King Kenny

Enjoyed that, both teams put on a decent game. Great first half until we gave away a very poor goal. In saying that, I thought the defence were very solid with Muirhead and Neilson having good games. Milne much better 2nd half as well. McInroy has the great ability of being in the box when it matters, think he’ll score plenty for us this year. One concern is our central midfield area. Queen’s centre halves waltzed forward time and again in the second half pinning us back. Doolan needs to work on our press, it was non existent at times. Graham took his goal well and played ok but taking him off and replacing with Adeloye might have helped stretch the game. Lawless was my man of the match, he was outstanding. Fitzpatrick needs to take a look at the work rate and desire of Lawless if he wants a decent career. He was poor today, needs to realise he has to be at it for the whole game. All in all, a very good win against a decent Queen’s Park team. Plenty to work on but a far more positive performance.

A few things about our summer business had me slightly concerned. Making Graham captain might have been the obvious choice but I feel Doolan has made a rod for his own back as it makes him much harder to drop. He’s been great for Thistle but his current form is poor and along with Bannigan, I don’t see the sense in giving him a 2 year deal. We seem to have been slow off the mark signing players only to then sign a plethora of midfielders when it’s obvious our defence is a big issue. Neilson is potentially a good signing and should start against Queens Park along with Muirhead (who has been poor but has more experience than Williams). It was always going to be a tough ask against a strong Hearts team but the performance was worrying. Next week is huge, lose that and we’re pretty much out of it already. Bannigan offers nothing more than Stanway, perhaps it’s time to give him a shot just like Stuart got all those years ago. A big few weeks for Doolan, he needs to show that he can handle adversity and get us moving in the right direction again. This time was always going to come in his career, sadly it’s probably come a lot sooner than he/we had hoped.

Second goal today was really poor. Starts from Graham not closing down to Fitzpatrick not getting back in quick enough to a free cross followed by a free header. Doesn’t matter how good we think our quality is, don’t put in the basic effort in this league then you’ll struggle to beat most teams. To be fair to the players, that can’t be labelled at them too often but they looked well off it today. I think the team could be doing with freshening up. The only way we’ll know if Doolan’s recruitment is any good is to give them a try.

When Turner moved in to the middle of the park you could see how good a player he can potentially be. Sadly he spent a large period of his Thistle career stuck out on the wing due to McCall's love of signing central midfielders and shoehorning them in to positions they couldn't play (see also Crawford, Smith). Docherty was a decent defensive mid at this level and Holt was excellent for us as well. As much as I would have liked to keep all three, it is worth remembering they were part of a side who failed to get promotion out of a fairly poor league this year. Doolan might have a few tricks up his sleeve and maybe we'll start to see some of the youth players get more than a token 5 minutes. It's going to be a tough season but who knows, we might just be pleasantly surprised.

When that penalty was awarded that familiar feeling started to creep back in to my mind, I'm sure I wasn't alone. As mentioned above, giving them the ball back straight from kick off was ridiculous and gave them the full impetus to make the comeback. Even then, we passed up some glorious chances to win it. Those and the numerous ones on Thursday are why we are not going up. It's a sore one and will take a while to get over. The team will be very different next year and if the rumours of financial uncertainty are true, we might not have the most competitive of squads. I'd imagine the likes of Tiffoney,Turner,McMillan and potentially Milne will be off to suitors from the league above, Docherty/Holt already away if rumours to believed and some of the bench fillers will be released. The league will be extremely tough next year, we're going to be up against it so it would be nice if we could get some news from the board over the next couple of weeks how things are shaping up. I've a lot of faith in Doolan, I think he'll do a good job going forward. He's very positive and talks well. Today will be a sore one for him and I imagine he'll be emotionally drained given what has gone on over the last few weeks but I'm sure come July he'll be back and ready to roll. It's certainly going to be an interesting summer.

Strange to feel slightly disappointed with 3-0, would have bitten your hand off at the start of the game! I think that shows how good we were in attack tonight, it could easily have been 5 or 6. As mentioned elsewhere, our keeper and defence deserve great credit for keeping the late Ayr surge at bay, that clean sheet could be very important. I've been critical of Brownlie but he was excellent tonight. Muirhead and Lawless were the pick of the bunch for me though, didn't put a foot wrong all night. Like others I wasn't sure about Stevie coming back but he is up there as one of my favourite Jags to watch over the last decade. Such a clever player and his partnership with McMillan could easily cut it in the league above. One foot in the final but the tie doesn't feel quite dead just yet. Great to see Firhill so busy and when the crowd helped fill the JLS in the second half, it was absolutely bouncing. No idea why they waited for the players to be back on the pitch before letting them swap stands mind you! Credit to Ayr as well, that was one of the biggest away supports at Firhill in a long time.

Strange game but the late winner from Graham could be crucial in so much as it swung the momentum back in our favour. Fitzpatrick was excellent when he came on, constantly driving at their full back and beating him with ease (so much so, he was subbed). When they switched Oakley over to face him it seemed to throw Fitzy off his game and the lazy backwards pass he gave followed by Docherty giving it away gave Queens the momentum to get that second goal. Poor from the defence for both of Thomas goals although Queens did well to break our press for the first one. No idea how Mitchell let’s the equaliser by him, looked a relatively easy save. No reason why we can’t go to Ovhilview and score a few, their defence is awful. I think the worst thing we can do is try and sit in on a 1 goal lead.

Tiffoney was done ten minutes before half time. He spent the whole of half time in the physio room before hobbling around for twenty minutes. Why was he not taken off sooner? He’s done this previously this season and we had no attacking outlet down the left which caused us to constantly play sideways along the back. Docherty wasn’t fit and Graham was miles off the pace. Doolan was poor to keep them on Fitzpatrick I’ve mentioned before. Terrible attitude, summed up by throwing the ball away when we needed to win the game. He’s frustrating as the two late chances created show his ability. Big chance squandered, playoffs at best now

Craig Dargo and (I think) a very young Stephen O'Donnell in the background? Looks like Ryan McGuffie for Queens as well.

That result had been coming sadly. Our defence has been a lot tighter but the goals have dried up, as soon as a team scored against us we were always going to be up against it. Our total lack of shots on goal when they went down to ten men summed it up. Give it to Tiffoney and hope he can magic something up seemed to be the order of the day. Or pass it wide to McMillan and let him hit the first man/cross the ball out. Brownlie made a mistake, he's not alone. However, his condition for a professional footballer is awful and has been for most of the season. I take in to account he had been out for a lengthy spell but he's been fit for around 6 months now and is still overweight. Why has this not been sorted? Sadly our team just isn't quite as good as we'd hoped at the start of the season. Sure, we can be the best team in the league when it suits but far too often we are turned over when it's time to roll the sleeves up. We have some decent players in the squad, some who have been excellent for us but are now struggling to produce for a full season. You can't argue with what Graham has done for Thistle but his performances lately haven't been great and his first touch last night meant that we had zero opportunity to get the bodies forward. He's far from alone at being guilty of this mind you. I've spoken about Fitzpatrick before but until his attitude changes, I wouldn't be bringing him off the bench. A carbon copy of the Dundee game, first touch gives the ball away as he stands and lets his teammates chase back. Doolan has a big job on his hands, we'll need much better quality if we are to compete next year given who will be in the league (barring some miracle that we go up through the playoffs). Sadly I'm not sure we'll have a decent budget for a major overhaul.

Fitzpatrick just doesn’t look interested when he comes on as a sub. Meandered on yesterday, gives the ball away with his first touch and looks like he’s blowing out his arse after five minutes. Both Docherty and Graham gave him a bollocking for his lack of work rate. He’s not alone, Mullen and Dowds brought zero to the party as well. Fitzpatrick has obvious ability but at some point the penny needs to drop. As for the game, it summed up where we are. A decent starting 11 but take out a few players and our back ups are not good enough. Milne was a big miss. Brownlie was fine defensively but he’s carrying a lot of weight and as mentioned elsewhere, his distribution is awful. We missed McAvoy bringing the ball out of defence. Two points dropped, Dundee were very poor and offered little.

Having watched the dreadful standard of the Morton V Dundee game last night and the fact we’re behind both teams with our squad of players, it’s easy to see why McCall lost his job. The standard of the league is poor this year and with our starting XI we should be much closer to the top of the league. McCall did a good job at a difficult time in our history and steadied the ship. History tends to show he doesn’t have that next step to take a team to the top league which is ultimately what our target is. The timing of the sacking might have been poor but it doesn’t mean it wasn’t the correct decision. Doolan’s a bright guy and I’m sure he’ll have the team up for today. Whether he’s the best candidate just now, I’m not sure. I guess the list of applicants and who we can actually afford will be the main factors.

McCall was a good replacement for Caldwell at a time when we were sinking fast. He’s always built teams that are good to watch (on their day) and have good team spirit but he has his limits. If we’re happy enough to be mid table to playoffs each year in this division then McCall is probably as good as we could hope for. If we harbour hopes of getting back to the top league and pushing the club forward, I don’t think McCall is the man to do it. He’s not a bad manager but history shows he struggles to make that final step up. I don’t see him being replaced any time soon and he’s probably got enough credit with all the recent turmoil to hold on until the end of the season. If it’s another season where we fail to seriously challenge, then I think it’s time for change. Here’s hoping he can prove me wrong!

Fitzpatrick needs the penny to drop soon. His attitude is terrible, continually on his heels and slow to react to what’s happening in the game. It says it all when a barely fit Tiffoney produces more in his 25 min cameo. Not a great game but defence looked a bit more solid as did Sneddon. Brownlie needs to improve on his distribution rather than just punt it the way he’s facing. Bannigan made a difference in midfield but we could do with Docherty back soon as Hodson isn’t good enough to play there.

An enjoyable hour of Bannigan talking about his career at Thistle. He comes across really well with plenty of interesting stories. He even manages to be very diplomatic about Caldwell’s time in charge!

I’m not sure how some folk can think Mullen had a decent game, he’s offered nothing since he signed. A guy who clearly thinks he’s a far better player than he is.

Two pretty evenly matched teams with one able to take their chances. We had a chance to really take a grip of the tie after we scored but did our usual retreat and invited them on to us before eventually losing a cheap goal. Poor handling from Sneddon again, a shot he should be dealing with. Disagree on Tiffoney having a good game. Outwith a couple of promising runs he was largely anonymous, especially in the second half where he appeared to give up. McCall’s subs were again ineffective and to a certain extent shows the imbalance in the squad he’s put together. Still in the tie but improvement needed, especially in midfield. Docherty was poor again tonight, takes far too long moving the ball around the pitch and was caught out again for their second goal.

Tiffoney was clearly nowhere near fit to the point where it seemed he was playing with an injury. He ran at half pace, didn’t take his man on once and pulled out of every tackle. Not sure why he was allowed to start. Another poor game but didn’t think we looked in much danger at any point other than when Sneddon went walkabout.

Richard Foster was on the Open Goal podcast a few weeks back talking about the pitch. Said the Groundsman told the board groundsharing would be a distaster but was ignored. If that’s true then questions need to be asked. Won’t be many season tickets purchased next year if that’s what is served up on a weekly basis.

A sore one to take but this kind of performance has been coming. We’ve relied on a great defensive record to get us through games, our goalscoring (or lack thereof!) is what is hurting us. We’ll have a decent fight on now to keep in the playoffs but I think we’re more than capable of it. The standard of the division this year has been poor and that is perhaps what got our hopes up about automatic promotion. Killie look to have got their act together and with their squad and budget then they are where they should be. As a newly promoted team with a much reduced budget (350k behind our opponents) before a ball was kicked, then I think a top four finish is a decent effort. I think the frustration comes from seeing what we’re up against and how we’ve shot ourselves in the foot a few times. The squad has some decent players but I’m not sure how many could make the step up. Compare that to the 2012/13 squad where we had 8/9 who made the jump easily. McCall does a decent enough job but he can be stubborn when it comes to certain players, tactics etc. He mentioned that if we got promoted he’d happily go with a midfield of Bannigan, Docherty and Crawford. I’d argue that only 1 of those 3 could play a league up and that’s being generous with Bannigan. His loyalty to his players is not a bad thing but I’d argue the team would benefit from a fresh midfield pairing over the next few games to see if we can become a bit more attack minded. A tough result to take but hopefully the team can get back on track against Hamilton next week.

We are dreadful to watch. McCall signs players he likes rather than in positions that will help the team. We’re playing like a team with 5 central midfielders in it.

First half was very poor but I thought we improved in the second. The pitch made it very difficult to play any football and sadly it’s only going to get worse before it gets better. The ref was dreadful, Tiffoney must wonder what he has to do to get a penalty. Hopefully we can get McAllister fit and playing on the right wing. Crawford was fine but he drifts inside due to being a centre mid and McKenna doesn’t have the confidence to play as an overlapping full back. I like McKenna defensively, he’s solid and sticks to his task well but he’d definitely benefit from having a winger ahead of him. It would also give us another option rather than always going via Tiffoney. Graham took his goal well but was far too isolated in the first half. I’d like to think Thistle could hold on to Mayo but I think he’ll be playing at a higher level soon, a great prospect. Jakubiak looked lively and I think he’ll be a good addition. I thought McIver was decent enough as well at seeing the game out. All in a hard fought and deserved 3 points.

A good win when not at our best. 6 clean sheets on the bounce is some effort, even if Sneddon had a couple of dodgy moments near the end today. We looked a lot better when Smith came on and we went one up with two either side of Graham. When Rudden and Graham play together we seem to resort to launching long balls at them, we're much more fluent when attacking with pace through the middle and wings. I thought Bannigan was MotM today but no arguments with Akinola, he's formed a brilliant partnership with the impressive Mayo. All to play for now, big run of games coming up.

Pretty standard stuff, sadly. Played well enough for the majority of the first half without really threatening and then our usual sleepwalk at the start of the second half resulting in two poor goals being lost. Docherty was dreadful today, if he wasn't a McCall favourite then not a chance he would have lasted 90mins. Constantly gave the ball away and looked well off the pace. The defence were poor, I lost count of the amount of times they let a long ball bounce and it was only a matter of time before it led to a chance/goal. To be fair to Shaw, he took his goal extremely well. McKenna is solid enough defensively but doesn't have the pace/guile to offer much goiong forward and Foster looked very much like a guy in the latter stages of his career by the end of the game. Kyle Turner has shown in spells that he is a talented footballer but we won't get the best of him being stuck out wide. Might be an idea to start him behind Rudden in the next game and see if that brings us any joy. It might also stop us launching long balls to Brian Graham. Killie weren't pretty to watch but they had us sussed after about 25 minutes and they rarely looked troubled by any of our attacks. Their big keeper was very commanding, took every cross we played with ease. Tiffoney looked ok and at least tried to beat his man but his dive was laughable, even more so because he'd already gone past the defender.

Tiffoney and Foster seem to have a very good understanding. In the build up to the second goal, Tiffoney pointed down the line to where Foster should put it and he duly obliged with a wonderful pass off his weaker foot. Tiffoney then played a great cut back for Rudden to rifle home. Morton were very poor but our attacking options will be a threat to any team in this devision.