Woodstock Jag

Touch of class in that article on Archie's part. Calm, reasonable, and straight bat. Good to see.

Would rather be playing a team even like Falkirk for this than QOS that's for sure.

Read what you will into this, but I think there might be some truth in the "night shift" thing. It was alluded to in a Tweet to Paul Paton a few days ago with a photo of a hard-hat with a light on it. Does he go down the sewers or something?

If a club attempts to contact a player without first getting permission from the Club in respect of which he is under contract (unless they are in the final six (?) months of their contract) they are in breach of the rules regarding tapping up. They can then be reported to the SFA by the player or by the club and, as far as I understand it, fined for taking such action. Thistle, so long as they hold Lawless' player registration, can refuse to release him even if he agrees personal terms with another Club. That's the only reason why transfer fees are a necessary part of the game and are negotiated rather than all put to independent arbitration. Once the contract period for which they are entitled to his player registration has expired, he is then free to sign for another club (previously not the case until Bosman, you may recall), and any contract he signs with another club whilst he is under contract with us would presumably be void and/or we could sue him for breach of contract. If Dundee United have approached Lawless without our permission, they are guilty of tapping up and PTFC should report them.

Muirhead could be vying for a place in a few years but he needs a big break at some point, probably to a top Championship team. Bannigan, excellent though he is and younger too, needs, even more, to get the training and development a "big team" can offer to realise his potential. Alas, unless he signs for one of the Old Firm, he's going to have to be spotted by someone down south for that to be a realistic proposition.

Ryan Conroy was decent from Celtic.

I have still to see us do anything other than win in the league this season. Last year and under McCall, even when we took a 2 goal lead, I was always a bit nervous and we would often fall out of games quite a bit. I never felt, going to Firhill, like we were unstoppable. This year that's just not true. I go to Firhill and psychologically, I expect us to tear them to pieces. And I think the players do too. And that swagger and belief of imperiousness is a joy to watch. When we scored our second against Livi a week past Saturday, I turned to the guys I go to games with and said "it's going to be 5". And I was wrong. Because we were even better. That's this season. Let's enjoy the rest of it.

Such is the turnaround in our away form, that if we extend this winning run to 11 games, we're equal to Morton's away record bar the goal difference.

... that we won 8 consecutive competitive (league) games in a row? To what few naysayers are left, start believing.

That pitch really is tiny. The week before any game at Central Park we should get them out on the 5s pitches at Garscube.

Isn't Paton out of contract in the summer? You can tap up all you like if it's for a PCA IIRC.

IIRC the deadline for player registration is Monday, after which special dispensation would be required. The Club are clearly just playing it safe until the SFA rubber stamp it.

Depending on the terms of a PCA you might be personally liable (financially) for not honouring it, but it's not a binding commitment to having you registered as a player for the other club. It's a bit like missives are to the buying of a house: nae deeds and nae title registration means nae property, but they can sue you for breach of contract.

If we go up, we'll be one of the best teams in years to get promoted from this league. Yes it will be difficult and yes it might go belly-up, but for every Gretna and Dundee style collapse there's been an ICT, Ross County, St Johnstone etc. If we hold on to a decent core of this team and build on it with a couple of contacts here and there, there's no reason why we shouldn't have a shout at finishing in the top 6.

Given a chance with Craig being injured and made no mistake. Great for Doolan to be getting game time and to take his chances. He's done a good job in his time at the club to date. Plucked from obscurity, yet he's been a model pro throughout. And to think there was a point when he went out on loan to Clyde and didn't score and people wondered if he could cut it at this level...

I say this as a fan of Doolan: Craig is the better player. Craig has better positional awareness and is more confident having a pop at goal. He's not as fit, and Doolan has the pace edge on him and probably does more in terms of dropping back and supporting the team in that respect, but Doolan isn't as confident to shoot and has been less clinical. But for the formation we adopt, it would be very interesting to see how they played alongside each other for a while actually.

SPL opposed ground sharing proposals with non-SPL teams as they would have had their season constrained by another body's fixtures schedule. Also general jurisdiction issues. Same reasons that the Challenge Cup only gets held at SFL grounds even though it would make more sense for travel and capacity to hold it at a nearer SPL ground. Could be wrong but also recall Gretna contemplating New Broomfield before SPL indicating it would only accept Fir Park.

O'Donnell and Sinclair seemed to struggle offensively today. Very reluctant to take their men on and their passing (particularly the former's) was not what it's been. Think O'Donnell in particular could do with a confidence boost from somewhere. Speaking of which, Elliot did a really good job when he came on to bring a bit more urgency about our play. His work for the second goal and Doolan getting on the score-sheet will be excellent for their confidence and ensure we have plenty options up-front if we're having to chase games in the run-in.

Makes sense for violent conduct and professional fouls, but not bookings generally IMO.

Falkirk must *hate* Chris Erskine.

So much wobble!

Worth pointing out at least in relation to Cappielow that they don't have undersoil heating. It's placed within a microclimate that seldom leads to below-freezing temperatures causing long-term damage to the surface. As for Rangers and Celtic, they have an extensive team of paid ground-staff and yet in recent years they've had to completely resurface Ibrox mid-way through a season. It's February. It's Scotland. It's cold, and we can't just lay down turf at will. It's an artificial surface or this, I'm afraid.

That second booking with Shuggie looks like such a non-incident. If he'd done that with a smile on his face there'd have been no booking...

We've been in this league for such a long time. Since arriving: Gretna, St Johnstone and Dundee have gone up Hamilton have gone up and down Dunfermline have come down and up and down again ICT have come down and up Livingston have been doubled-down and double-up Ross County have been down, back up and up again Airdrie have gone down up, down up Ayr have come up and down and up and down Stirling have gone down, up and double down Falkirk have come down Raith Rovers have come up Queen of the South have gone down Clyde have gone down and down The only team to have been around anywhere near as long as us uninterrupted is... yep. Morton, who followed us up a season later. Both teams have spent an age in purgatory, us marginally longer. For what is one of the most competitive Divisions in Europe we have largely muddled along for seven seasons now. As someone who's only followed Thistle properly for about 8 or 9 seasons, and been in regular attendance for about five of six seasons, I would absolutely LOVE IT if we win promotion. I've seen teams which frankly have looked absolutely rank in this league at some time or another become solid fixtures in the SPL. A lot of fans from our and other clubs say they like the idea of winning the SFL title but not promotion itself (almost always in a slightly hollow way). I can honestly say that attitude for Thistle fans should be absolute nonsense. This Club has a great chance to really push on and cement its place in the top flight if it can just get over the line this time around. St Mirren, Ross County, St Johnstone, Dundee, these sides shouldn't be streets ahead of us. If we grasp the chance we can do what they've done. If we get up and drop straight back down, so be it. I'd take that chance over another two seasons sitting mid-table with only a glimmer of a cup run for variety. We have a young, talented squad. I suspect Morton will tip us, with the experienced pros in their number who have been winning this league for various teams almost every season since we last went up ourselves. But let's be clear about something here: we have the next generation of those winners among our rank. If we don't win this title, many of them will simply be lost to decent SPL teams. If we do win it, they're going to go on to become greats. R&YA.