Woodstock Jag

The only reason this problem exists is that the Main Stand probably shouldn't have a safety certificate. We get away with it in any set of circumstances that don't involve the Old Firm, but it does cause more than a few grumbles among other away supports and understandably so as it is a total dive. My understanding is that the police won't allow the Old Firm into the Main Stand because of their history of unruly behaviour and use of pyrotechnics posing an increased risk in that compact area. The obvious answer is "don't ******* let them in with pyrotechnics then" but would apparently be easier said than done. All other things being equal, I think the general proposition should be to maintain the status quo for most games (i.e. Main Stand for Away Fans with an optional North of Jackie Husband Stand over-spill, while keeping the Shed and the rest of the Jackie Husband Stand as default Thistle territory. For Old Firm games, unless the police will let us put them in the Main Stand, I suggest we play it a little bit by ear, but for normal games, give them something like half to two-thirds of the Jackie Husband Stand and for games where they are expected to take most of the crowd by a long stretch, give them the whole of the Jackie Husband Stand. Maybe do something with the season ticket to make clear the preferred seat applies to all games except Old Firm games and provide an option to have an "All but Old Firm Games" season ticket too.

1. Absolute ******* shambles that the segregation was so poorly handled, whether by police or club 2. Celtic fans were an absolute disgrace 3. Some of our fans need to learn to keep their cool though; rising to their scummery only fuels the beast

No fair. I got pelters earlier this season for calling him Hadron Collider!

That's class.

Official stats: Ross County: Shots: 11 On Target: 2 Thistle: Shots: 11 On Target: 1 Hardly "profligate"

The matter of the Kilmarnock game is an interesting one. Given that St Johnstone's win makes it (virtually) impossible for us to get into the top 6 by the time 33 games are played out, the strongest guarantor against relegation is to have a team cast adrift in the play-off spot rather than to have 4 teams bunched-up. A St Mirren win at Kilmarnock would present the opportunity to move up to 8th, but it could also drag-up the baseline we need to avoid. It may in fact be more in our interests to battle out 9th and 10th with Ross County if it means pulling clear of St Mirren. #metaleague

That highlights package is outrageous. It excludes two of Taylor's one-on-ones, Doolan's effort that got dragged wide, the hand-ball penalty shout and Bannigan's shimmy. And that's before the shameless coverage of the Aberdeen penalty shouts are taken into account.

Erskine and Thistle is like a hand in a tailor-made glove.

Hysterical nonsense. Name me a viable affordable alternative that you can show any degree of confidence will do better at this stage in the season. Today we lost because we are short in defensive midfield. Welsh, Ozzy and Bannigan all out, McMillan played out of position because ATS (and his back-up, Bannigan) suspended. Getting on the back of the manager and the players at this stage isn't going to help.

If he had been injured it wouldn't have surprised me after Archie steadfastly refused to sub him when he was dead on his feet.

I honestly think Erskine regretted moving and has really not enjoyed his time up at Utd. Ever since he joined in the "Dundee's a shitehole" thing at the post season fans thing (though inconsequential on the face of it) I really got the sense his heart wasn't in it. On paper it was a sensible move for him: guaranteed top flight football vs when he signed the precontract we were still fighting, several times his wage here, bigger club etc. But sometimes players do their best when they're just in a happier place. I hope that's the case with The Bridge and Firhill. Welcome back, Prodigal Son.

It's an absolute disaster of a law. As a friend said to me about it, this really sums it up: "Under the Act, if we're in the pub and the TV is showing Take the High Road and I call someone a dirty [h word], that's ok, but if someone switches channel to Alloa v Stenhousemuir before they reply that I am of the [the sectarian f word] breed, they're done for it."

He's clearly not match-fit. That doesn't mean he isn't capable. A 3 day turnaround is going to be pushing it when he was overworked today, especially given he will be important to our set-up away at St Mirren.

It mightn't have impacted on the final result but Archie's judgment in leaving Taylor on for the full 90 minutes despite him being dead on his feet after an hour was very poor. He wasn't able to make any sort of impact on the game and was far more obviously in need of a rest than either Lawless or Fraser, who went off far earlier than he eventually intended Doolan to come on. It now means Taylor will be lucky if he can put in a half hour shift on Tuesday and Doolan goes longer still without proper game time. As for the game itself, I want to see the penalty decision again but I don't think, generally, we can blame the officials for today's result. Time and again we put in a solid or acceptable first hour then inexplicably capitulate to absolute dross in the latter stages. Killie are a rubbish side and if we had any discipline about us at all we'd be humping them. Higginbotham's goal was nice to see. I think Gallagher and Mair both had decent games too.

The issue today was sloppy defending (Balatoni had a poor game) and suspect goalkeeping. Nothing wrong with our attacking strategy.

The only funny thing related to this incident was when a Celtic fan on Twitter said that it was a total non-issue, because Lawell was speaking for the company and not for the Club...

This thread made me sad because it reminded me that we still have Hugh Murray under contract.

Needs to work on his box presence considerably if he's to make the step-up from number-maker-upper to challenging for the match-day squad but good to see some recognition for his top shot-stopping this season.

The sound doesn't carry as well from the Main Stand. It didn't help that they were stationed nearest to the Celtic fans though. Aberdeen were louder from the Main Stand, but they had quite a jam packed singing section right across it.

We lost today because Aberdeen were big, strong and got in our faces. Their big forward gave our centre-backs absolutely no time on the ball whatsoever. They closed us down, hit us hard, and in a very direct manner punished mistakes. They're an effective side, and had us by the short and curlies, but I wouldn't want to watch football like that every week. Piccolo at least partly to blame for all three goals, but a sub-par performance from the team generally today with the exception I felt of Higginbotham who caused them a few problems. We'll have days like this in the big league. Not too disappointed, but frankly 3-0 was a fair result.

They are worth all of the money.

There's a reason Hamilton and Falkirk didn't even come close to winning the league last year or the year before despite Stevie May and El Alagui romping the goals charts. Our team is a fluid unit. We will get more goals from midfield than a considerable number of other Premier League clubs this year. We as good as play with a front four with Doolan in a more advanced role. Our style of football actually lends itself to more goals for Lawless, Forbes, Bannigan, Higginbotham, Welsh and the wing backs. Just enjoy it.

BBC says Thistle had 64% of the possession. That's a stupid amount of football.

What's the *point* of the electronic entry? Is it any quicker than giving the wee coupon to the turnstile operator? I'm struggling to think what advantage it provides except perhaps a way of getting automated collection of statistics for the club so they can measure how often certain groups of people use their season tickets across a given season?