Ancipital

I started a look at this last season for us, I've finished it off tonight going through the whole league. For last season, points won / lost in last 10 minutes added together. Rangers 9 ICT 7 County 7 Aberdeen 6 Hearts 2 Dundee 0 St Johnstone 0 Motherwell -1 Celtic -2 Killie -4 Hamilton -7 Thistle - 16 (sixteen) Couple of seemingly odd things there. Caley finishing bottom with second most points gained in last 10 definitely seems weird. Celtic with -2 not so much , most of the games they won were done and dusted long before the final furlong and they only had one winner after 85 minutes all season. Indeed of the 4 teams to take a point off them in the league, we were the only one to score the equaliser with more than 3 minutes to go. There were 3 games where a team was winning with 10 to go and lost... Killie at home to Aberdeen, and you know the other two games. We were also involved in the most games with a decisive goal (winner or equaliser) in the last 10 minutes with 11, but only 2 of those were in our favour to 9 against. Caley again top this table with 7 of 8 in their favour. Dundee had least games with late excitement, only 3 (1 for, 2 against)

I would go as far as saying Erskine is probably the most composed finisher at the club, more so than Doolan- if you've got jagzone then look at the amount of one on ones he calmly sticks away, especially at the end of solo runs. If we count his spell in the Arab wilderness then I think he's only missing Rangers and Hearts to complete the set that Kris completed last Saturday.

Shows how good we've had it in the last nearly 6 years that there's certainly half a dozen candidates for this who either weren't with us or were in the infancy of their Thistle careers. Doolan and Erskine would definitely be in my XI now, O'Donnell as well (the right back issue solved) and Cerny, Banzo, Lawless, Osman and Lindsay would be in consideration for the squad.

We could offer Livi every last penny Colin and Christine Weir have but we still wouldn't be able to play him until January 1st under SPFL rules. By which time Booth should be back.

Does anyone genuinely think if we restricted Rangers (or Celtic) to 2000ish tickets in the main stand that the JH and North wouldn't be absolutely full of them to the point we're outnumbered regardless and the stewards and Police doing f*** all about it? If so may I refer you to 26th March 2014? I was in the JH but I might as well have been in the jungle at Parkhead. Left at 3-0 with dozens of them joining in the IRA fest unchecked.

Top left isn't Brady, think he signed halfway through that season. Maybe John McGoldrick?

My main concern with Mcdonald would be age and fitness now he's 34/35 and probably hasn't been training. He's undoubtedly a cheating wee scrote but we probably haven't had one of them since Higgy left.

All the top English clubs apart from Arsenal, Man Utd, Man City, Everton, and Spurs.

Archie said on Jagzone keown was our number 1 target regardless of what happened to Lindsay and we're looking for a left sided cb which is probably why we didn't go for Hendry.

from the squad at the end of season we've lost Lindsay, Amoo, Welsh, Keown, Banton (I know), Wilson, and Ridgers. So far we've replaced Ridgers with Sneddon, Amoo with Spittal, and Keown with ...eh... Keown. You could also argue Bannigan and Fraser are effectively replacements for Welsh and Wilson. So that leaves 2 replacements to be found assuming like for like. Also, since promoition we've tended to run with a squad of 22-23 senior players, at the moment we've only got 18 who are over the dev squad age limit. If the likes of Penrice / McCarthy / McLaughlin are going out on loan then we'll need a couple more first team level players when we inevitably get injuries and suspensions.

All Rodgers has done is show how bad the previous managers celtic have had since rangers died have been, they should be winning just about every game with the financial advantage they have. Also the recent game at firhill was a 90 minute IRA fest (ok, maybe 89 minutes, think they sang about the Lisbon team for one minute), their support and their "atmosphere" is just as vile as the other arse cheek. The only difference at the moment is that celtic are winning everything so they're patronising the life out of us. In short : **** them.

No, they're not binding on the player. If Murray has signed a PCA with us then he can stay with United if he wants though it might cost him some dough - think St J ended up getting £40k for Brittain as an out of court settlement even though he never kicked a ball for them

Pre contracts aren't binding, see Richard Brittan and Ross County / St Johnstone a couple of years ago.

Even if you just include the games against Hearts we'd be ahead of them if we'd held on to the draw in the first game at Firhill (Hearts goal in 90th minute) and the win in last week's game (88th). Trying to take the positive it means there's still plenty of room for improvement when most people will think we've gone as high as we can. It is odd that after our first season up where it happened lots we got rid of the losing vital late goals affliction by and large for 2 seasons then it's returned with a vengeance this season.

Must admit, being able to start this in April without us worrying about our top flight status is tremendous. So we know we're going back to Easter Road next season, but with the relegation battle in the Premiership and the playoffs in the Championship to happen, who do we want to be facing next year? In terms of premier relegation, I think ICT are already toast. Won't miss journeys up there but we have had a hell of a good record against them since promotion so that is a downside. Playoff could be any of the remaining 5, though I think Killie probably only need one win. I'd like to see County join their highland neighbours but I think they'll be OK as well. Dundee have gambled on a new manager being able to lift them out of the bottom spot but I think that'll fail. If Moult stays fit for the last 5 games Motherwell should have enough goals in them and Hamilton seem to have found some spirit from somewhere. From the Championship, I don't think there's many Thistle fans who'll want to see Dundee Utd again any time soon. I'd like to see Morton up, it was fun to beat them 4 years ago but it's somewhere different to go, and amazing to think cappielow is top flight compliant in 2017 considering what we had to go through in 2002. They seem to have hit the buffers though. Falkirk are a bit uninspiring (and still have Craigen, Baird, Kerr, and Muirhead) but might be best placed to beat the Premiership team. I think the premier league team will stay up though, so Hibs replacing Inverness will be it. Ideally Morton to replace County as well.

0-0 at home to Raith in August 1987, so 30 years soon. Have it in my head Kenny Watson missed a penalty twice i.e. it was retaken and he missed it both times but I think that may have been twisted in the mists of time.

If we get top 6 then the fixtures due for both arse cheeks and Aberdeen balance exactly; Hearts have 1 projected home game extra, St Johnstone have 1 projected home game less, but Hearts are due to play St Johnstone at Tynecastle after the split so if you switch that to Perth then their fixtures balance out exactly. Which leaves Thistle as the odd one out with 20 home games and 18 away. But the SPFL won't want to rock the boat by changing fixtures for the arse cheeks so if we do get in then I think we'll get the extra home game.

Still think we need another 3 points from somewhere, Motherwell on paper the most likely. Hearts are effectively a bye at the moment, and I can see Killie taking at least a point during the week at home to the orcs who have a bit of an injury crisis at the back, if they win those 2 it means we need a win from one of the last 3.

Harkins had 3 spells at Dundee, and Graham Gibson has been retired for ages and is now a journalist for a local paper somewhere on the east coast.

Both teams were wearing home kits as recently as 2014/15 at Tannadice (when SOD scored the goal of the season)

What kit actually won?

Think if Booth is out it'll be Keown at RB and Muzzy at LB. Or RWB and LWB although I'd not be as comfortable with Keown in that role- admittedly based on one viewing.

So from what I can see, he has scored against: Everyone in the Premiership except Aberdeen (an odd anomaly) Everyone in the Championship Livi & Airdrie in League one, with the caveat I think the only other teams he’s played against are QP and Stenny in this year’s league cup. Forfar, Clyde, Stirling, and Cowdenbeath (side note, what a fall they’ve had in the last 3.5 years) in league 2, think only other he played against was Berwick when they beat us 3-1, we did play Annan as well but google suggests he didn’t play that game. So in effect Aberdeen are the only team he’s played more than once but hasn’t scored against. Roll on Pittodrie in February…

I must be alone in not being able to see round corners on this forum. For the 2nd goal vs Dundee, Doolan is clearly ahead of the last Dundee defender but he might well be level with the ball when Erskine hits it, impossible to tell from a 45 degree camera angle. For the 2nd disallowed goal vs Killie, it's again very tight and can't be judged from the one angle we have. edit: apologies, Exiled AusJag said this before me.

I think the average since the split came in is 42 after 33 games to ensure top 6 but obviously in any given year this can change, don't know whether Celtic cantering it this year and lack of a team totally marooned at the bottom means it's lower. 42 would have been bang on last year, 41 left us just short.