[Susan Watson - One Banana]

I’m sure I talked to Susan a couple of times at Firhill.

a lovely woman who will be sadly missed

RIP Susan 

[Club AGM]

13 hours ago, elevenone said:

I am going to leave out the aside back and forth revenue chat as it is outwith the full realms of my understanding albeit an interesting read.

However @Jordanhill Jag  (and I haven’t agreed much with him in the past) has it spot on with small details like the toilets, facilities etc being of importance.  To use an example :- me and my lad attended all home games together then he started stepping out with new girlfriend of non football persuasion.  Takes her to a few games and after seeing what the toilets are like, catering etc she is like no thanks not for me.  End result being she no longer will attend and has most Saturdays taken him away from Firhill too as they are happier spending their dosh at cinema,bowling,pub etc where they can enjoy a better level of comfort.  Knock on effect is £44 per home game lost outwith other matchday spends (50-50,programme,food etc) That is obv a tiny sample but that adds up over a season.

The club needs to start thinking outside the box with smaller details.  A lot of new students arrive every year from all over the Uk to just down the road.  Do we market them, put forward the non OF perspective, offer better facilities, catering etc.  Maybe game packages?  Have deals with women’s team cause at end of the day it’s all about getting Partick Thistle out there.

Excellent points.

I remember a good 20 years ago there were a bit of a promotion of the club at Glasgow Uni for instance when i attended.  I was already a long term supporter by that point anyway but it was a good way of attracting potential new supporters.

Alas my uni days are long behind me so i have no idea if there is stil much promotion of the club at any of the cities Universities or colleges.

Completely agree with you as well about the toilet facilities etc too

[January Transfer Window]

On 1/12/2024 at 8:13 PM, MarciaBlaine said:

If and when we lose McMillan, which we will at some point, I’d like to see us try for Carson at ICT. I’ve never seen him play less than 8 out of 10 for them.

I’d say Ashcroft is a better player than Carson

[January Transfer Window]

2 hours ago, exiledjag said:

Agree with comments about Carson and SOD.

The former will be totally comitted to the cause and the latter will bring experience and composure to, at times  a panicky defence.

According to the Courier Byrne has decided to sign for Raith Rovers. Looks like he won't be coming to Firhill. Obviously he is being ill advised turning down the chance to become a Jag!

Is he signing for Raith Rovers or just going on loan as he is already on loan there?

[Morton v Thistle Jan 13]

34 minutes ago, exiledjag said:

2nd would be great. If we had finished second last season (and required to play only 4 play-off games) I believe we would be playing in the SPL this season.

My Airdrie supporter friend firmly believes Raith will fall away in the second half of the season. This belief comes from his dislike of Raith (and ex-Airdrie Manager) Ian Murray. He thinks Murray is a flash-in-the-pan type manager and incapable of Managing at an effective level for a whole season!

Time will tell.

 

The difference between second and fourth is £150,000 at least- that’s a lot of money 

[Morton v Thistle Jan 13]

3 minutes ago, elevenone said:

much better 2nd half.  looked a stick on pen at end for us.  Stanway prob lucky only to see yellow for that challenge after it but can see his frustration.  A point gained on Raith and onwards to Scottish Cup.

 

 

6 minutes ago, exiledjag said:

Well we got our point ansd Welsh did the business for Queens Park.

My apologies to QP and their fans for doubting them. I just couldn't see them doing anything  away to Raith! A big well done to QP.

Also to the Jags and the travelling support  our 12th player! Must have been a big travelling support as the attendance is reported as just over 3500.

Well done everyone.

Still would like to see Queen’s Park relegated- if they are in the same division as us they will just overspend massively 

[Morton v Thistle Jan 13]

A very good point 

[Morton v Thistle Jan 13]

14 minutes ago, Yellow & Redneck said:

Bannigan lucky to still be on the pitch. An absolute liability. Diving into tackles on a yellow card. 

It’s ok he will be rewarded with a new 2 year contract 

[Morton v Thistle Jan 13]

14 minutes ago, JAG1970 said:

With McBeth and O’Reilly signed then hopefully that will address our key weakness and turn some defeats into draws and some draws into wins by conceding fewer goals. But Doolan has to play them..  I also think Alston doesn’t really work for us in the number 10 role, would prefer to see Robinson or Lyons (who never gets a chance) be in ahead of him.

Mcbeth has just been signed from a team sitting 10th in a lowland league.  Understandably will probably take a good while for him to get up to speed 

[January Transfer Window]

45 minutes ago, jaggy said:

 If they get Tiff that’ll be 2 play off failures in their team 🤪

Technically we still have several in our team but

[January Transfer Window]

12 hours ago, sandy said:

I think Raith will win the league. So it’s us scrapping with the Arabs, Airdire and the Pars for the playoff places. 

We miss Turner, it’s Raith’s gain now. 

It almost feels that Raith is making offers to any player they consider there rivals to be interested in - we have at least been paper linked with Shaun Byrne, Lee Ashcroft, Dom Thomas - they appear to be linked with them.

 

Whispers that they are after Tiffoney as well

[January Transfer Window]

27 minutes ago, Willjag said:

I see Sean Welsh is signing for Queens Park.  I’d like to see us sign someone like him, sits in the middle of the park and totally controls the midfield.  There’s not many like him and Docherty around.  The only other one that caught my eye this Season against us was Spencer for Falkirk that performed the same role.

The other thing I wondered if Dools was considering was pushing Aero forward a little to play defensive midfield.  I’m sure he played there before for Ayr against us.

I think that’s why we are trying to sign Shaun Byrne mate

Good to have you back 

[January Transfer Window]

4 minutes ago, laukat said:

I would agree this season they are unlikely to be less than second. However in the summer they will have a challenge if they don't get promoted that they didn't last summer. Which as that they need to hold onto their better players.

If we had been able to hold onto Holt, Docherty, Turner and Tiffoney I suspect we would be ahead of United and Raith. Finding replacements of similar quality able to hit the ground running is hard. The players Raith lost last season were largely ones they wanted rid of and not ones that Raith wanted to retain but got outbid by teams with more spending power.

Raith may have to find replacements for Easton, Byrne, Hamilton etc. A near miss at promotion, as we found out, flags up you have players that other clubs might want to look at.

So if they kept the same squad for next season they are probably there or thereabouts but that's a big if. 

Hamilton is on a 3 year deal at Raith which was a good move by them.

They have offered Byrne a permanent contract for the summer as he is unlikely to have much of a future at Dundee.

Agree with you about the players we lost although would he intersting if we could monitor what’s happening with them for next season.  Turner is only on loan to Raith, will Tiffoney want more game time than he is getting at Dundee. Big if but if united don’t go up will they have to do a massive release of players or will the American owners just carry on paying extortionate wages and racking up huge debts 

[January Transfer Window]

7 minutes ago, laukat said:

Agree about Goodwin. Possible he could binned even if they do get promoted. Also agree Raith are giving it a go this season and probably next. 

I think Raith extended Murray to ward off other clubs as his stock was/is quite high. Not so sure Raith would view finishing 5th as acceptable (unlikely they finish less than 2nd and at worst 3rd) .If at the middle of next season Raith are still not looking like they are getting out of the championship I doubt it will matter if Murray still has 2 years left on his contract they will still get rid as the owners will results.

With the squad Raith have assembled I think they will finish at worst second this season and if they are still in championship then second next season as well 

[January Transfer Window]

12 minutes ago, laukat said:

I'm not so sure Raith have a bigger budget than us. I think they have a similar budget to us but perhaps more importantly a larger budget than they had last year.

They also had an advantage in that they knew much earlier last season what division they would be playing in as they were the only club that was neither involved in relegation or promotion several weeks before the end of the season. Also they have a manager in who has been there for 18 months and now in his 4th transfer window.

In our case we have a manager who is less than a year in post, was the last team of the likely promotion chasers to know they would be in the championship, who's budget went from unknown to non-existent to competitive and who is only now on his second transfer window so its not difficult to see why Raith are in better shape to pursue automatic promotion

This season is largely make or break for Murray as Raith manager. Anything less than a playoff spot probably means he's arguably not done enough. He might one more shot at getting Raith promoted in season 24/25 but he will have increasingly less road in front of him.

Doolan on the other hand is to my mind working on a team to challenge next season whilst being competitive enough this season to have go at the playoffs. Unless something goes badly wrong in the first half of next season he will only really be judged at the end of next season but will probably still have 25/26 to see if he can get us promoted.

So to my mind we have 2 clubs and 2 managers at different points of a 2/3 year plan. 

Murray has just signed a 3 year deal at Raith.  That doesn’t suggest to me in any way he is running out of time. Let’s face it if Raith don’t get promoted this season they will likely be favourites next season.

if anyone is likely to be on borrowed time by not getting promotion then it’s likely to be Jim Goodwin 

[January Transfer Window]

1 hour ago, Albert's Ghost said:

I doubt that's the case now we've got Dan.

Neilson is away in the summer and both Ashcroft and o Reilly are upgrades on Muirhead and Williams.

Muirhead was signed purely as backup but necessity has meant we have to play him.  O Reilly is possibly a replacement for him.  I could see Ashcroft as someone in for Williams who may want away or is not someone that Doolan thinks is good enough to be challenging for promotion.  I’m sure Ashcroft can also cover at right back - we could lose other defensive players in addition to Neilson out of contract eg McMillan not signed a new deal, someone bidding for Milne etc

As I say for me O Reilly is an upgrade on Muirhead and Ashcroft would be one for Williams 

[January Transfer Window]

54 minutes ago, javeajag said:

Eh…..they offered him a new deal and expected him to take it ffs !

they only offered turner a six month loan as well

yiu can work it out 

Ross County might well have told raith they can only have him for 6 months as it’s a loan

[January Transfer Window]

4 minutes ago, Dick Dastardly said:

I won’t deny that, but he is an attacking midfielder and we don’t have a problem scoring or creating. The problem is at the other end where we need a right dirty *******, which Kyle isn’t.

We do have a problem scoring against Dundee United.

it’s only a loan to Raith and several of our midfield are out of contract in the summer so maybe if he’s available in the summer we can enquire 

[January Transfer Window]

1 minute ago, Duke Gekantawa said:

Turner is much better going forward than in defence. Our problem is not in attack. We already score enough, at a sufficiently fast rate, to win this league. It’s conceding that’s the problem, in my opinion largely because we lose control in midfield for long periods (I think our core defending isn’t that bad, and we have now added a new CD who should be an upgrade on Aero). I don’t think Turner would address this. Maybe McBeth might, though it’s a big ask considering the level he’s been playing at. If not, we still desperately need more steel in midfield.

Hopefully we can sign Byrne which would definitely help address that problem 

[January Transfer Window]

1 hour ago, exiledjag said:

As said above (Dick Dastardly) Turner is not what ee need just now.

However he had better not score against us or I will put a curse on him.

 

 

Given he is better than any midfielder we have- he is what we needed.

I understand it’s only a loan though so hopefully their money bags run out before then

[January Transfer Window]

2 hours ago, Dick Dastardly said:

He is not what we need right now.

He s far better than all the current midfielders we have

[January Transfer Window]

Kyle Turner heavily rumoured to be joining Raith Rovers.  Disappointing if we miss out

[January Transfer Window]

The Sun reporting that we are one of the clubs trying to sign Shaun Byrne on a pre contract

[January Transfer Window]

2 hours ago, elevenone said:

Re Don Thomas, maybe Dundee Utd not in a position to afford him at the moment?  That’s a fair loss and one that suggests gloomy times ahead should they not bounce back up this season.

https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/sport/football/dundee-united/4861310/dundee-united-loss-annual-accounts-2023-ogren/

They have just made 2 decent signings including wotherspoon over the last couple of days.  I’m sure they said they didn’t need any more attacking options.

Even if they reigned in their spending and I am sceptical they will then i am sure they could still easily outbid us for Thomas

[January Transfer Window]

1 hour ago, javeajag said:

Trying to work out how we can compete with raith and sign a player from them given they have soo much more cash than us ……maybe that’s one excuse we can put in the bin.

Or maybe it’s because Raith we’re only offering him a 6 month contract and we offered 18 months.