Jaggernaut

You're right; the similarity between Cairney and Roberts in terms of never finding their earlier form after illness is striking. And although Marco is certainly doing the business for Ayr these days, somehow I don't think his legs would be up for it in this Division. Cairney is younger, however, so we can only hope that he recovers his form. He's also starting to remind me of Dosser, who looked great at times, but could never quite keep it going because of injuries.

Good point. Another of McCall's mysterious approaches to managing a team.

The one of Halliwell giving away the penalty reinforces my view that it should not have been given.

The way things have been going, there may be no more than around 50 Thistle fans who'll bother to go in any case.

Slightly odd that the "hospitality" prizes are presented lower down the list than the cash prizes, although they are actually worth more than most of the cash prizes. But I digress; this was just to add my usual: "Fix!"

I kind of felt like that about the Thistle support on Saturday.

As Nessie Jag said on Saturday, the team looked as hopeless and heartless as during the DC reign with one major difference: no inspirational Boab McCulloch type of player to take the game by the scruff of the neck.

Their position actually seems a lot worse than many people might think. According to this article, they're £2m in debt and owe over £400K in tax: http://www.heraldscotland.com:80/sport/more-scottish-football/chisholm-dundee-board-were-bewitched-by-melville-s-millions-1.1062370 Maybe, current league position aside, we're not that bad off after all...

Congratulations!

Yes, there's not much to celebrate on or off the pitch for Thistle fans just now. But it has been worse. We have some good players, and they have shown against Dundee and Falkirk that they can match the so-called stronger teams when things go right. The problem is that things usually don't go right, and that is down to the way they are being "managed". Three defeats in a row against part-time teams surely shows a manager's lack of ability.

I can see where this thread might go unless the pun polis step in.

Hmm, not easy to disentangle the various factors because of the way we play so deep so can't ever break forward at speed and keep it going (it has to come to a halt in midfield to wait for others to arrive), and because of the inevitable punt-up-the-park-lose-possession tactic after we've kindly waited for the opposition to get back fully behind the ball, BUT, we're outpaced by just about everybody else in the league. Stirling's first and fourth goals yesterday were largely down to fast attacks. Also noticeable against Dunfermline a couple of weeks ago. Take any one of our 30+ players and test them in a sprint against guys who are 10 years younger from just about any other team in the division and I would bet the Thistle players would be left standing.

Halliwell: 30 Hinchcliffe: 38 Archie: 33 Donnelly: 36 Hardie: 34 McNamara: 37 Robertson: 34 Rowson: 34 One big problem: The squad's too feckin' old.

He played well in the Save The Jags match at Firhill. Some nice ball skills and quick one-twos.

Well, there was a decent-enough Jags support at Forthbank yesterday. Just a pity the team didn't seem interested.

BMMMH was clearly out to impress last week. Seemed like he didn't bother much about anything yesterday. Like several others, it has to be said. Biggest disappointment for me this season has been Cairney. A year ago many of us were singing his praises, but he's never regained his form from back then. Yesterday was a catalogue of non-offerings, overhit 3-yard passes, and failures to trap the ball. Oh and Buchanan really needs to work on how to trap a ball too. The number of times the ball springs up from his boot, allowing a defender to boot it clear, is as frustrating as it's predictable.

At 40, Craig Nelson is still doing the biz at Brechin, who have the best defensive record and are sitting at the top of their league right now. Never thought he got the recognition he deserved when he was with us.

We started yesterday in what looked something like 7-1-2. Whatever it was, it was aimed at containment....we were hoping to hold out against a team of part-timers! What is it in McCall's mentality that allows him to think that any Thistle team should play like that at Forthbank? We could have steamrollered over them when we got back to 1-1, but we reverted to exactly the same starting formation, with their two wingers getting all the space in the world on either wing, because we basically had a 1-man midfield stuck somewhere in the middle. Even when Halliwell did his obligatory fumble for their 2nd, I believed that we could do it. The third finished it, and us. Very grim, but actually, if the penalty hadn't been given (shouldn't have been, IMO), then the whole thing might have ended differently. Also we suffered through losing both Archie and Kinnie. Back on track next week...... no ?

He could work a bit on spelling.....

http://jimwilson309.fotopic.net/p67698659.html

Next Saturday will be the 39th anniversary of the most glorious day in living memory if you're a Thistle fan of a certain generation..... It looks like the current team is gaining in confidence and starting to get the kinds of results that we prefer (OK, the displays aren't there yet). It would be superb to get a huge Jags following to Forthbank next week in celebration.

Excellent. Paton's control just before his scoring shot was first class (I thought he'd lost it).

Excellent!

Hardie is a big nuisance; the kind of player opponents really hate. Noises them up off the ball, and shows excellent aggression. It was great to see him have such a positive effect today. Got me really thinking that players like Donnelly and Rowson are really yesterday's men.

Sounds like us much of the time!