Stephen1876

And prior to that Doc’s awful pass to give the ball away.

I struggle to understand the animosity of folk towards Foster. He has been a good signing for us and shows a great deal of fight and commitment despite him now probably having a very comfortable life - there is no coasting from him. He is probably a very strong leader in the dressing room and showed his class by giving his bonus to the young guys last year. I missed the incident at half time but when he was walking off after being subbed, I was applauding in recognition of 4th after 36 games, but the guy behind was giving him absolute pelters, something you would never get away with in any other walk of life. I’m personally glad that Foster called him out. The last three months haven’t been great on the park but we have achieved our target. Even if we didn’t, I wouldn’t criticise any of the players for lack of desire and I would never have anything against any Thistle player who tried. You can see the frustration in the players that we have struggled to replicate our 2021 form

Despite the fact that it wasn’t entertaining or a great performance, glad to get the win and hopefully now in the playoffs. Our creative play and goalscoring has been poor of late, but 19 clean sheets in 35 games is a fantastic record. With the exception of Bell who is at the end of his career and really did us a turn last season, I wouldn’t be sad to see any of our defenders at the club next year, although I admit our full backs offer little going forward.

Today demonstrated to me why we need to play Turner in our remaining games. He was average today as he seems to be much of the time but we scored from one of his corners and our other two best opportunities came from his corners also. Set pieces could well be crucial in our three remaining games at Firhill where little football will be played on that pitch. He has the most assists in the league despite being an irregular starter. Overall I thought we were much better today in terms of structure and effort, although we still created little and can’t deny that Killie edged the game

In fairness, Holt just lost it in very strong sun. Annoying though as we have looked the better side for much of it

Added to that, I know he did very little last season, but would Blair Lyons have been any worse than Hastie or McAllister, rather than us probably subbing his wages to play for Montrose?

Caused once again by square passing in front of their defence

Couldn’t agree more - how many times tonight and in other games is he just standing in the middle of nowhere

What I can’t get my head around is that on an awful pitch, we keep passing backwards and putting ourselves under pressure because the ball takes a couple of touches to control. Teams know that and press us, and almost all of the goals came from that today. Better to play the percentages game on that surface and press high to get the second ball. Tunji is an excellent players but his form has collapsed since that absurd red against Airdrie.

I’ve been thinking this for ages - I think the captain (Doc in this instance) should be asked by the ref if he wants the extra time played or taken off the clock. It wouldn’t happen though if refs acted quickly - Rae was doing it from early in the first half last night and Walsh never once spoke to him let alone booked him I know we do it when winning but it’s not great to watch

Perhaps with an intensive run of games, our genius strategy is just to play 45 minutes in every game and just keep a clean sheet in the other 45 minutes Sneddon must be closing in on some sort of season clean record surely?

That was the worst half of the season, outfought and outplayed. None of them could complain if they get hooked at half time. Said on Saturday that Akinola seems to have lost confidence after that red against Airdrie. Cost the first goal at ICT, was a bomb scare on Saturday and all over the place tonight. Needs taken out of the firing line for a bit

Tunji appears to have had a slight drop in confidence after that absurd red card against Airdrie, had a few hairy moments today which weren’t previously evident. Sneddon did well today as did Foster and I thought Hendrie and Mayo. Little else to write home about really

I can’t understand why Graham gets to take take the penalties, some of his efforts in League 1 last year were terrible. We must have other options, including Banzo

Raith seem to be falling apart in recent weeks - hope it continues for next Saturday

Agreed - I’d more than happily keep Hendrie for next season. As with Stone and McKenna, the guys who have been playing in front of them have been undroppable

As well as the awful performance, the officials were unusually down the tunnel before the players at the end

Injured

I suppose the opposite example of that is Doc, who signed a pre-contract with us, came to Firhill with Ayr a couple of weeks later and bossed the midfield.

Every time we score a goal with the last kick of the ball against a Fife side, restrictions follow! Need to walk it into the corner next time…

It was high and late - no malice I it but dangerous and no question it was a red

Tiff got one one-on-one with the Raith right back, beat him to the line and stood it up beyond the back post. MacIver headered back across and Turner swept in. He will have been a relieved man as he missed a sitter minutes earlier. We totally dominated the game, pressed much better than last week and missed quite a lot of chances. We did though look better and more composed against 11 than 10 where we were just hoofing it forward. Need to enjoy Mayo and Tunji as a partnership whilst we can. Mention also to Foster who had Zanatta in his back pocket all day. Rudden could be a great striker, makes good runs at times no bags of pace, but could do with some one-on-ones with Dools to learn how to control a ball, his first touch is awful

We have done really well to grind out results in recent weeks which gives me confidence we can be up there at the end of the season. However, three things which have been infuriating me all season were on display today: - Our pressing is abysmal. We make it so easy for teams to get out of tight spots by one man going to the ball and no one closing off the out ball. Arbroath hunted in packs today and won several turnovers in the middle of the park which they really should have done better with. Inverness were the same. - We give away far too many stupid free kicks around the box. Too many times, players are back to goal and going away from it and one our players bundles them over and provides a chance to put in a dangerous set piece (second goal today) - I was disappointed to see Cardle go but could see the logic of trying to upgrade in that area. However, we persist in playing Turner wide right where he is completely ineffective and worse drifts inside quite a bit leaving Foster or McKenna exposed. We seem to almost play him for his set pieces. I would like to see him play in the role Smith started in today. However, neither Murray or Hastie are an obvious upgrade on Cardle so we remain unbalanced. Onwards to Raith - get something from that and it’s been a reasonable first half of the season.

I don’t think Banzo lost the ball once all game - he is such an intelligent footballer who would have played at a much higher level had it not been for that freak injury at Tynecastle! Speaking of higher levels, how is Akinola playing in the Scottish Championship? His positioning, reading of the game and timing of the tackle are outstanding

It seems Sena is getting good reviews playing in midfield for Alloa. Don’t know if it is too soon for him or potentially damaging to pull back from loan, but potentially an option?