021 - that's just in my time as a fan. Think you need to have some pride at least in the club. We'll just need to try again next season.

Think you are well wide of the mark here. Thistle played well tonight and if we had won that penalty shoot out is would have been deserved. We havn't "bottled it" either this season or last.

Made a good effort of it against opposition from league above - don't overreact. Were people expecting an easy game?

I don't think there is evidence for this currently. Objectively he improved results after taking over last season, and the play-off run was impressive of itself despite the eventual outcome. A dreadful result on Saturday, but we are 3rd after a quarter of the season, 9 points from the bottom 2 sides. The usual reason for considering managerial change at PTFC is relegation, or imminent threat of it, which is not currently happening. This time last year we were just embarking on a run of 5 league defeats in a row under Ian McCall which effectively ended our challenge. Something similar might happen now, of course, but it hasn't yet.

Oh well. Not at this, but Dundee Utd would seem to be well on course to win the league (still unbeaten). Which would reflect playing budgets, of course. We'll just have to move on from this one. Our result v Arbroath at Firhill concerned me more. We'll remain 3rd today, still a very tight league, but top 4 again this season would be completely satisfactory, in my opinion.