Jimbo

Even smarter with black socks. IMO

By all accounts Graham was offered the position of head coach but turned it down. Hardly 'bundled out the door'

I don't think that's entirely fair. Our final game was less then 2 weeks ago. If the board had actively pursued a new manager before the season ended they would have been severely criticised, not least from Graham. Similarly, had the just appointed Graham, they would have been hammered & rightly so. They had to follow a process. Could they have moved quicker? Possibly, but we may have been in exactly the same position we are now.

'From what I have witnessed, there is not forward vision or coherent structure between the academy players and the first team, no visual progression'. I'm not totally convinced that he's the right man for the job, but the above is hardly Brian Graham's fault.

My take on Low was that you could see that he had been well coached. Credit to Mark Wilson & Craig Dargo. Hopefully some other Academy graduates can seamlessly adapt to first team football.

Wasn't Hill 60 immediately after 14th Sow's Back & a very challenging par 3 (perhaps a par 4)rather than par 5? The sense of achievement if you hit t he green was palpable.

Here's my take on Saturday's events. 1. The Cowshed was closed to Thistle fans because of the missile throwing incidents on Hogmanay. I assume that this was on the advice of the police. 2. No move towards the Cowshed was made during the first half when the rain was at its heaviest. Draw your own conclusions 3. It did appear that our SLO did try to 'talk our fans down'. I can't comment on how successful this was. 4. Whilst the focus has been on the Ultras/Young Team, a couple of 40yo's in front of me thought it would a hoot to join them. These guys really should know better. 5. From my vantage point in the WDE some of the policing did seem unnecessarily heavy-handed when a couple of young guys got into the Cowshed. 6. Whilst the young team have been a generally positive development, police acquaintances of mine have confirmed that, unfair or not, they have gained a reputation as potential troublemakers. The club needs to recognise this.

Milne was our only saleable asset. Given our financial challenges it was a bit of a no brainer & I would hope Doolan understands the logic behind the decision. Re Robinson, I've never considered him to be an effective No 10. Bags of energy but lacks guile. It remains to be seen how Martin performs but IMO it seems a good deal for us.

Stevie Lawless

Probably in the minority here but I've never seen Turner as a natural No 10 &, because we currently don't have one, I feel we may be shoehorning him into that role. To my mind his best performances were 2 seasons ago alongside Docherty during the play-off run as a No 8. To be fair we had Tiffoney as a No 10 at that time who regularly found space between the oppositions' midfield & defence ('between the lines'), took the ball on the turn & the defence was immediately under pressure. Something Falkirk did with ease last week. Just my opinion. PS I would still like to see Lawless in No 10 role when he's back

I'm not in the 'Doolan Out' club but he's making it more & more difficult to defend him. It's not entirely his fault when players can't control the football or consistently misplace passes, but his willingness to persevere with 3 central defenders yesterday when Hamilton effectively played with 1 central striker was baffling. He could have easily moved to a back four without making any substitutions by moving McBeth into midfield, pushing Turner or Crawford further forward & playing Fitzy on the left. Yet he only switched to a back four when McBeth got injured. I expressed concern last season about Doolan's ability to make effective tactical substitutions. IMO it remains an issue.

Nice to see some positive comments on James Lyon. His calmness & assurance on the ball is most welcome &, as I've said previously, he's up there with Lawless in terms of technical ability. He also has the nagging habit of passing the ball to someone in the same coloured strip. IMO he thoroughly deserves a run of games.

It looked a pretty clear penalty from where I was sitting but fwiw I think McBeth was equally culpable as Roberts came to collect the ball but Luke lashed it aimlessly against Turner (I think). Imo Luke looks a little out of sorts & has done for a couple of weeks.

Last night proved how much we have relied on our FB's in an attacking sense. If we don't sign a RB before Sunday I would give serious consideration to playing Turner there. I know it isn't ideal as he's comfortably our best midfielder, & I guess he wouldn't be best pleased, but he was first class when he played there against Dundee in the first league game a couple of seasons back. It was an emergency then. It's an emergency now.

I prefer Turner in no 8 rather than no 10 role when he can see what's in front of him. One positive for me today was how comfortable O' Reilly looked at at both LCB & LB. Final comment- baffled by Doolan's 3 subs at 2-1. Overconfidence?