uberteeb

The only thing Britain does better than anyone else is allow a small cluster of priveledged individuals in one area of the country to get rich as feck while everyone else suffers. It really is a wonderful place.

I'd be all in favour of Archie playing solid at the back and having Doolan, Higginbotham, Elliot and Baird in front of a solid back 4 and Osbourne/Welsh. Just go out to destroy them with pace on the break. 0-4

"Awright mate fancy spending 20 bangers to stand in the cold and watch a losing team you couldn't be bothered coming to see when we were winning?" "Hold me back"

Other European countries look at the bigger picture and aren't zoned in on milking the average man for as much as they possibly can. This goes beyond football, the UK is all about the balance sheet for those at the top. Vote Yes

The last thing we need is another average midfielder. Paul Paton was, and is, an average midfielder.

If only to prevent those horrible plans with about 10 rows of seats becoming a reality it should be listed. With another North Stand (ideally with terracing) on the Bing Firhill would be one of the best smaller grounds in the land.

Anyone living their life with the mantra of "never doing anything that The Rangers fans do" will undoubtedly have a better quality of life than anyone who does anything that The Rangers fans do.

That is an interesting point. Turning that on its head, how do you account for ticket prices elsewhere in Europe being much cheaper yet they are still able to pay their wages, stadiums, etc? Particularly the smaller teams in those leagues.

It's all a rip off, psychologically handing over £23 or whatever feels like a much bigger rip off than just handing over a score. In England the fans either get milked for all their worth or let in ridiculously cheaply, its no coincidence the ones that let you in cheaply are all outside the M25. We have massive over supply in one of the poorest areas of the UK and yet still charge a premium. The fact halving the price won't double the crowd shows how pish the product is. In fairness to Thistle the under-16 thing is a brilliant idea and mitigates the pain for the people who argueably need it most, those with kids. All of a sudden £20 for a family day out is decent. No use to the original football target market of young working men.

The question then surely must be why aren't we telling Higginbotham (or other attacking midfielders) to do what Erskine did last season? He was a rare talent and a bit of an enigma but it can't be the case he was improvising the entire time last season. Our play through the middle gets blocked up on the edge of the D, all of the attacking players should be looking to play it into Doolan's (or whoever's) feet and bust a gut to get past him and in behind the defenders to get onto a through flick. That doesn't happen either. We also aren't breaking with pace, if Archie told the full baks to sit back a bit (which he is perfectly entiteld to do with 7 goals shipped to Aberdeen in 2 games) then he needs to get the midfielders bolting up the park as soon as possible, there was no real urgency in that yesterday. We aren't really playing much good stuff right now going forward. And when the areas where we did look a real threat (full backs up the wing, pressing the opposition to win the ball high up the field and breaking up the park in the blink of an eye) aren't really much of a threat. It could very well be the case that he's trying to evolve us into something different having realised we needed change a month or so ago and that we will come out of this stronger once the players adapt to it. We just look a bit rudderless just now.

Terry Butcher will shite it when Thistle roll into town for the second time this season. Hibs 1 - 2 Jags.

The short term memory or new to the club quips can be a pretty cheap shot. It is entirely rational for people to be questioning the ability of the manager, I am not saying they are right but away from the stands on a football forum and without insulting him there is no problem with having the discussion. Putting everything about budgets and the ability of the players to one side we are not putting ourselves in a position to win games recently and these are ultimately things that stem from what the management team are telling the players to do. Corner kicks - the most obvious one, their number 5 was heading our corners away from 8 yards out without anyone challenging him. The defending of them, nuff said. Where we stand, what runs we make, who we pick up - surely a manager (and assistant) who were exellent defenders should be doing a lot better here? Pressing - we don't really do it anymore, Aberdeen were passing it around deep in their own half for a few full minutes before the rustling of the crowd finally encouraged someone to make a cursory jog towards them. The same can largely be said for the past few games. The manager must be telling them what to do here? There are of course counter arguements to this, not least because we pressed less than any other time yesterday and only conceeded one goal. If he has made a conscious effort to change it and we are still adjusting to it then fair play to the manager, but it's something that can at least be mentioned. Support from the midfield - non existant. We don't make runs beyond the striker anymore, we don't pass and bomb foward, we pass and do a few side steps to create an extra yard of space in an equally undangerous position. This has been a problem all season really as Erskine was the one doing it last year. The rare times we do get player forward in open play you end up in bizarre situations with 3 Thistle players wedged in the rectangle between the edge of the box and the edge of the pitch, it doesn't take us anywhere. Plan B - we still don't have one, we don't really change the formation or tactics during the game. Yesterday we sat deeper and the full backs didn't go forward (not least because one of them couldn't), but if you are going to remove the one genuinely dangerous thing we do then you need to tell someone else to do something else otherwise nothing happens. Yesterday nothing happened. There is no real dissent from the stands yet and there is no suggestion Archie is on borrowed time at all but it doesn't make you any less of a Jags fan to openly question some of the things that are going on, particuarly on a forum which exists for exactly this type of discussion. There are counter-arguements to most of the above and having worse players than everyone else is the main factor. For the avoidance of doubt I happen to believe we will finish above the play offs and Archie will not be sacked. I think I may have been one of the first to seriously question McNamara, I was wrong and premature on that one, equally likely the same can be said for the above.

He was never going to be here for more than a season, the fact he still plays his heart out despite being shifted to right back in a team that was never going to score an equaliser to an early goal speaks volumes. Did he not make 3 proper tackles on 2 different Dons in about 20 seconds in front of the Main Stand in the second half?

To be fair he has known he would be leaving next summer from not long after the season started and when the team were playing decent he was doing really well. Now the team are doing baws and he is doing awright. So using those measurables he is still one of our best players. For his own sake he needs to go to Aberdeen or the English Championship. He needs to go somewhere as a starter or a likely starter, he puts himself in a bad position to 'make it' by playing the odd lesser game for Celtic but spending 90% of the time on the bench or in the stand. Celtic (and Rangers) are almost always a barrier to a Scottish player developing his full potential.

He was class yesterday, best performance from a central defender I've seen since the opening match against Dundee United. He must start next week. He took care of his own business like a boss and covered Balatoni's oil tanker-esque arse a couple of times as well. Aberdeen fans I know singled Balatoni out for being poor and were laughing at how slow (and fat) he is. Only Picallo and Osbourne playerd yesterday, the rest varied from below average to pish.

What that article shows is endemic in the Middle East, the 'peaceful nations' and 'partners' have been doing it for decades, go and have a Google about who built Dubai, who is building Dubai, how they were treated and how they are still being treated. I will never visit Dubai as a tourist for these reasons. The heat is the most obvious and practicle problem but it is by no means the main problem. And whilst I see some merit in the arguement that giving places like Russia and Qatar these events gives them an incentive to improve various human rights issues the fact remains that there is no pressure on them to actually go through with it and it just drives it underground. FIFA knew who would be building the stadiums and infrastructure when they awarded them the World Cup. They are complicit in this, brown envelopes and backhand business dealings don't even scratch the surface of what happens within that organisation.

Does Mukendi not get a look in even for the under 20s? Is he under 20? Anyone want to give an assessment of Colina for those of us yet to see him in action?

Last year most teams tried to stop us playing by putting their entire team behind the ball and challenging us to break them down. We had the best players and we had time on the ball, hence all the wins. This season every team has tried to stop us by pressuring us up the park, particularly Aberdeen aned Dundee United (not so much in the season opener), our players are inferior to/not much better than (depending on who we are playing) the opposition and we have less time on the ball. If we lose the ball at the back when trying to flood forward we are in big trouble. It's much more difficult this year. The 5 at the back idea some people have been talking about might be worth a shot (3-5-2 really with SOD and ATS playing). Put someone (Higginbotham/Lawless/Elliot) right in behind/beside Doolan, let Jimmy C go and join them when attacking, keep Osbourne in front of the 3 CBs and have Welsh/Bannigan beside him but giving them license to go forward when we are attacking. Just thinking out loud.

You can still pay on the gate for this yeah?

Piccalo has got the vast majority of the negative criticism when it comes to the defense but Muirhead and Balatoni have really struggled at times as well. They were excellent last season but even the most toothless attack in the SPL is infinitely better than anything we played against in the 1st.

Let's not look for any positives, brick up the tunnel, I don't want to see that glimmer of light.

Things Steven Craig has never done... Been an established SPL striker. Played in the second tier of English football for years. Played with and learned from (previously) world class talent. Won a major Scottish trophy. Played in an FA Cup Final. Played for Scotland. Scored for Scotland. Can you guess who has done all of these things? Can Steven Craig even play

Losing an early goal changes everything but we held on until half time, equalised and then got worn down by a team with ridiculously good attacking players (ie our best player last season doesn't get a sniff). Results like this at teams as good as Aberdeen, Celtic and Dundee United are inevitable. Tactically, if we hadn't been taking risks away from home we'd have a lot less points than we have now. It was like Southampton going to Arsenal yesterday, both play good football but one team has far superior players and it shows, particulaly when the good team is at home. We have 3 points from the last 15. A realist expected 3, an optimist expected 5 and a mentalist expected 6+. Had we beaten St Mirren at home and lost to ICT away we would have the same number of points and people wouldn't be hammering at their keyboards in rage.

First Limassol and now The Rangers, not often we get to play 2 clubs for the first time ever within such a short period.

That's impressive for a Sunday lunchtime cup game. ETA - They only went on sale to season ticket holders today so it can't be, must be expecting to need the JHS overspill for this one, only other reason for moving north end JHS guys would be if they weren't using the Main Stand which I hope isn't the case.