The Terminator

Really glad that Y and R has touched on this, as I must confess that I thought the 'well fans were excellent yesterday. There is nothing wrong with a group of fans who want to make some noise and bring some colour for 90 minutes. It works in Germany at lower-league level, where some grounds even have space set aside for such fans and their drums, banners and flags. For my tuppence worth, the drum keeps the singing and chanting going. Without something to keep singing fans ticking along, our fans and those of other clubs tend to stand but not make much noise. It is just a suggestion, but it may be time that Thistle and other clubs in Scotland moved into the European mainstream in that respect. A pal of mine from Germany has been coming along to the games for a couple of months now and has remarked at how consistently quiet all the stadia in Scotland are, with the large group of standing fans behind the goals present at most grounds doing just that and not much else. Nevertheless, delighted to say that he enjoyed himself yesterday and that we have a new convert!

Ditto. It's super to hear about the crowd nonetheless.

Turner is probably better remembered for his "exploits" before he came to Thistle. He seemed to bang them in away from the field anyway. On the pitch was another matter. IIRC he was particularly crud against Airdrie in that awful Challenge Cup semi at Firhill.

That was very infuriating. Erskine couldn't have been any worse than he was today, which is how he has been since the first game of the season. Archibald and Kinniburgh were shambolic in the first half, and although they improved defensively in the second 45, they can't pass to save themselves. Those two create puntfests on their own. Stewart's effort, or lack of, was disgusting. Whenever someone whipped a cross in, he was nowhere to be seen in the box. He spent his time sauntering lazily around the middle of the Falkirk half and didn't once attempt to chase or win a ball. Fox must wonder why he signed a contract with Thistle when his colleagues make such an awful job of protecting him.

I always found Lilley to be a moaning little hack whenever he played for Queens, no thanks.

I noticed that the bullet sent to the Cardinal was sent by "The Protestant Action Group" (UVF). Always amusing how a bunch of sash wearing morons seems to think they act in the best interests of a religious group, when they do eveything to contradict the teachings of their faith. How they even claim to be protestant is beyond lunacy, when they don't grace a church door with their shadow on any given Sunday. It's the same with the green mob. None of them could name half of the ten commandments and yet they claim that they are being persecuted for their "chosen faith". Sick to the teeth of this garbage!

Personally I am quite pleased that Barcelona lost the game, sick of them being fawned over by countless Barcelona "fans" here. No-one mentions that they simply cannot be financially stable, successful or not. However, although I am satisfied that Madrid won this time, I would rather both would implode, along with the rest of Europe's big spenders.

Not much to shout about if I'm being kind. Cairney had a horror show. His attitude is just as infuriating as his apparent lack of ability. Lots of backing out of challenges, sauntering up and down the pitch while a striker holds off a couple of defenders, no effort made to close down players yards away etc. The defence's insistence on looking to hoof the ball out of play before looking for an avenue to play the ball forward is utterly awful to watch, Kinniburgh being particularly guilty of this. They do it even when it doesn't have to be done aswell, leading to countless stop-start games. On Kinniburgh, he's certainly not a right-back. He is simply far too immobile. As for Jackie McNamara, didn't seem to be moving around much or shouting much encouragement. A little concerned about both him and Donnelly being on the touchline, with both of them being near mutes. However, hopefully he will liven up a bit against his old club on Tuesday. Positives: - Campbell was good in parts. - My bovril was good.

He's not likely to go for the Mourinho/Ancelotti long coat I don't think. I hope for the suit, but expect a tracky from 3 seasons ago.

Cannot, simply cannot believe that Maitland, Hughes and Duffy are on the wanted list. - Maitland has presided over the steady decline of Alloa from Division 2 promotion hopefuls to relegation candidates. - Hughes is a moronic bell-end, whose mastery of the English language falls beneath that of most on here. Also, hasn't got a clue how to change a game, use the players he has, use the media etc. I would gladly swim across the channel to prevent him becoming manager. He is so typical of the type of manager that keeps scottish football back in the stone age. - Jim Duffy has relegation written all over him. The mini-revival at Clyde means nothing unless he can really improve them next season. Anyone under the sun could have improved that Clyde team. Some other names: - Calderwood: Another "scoatish fitba" man. Big centre-halves and long punts. No thanks. - Jimmy Nicholl: See above. (Also seems to get on with Donald Findlay) - McGhee: A clown and too expensive. I just pray that things will go well with Jackie McNamara, as the alternatives look awful. It will be interesting to see how he performs, specifically as hiring young managers seems to be the fashionable thing now. My only fear is that it fails so often e.g. Pressley at Falkirk, O'Neil at Stirling Albion. Hopefully he can be more like Eddie Howe at Bournemouth for example, showing a freshness in the team and some new ideas, not just the same tinkering between 4-4-2 and 3-5-2 as seemed to be the only meangingful change we could make under McCall. On McCall himself, thanks for 4 reasonable years and some good memories.

He's away, McNamara in as caretaker boss. None too pleased with that.

Well that was horrific to watch, 90 minutes of thumping the ball forwards in wind and rain, hoping that it would eventually end up with a Jags player. Archie was particularly brutal, he had a nightmare. Closest he got to a meaningful piece of defending was a bodycheck on a Cowdenbeath player in the first half. Hodge and Rowson were pitiful in the first half. No grip of the game at all. Cairney did little to change that, against today's opposition you have to expect better. Cowdenbeath are no better than a pub team. They have been consistently humped most weeks, yet we have managed 1 point from 6 at Central Park, not good enough.

First and foremost, how very frustrating. How we can manage to lose a 3-1 lead with minutes to play is mind boggling. However I feel that the change in formation has to take a large part of the blame. It's no co-incidence that we often happen to be playing 3-5-2 when lose a lead, both recently and in McCall's earlier seasons. e.g. Losing a 2-0 lead to St Johnstone with 2 minutes left, or even the Ross County Challenge Cup game this season. The problem being that we pack our own box with 5 defenders and 2 defensive midfielders in Hodge and Rowson. As a result there is no outlet further up the field, we just hoof the ball clear to no-one and instead of chasing, we stay in 2 lines in/in front of our own box, giving the opposition time to punt another ball into the box. Sooner or later they will get a chance, thanks to defenders getting in each others' way and not providing a short forward pass option. Granted, we don't have the same squad now as 4 years ago, but McCall hasn't learned lessons. Constantly defending againts high balls when in a marginal lead is nonsense. We were coping fine with the 4-4-2, they didn't look like scoring at all, just like Ross County earlier in the season. Trying to defend when there is little defending to be done is asking for a trouble. But 10 minutes of panic shouldn't cover what was otherwise a very good display. Hopefully the team will take it out on Cowdenbeath. A good chance to get a win and possibly move into positive goal difference. Positives: - Boyle was very good, never gave up on the ball and was always available in attack. - Hodge is getting into his stride which is something I thought I'd never see, still a little slack at times but is always looking for the ball. - Grehan and Doolan both put in good shifts. Hopefully Grehan can show he ability he showed yesterday more often. Last point: Shepherd. No doubt he would have been a bag of nerves yesterday, but if that was Halliwell he would have taken a pasting from the fans. In hindsight perhaps Hinchcliffe would have been a wiser choice, smaller pitch dimensions meaning less ground for keeper to cover and so on. Shepherd seemed to lack proper communication with the defence and seemed glued to the goal-line at crosses. I know Hinchy is like a sack of potatoes, but he would probably have caused less panic. In good time, Shepherd will hopefully grow in confidence. Incidentally, pardon my ignorance, where was Fox? Was he ill or did Tuesday's Wednesday's knock have an impact?

Just to put everyone's positivity in one place. As for the game, Archie, Fox, Erskine and Rowson were the stand-outs. Even Grehan's impression of a fish out of water didn't spoil things. Fantastic, long may it continue.

It speaks for itself. I don't think he is any use at that role. He is barged off the ball 9 out of 10 times due to his habit of backing into a defender. The fact that no-one else at the club can do it better is pretty irrelevant, we shouldn't be using a style of play that involves a target man without the necessary personnel.

He only became a poacher when Irons couldn't figure out what he actually was. Witteveen was what we would call a target man before he arrived on our shores. (The same sort of player doesn't quite exist in central europe, in the absence of the kick and rush style of play.) I would say that the target man is what Donnelly is intended to be. He is there to hold off defenders and "bring others into play" to use a cliche. He just doesn't do it very well anymore.

Saw him play for Accies against Aberdeen last week. He huffed and puffed and that was about it. Poor touch and lacks, like the rest of the Accies team, any dig. A spent force if anyone rated him before, which personally I didn't to be perfectly honest. Witteveen isn't such a bad idea, but in order for that to happen McCall would probably have to punt one of Doolan, Buchanan or Grehan. The first two he probably isn't considering and Grehan's contract is problematic. Pity, as Witteveen would certainly so what Donnelly is intended to do, to a higher standard too.

Owen Coyle

And Craig Brewster at Inverness, for about a week or two.

It is easily arguable that those bigger clubs aren't exactly escaping either though. All those clubs are suffering crowds-wise. Pittodrie in particular looks dreadful, 7000 or 8000 at the last game in a stadium capable of holding around 22,000. Rangers down to the low 40,000s now, Celtic down to who knows what and Hibs, fresh from expanding their ground, only get around 10,000 now. It's clear as day that everyone feels that what's on offer is mince, even those at the very top of our scale. Unfortunately it's far easier to lose support than it is to gain it.

While we're on the topic though, and seeing as Sportsound was mentioned: Sandra Brown. Every week: "Queen of the South are great. All others are lesser teams in comparison to Queen of the South. I'm a Queen of the South fan. By the way, Queen of the South are great." Makes no attempt to be balanced at all. Really dislike her voice because of that.

Even though Cowan, Hughes and Prentice are gone, I can't get overly excited just yet. As mentioned above, the details of their departures aren't exactly flowing through yet, i.e. shares and Prentice's continued involvement with the Centenary Fund. We're still in huge amounts of debt, still don't have a shareholder to write off losses or the means to do that without such a person. To add to that, the men behind PropCo are still around waiting to pick the last few wads of cash we can make. Personally, I am not too excited about Beattie and Gilfillan being in charge if that proves to be the case. I'd rather have a complete gutting of the board, but beggars can't be choosers. We've scraped off some rust with Coco and friends, but as far as I'm concerned there's a lot of painting to be done so to speak.

Pity they could only manage a temporary stand over the summer, as it looks silly and out of place. It's a shame, because I think that the rest of Bloomfield Road actually looks like a very smart stadium. Sounds like it has a good atmosphere too.