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[potty trained]

 

 

Was that not the whole point of it, companies paid for there logo to go on the seats and all or some of the cash from that went to BCCS

 

No, almost.

 

All the companies, or fans paid, yes... But it was the BCCS logo that would go on the headrests. It was there last season.

 

The money raised from this was to go to BCCS.

 

The link is still on the official site.

[JaggyMad]

 

 

The Alba highlights showed at least one example of Stevenson tracking back making a key tackle infront of our box when they were countering.

 

I think all the basics are there for him to fit into our team, and with a run of games he will begin to fit in in the midfield 3.

 

The highlights also show lawless tracking back all game, but all you seem to observe is the amount of times he lost the ball going forward. Funny how we all see things differently, even after being at the game and watching the highlights.

Stevenson I think we all agree should be being played in midfield, not striker. So it is up to him to prove himself and it's up to Archie to pick the right formation in midfield. Only thing that worries me is, that plays him no matter the form of others, ie banzo, osman, fraser(when back).

[lady-isobel-barnett]

Although Stephen O'Donnell is almost guaranteed to do something a bit daft every game, he is a far more exciting option down the right flank...McMillan is a real competitor but he tends to tuck in beside the centre backs allowing too much space for the opposition down the wing and he offers not a great deal of an attacking threat.

 

Apologies for the selective quoting, Winter. There's much in your post I totally agree with.

 

I think tho' your criticism of McMillan is just wrong. Our centrebacks have been left stranded far too often. Usually dragged out of position.The lesser of two evils is for a full back to go central rather than a centreback go wide. Last season in particular on a few occasions we lost daft goals from our right defensive side. On each occasion SOD was "lost", stranded out too close to the sideline. Usually the centrebacks get the blame but as often as not they're only partly at fault.

 

Not criticising SOD as much as pointing out that Jordan is defensively far more aware of his positioning. Perhaps that was the reasoning behind starting McMillan yesterday. We had Higgy, Lawless, Stevenson & Doolan all in advanced positions so having O'Donnell reaching the byeline would've been just too much emphasis on attack.

[jaggybunnet]

No, almost. All the companies, or fans paid, yes... But it was the BCCS logo that would go on the headrests. It was there last season. The money raised from this was to go to BCCS. The link is still on the official site.

 

 

the link is broken though.

[Dick Dastardly]

Just in (from watching the highlights on Alba which I recorded last night)

 

 

Fist thing to say is that Inverness will play worse and win, also Thistle will play better and loose. That was 2 well matched teams and the difference was our finishing and our pace on the break. I can see why Inverness have made such a good start. There defence is well set up to deal with the long ball pumped down the middle, which is what they will usually face. They didn't like it when we ran at them, and through out this Jags team we have pace to frighten any defence in this league.

 

 

I know that it is different from actually being at the game, but I have to disagree with much of what has been said about Stevenson. What he does do very well is to tie up one sometimes 2 of their players. He wasn't given an inch and this allows space for others to exploit. Lawless and Banzo made a lot from Stevenson just pulling players towards him and I suspect that if you ask the other players they will say that they love having him in the team.

 

 

I would also disagree with some of the things said about Lawless. What impressed me was the way he put himself about. There was one crunching tackle and several times he held off robust defending from ICT, not least when he set up Higgy's goal. The Lawless of last season would have been shoved aside too easily.

 

 

Not quite sure what to make of Jake Carroll. There is a player in there, but I think that he is being asked to play the game that ATS used to play and that is not his natural. It looks as if he is thinking to hard about what he has been asked to do, rather than just playing the game. Once he settles in I'm sure we will see a different player.

 

 

Higgy could become my favourite Thistle player ever if he continues like this. Rightbacks must be terrified of facing him. That said, he (and Banzo) are bookings waiting to happen. Defenders target him to wind him up and he does react. He could have been booked for the shove when he was fouled in the first half and that would have been him off when he went in on the keeper.

 

 

Abdul Osman ! He's some boy, by the way

[potty trained]

 

 

The highlights also show lawless tracking back all game, but all you seem to observe is the amount of times he lost the ball going forward.

 

Which would be a valid point. If I hadn't written the following, in my opening post:

 

As on the right, Mcmillan drops inside and Lawless comes back to cover.

 

[Stewarty]

It was a bizarre game, which I suppose is reflected in the widely different interpretations in evidence. The opening line of the BBC's match report reads: 'Partick Thistle produced a sensational display to win the battle of the Jags and bring Inverness Caley Thistle's unbeaten run to an end.' Personally, I can't believe we walked away with all three points, far less with a two goal cushion. Perhaps the BBC's acclaim says more about how well ICT have been playing recently. They are clearly a very decent outfit. With this in mind, when I say that our defence was all over the place at times, I do so whilst also recognising that this was, to an extent, due to ICT's movement up front, which was very clever. Having said that, some of the problems we experienced, particularly on the flanks, are a cause for concern. As others have noted, Carroll was regularly caught out by diagonal balls. He had clearly been instructed to track Watkins when he drifted inside, leaving Higgy to cover Raven's overlapping runs. This is all fine and good. The problem was, however, that Watkins often dragged Carroll inside only to pull back out wide, but Jake failed to stick with him and was caught ball-watching on several occasions. But he's new to the team, so I'm optimistic that Archie can iron out these errors.

 

Stevenson is coming in for some serious stick. I didn't think he was that bad yesterday, aside from being far too lackadaisical when he had the opportunity to play Higgy clean through on the break. He was better than Doolan, who had a rare off day. Osman and Bannigan were solid if unspectacular. Higgy was just fantastic, but then he often is.

 

So basically, I felt our performance was far from 'sensational', as claimed by the Beeb, but we ground out the win. According to the tired old MoTD cliche this is the mark of champions...

[lady-isobel-barnett]

I know they hardly exist these days but that was a cracking game to watch if you were a neutral. They'd probably get more enjoyment than some of us. Even at two up, and I thought just as likely to score a fourth than lose one, I still had the end of the Accies game in mind.

Four good goals, skill aplenty, played at a decent pace, good surface, smashing weather and an incompetent referee thrown in. All the constituents for a great game to watch.

[Lenziejag]

I'm still recovering from the fact we held on to a lead to see out the game for 67 minutes. When was the last time we did that in the League?

 

Ross County ?

[Lindau]

I know they hardly exist these days but that was a cracking game to watch if you were a neutral. They'd probably get more enjoyment than some of us. Even at two up, and I thought just as likely to score a fourth than lose one, I still had the end of the Accies game in mind.

Four good goals, skill aplenty, played at a decent pace, good surface, smashing weather and an incompetent referee thrown in. All the constituents for a great game to watch.

 

 

Can't disagree with any of that, but isn't it good that a lot of people that were at the game(myself included) have come on here and said that we were a bit lucky to win, against the undefeated league leaders and a team that had already beaten last seasons league champions and who hadn't lost a goal.That to me is major progress from the majority of games at Firhill last season when we should have won, but ultimately didn't. If we win the remainder of our home games in a similar fashion, you won't have any complaints from me. Maybe yesterday was a turning point, in as much as we proved that we can see out a game that we are leading in!

Edited September 14, 2014 by Lindau

[chunky jag]

After watching the highlights I thought Brill should have saved Abdul's header.

 

Seabourn should have been sent off and penalty awarded for his tug on Mckay. Little bit of good fortune with that.

 

What the highligts do not show u, and what i think i saw fron the northy, was that a caley defender stuck a leg out and put the slightest deflection on the ball before it got to brill. I couldve imagined that though!

[Fawlty Towers]

Interesting that we beat the league leaders 3-1, miss a pen and I still feel disappointed.

 

I don't know if it's a combination of the postponed Celtic game and the international game, but we are far from up to pace. Our passing was slow, really slow at times.

 

I can understand why we have Carroll, he's similar to Sinclair, but a Sinclair of 2 or 3 years ago. Worth noting that him coming inside might be a game plan, it's just that Higgy didn't cover for him enough. As on the right, Mcmillan drops inside and Lawless comes back to cover. Hence the introduction of Elliott late on.

 

whilst Seaborne is commanding, his clearing headers are piss poor and at least 7 landed at a Caly player. But again, our manager might be telling him, just get it clear, it's the midfields job to get on top of the second ball. Which we did well.

 

As much as I love Pantofola boots, big Conrad needs to change them, like a lot of players he spent a lot of time on his arse.

 

Osman and Banzo were solid together, both really getting in about it. Banzo his usual self, including a bloody stupid booking.

 

Stevenson, jury is still out, he was more effective behind the striker, but Craigan was head n shoulders above him, when he came on. I hope he comes good as on form he is one of the best midfielders in the league.

 

Higgy was outstanding. Tam Cowan later on described him as the best "footballer" in the league. It's hard to argue with that.

 

Lawless had a strange game. Scored one, set up one, but they were the only two occasions he actually beat his man in the whole game. 5 times in the first and 3 times in the second, he just ran into their full backs and they just brushed him aside.

 

Doolan looked like he's just short of match fitness, but then again, the vast majority of his work was done outside the box. I'd be surprised if any player hits a worse penalty in Scotland this seasons from the NS it was obvious he should be going to the keepers left.

 

Away from the game, interesting to note the Bing end missing the advertising, is this due to the latest Firhill Developments news. By the way, the Trust have a 10% share in the club! the Club has a 50% share in the bing and main stand development, so time for the trust to get involved.

 

Also noted the new sponsor across the main stand roof, one of our director's company's. Are we that shit at finding sponsors, we have to rely on directors to fill one of the best advertising spaces in the ground?

 

Also, who is the new logo on the headrests in the dugout? Not BCCS, as it was last season. So is our charity of the year actually getting any financial help, of note, from the away strip?

 

Hats off to G4S who again stewarded at arms length in the north stand. Night and day from last season. Keep up the good work

 

I saw that but did know it was a director's company but as long as they are paying the going rate then I don't have a problem with that. It is not uncommon in Scottish football for teams to be sponsored by their chairman or a director's firm - Night & Day at Dundee Utd when Eddie Thompson was in charge and Mr Rae at Morton has had his firm's name on the shirts for years. I actually think we are doing okay with sponsorship in that we have a sponsor for the front and back of the tops as well as the shorts. Also, apart from the JH Stand all the hoardings are taken, the programme has plenty of adverts and we even have a sponsor for the 50/50 tickets.

[1 John Lambie]

I saw that but did know it was a director's company but as long as they are paying the going rate then I don't have a problem with that. It is not uncommon in Scottish football for teams to be sponsored by their chairman or a director's firm - Night & Day at Dundee Utd when Eddie Thompson was in charge and Mr Rae at Morton has had his firm's name on the shirts for years. I actually think we are doing okay with sponsorship in that we have a sponsor for the front and back of the tops as well as the shorts. Also, apart from the JH Stand all the hoardings are taken, the programme has plenty of adverts and we even have a sponsor for the 50/50 tickets.

 

If you don't buy a 50/50 ticket you wouldn't know they had a sponsor, the announcer should say something like "& the winning number for this weeks half-time draw, sponsored by Pizza Express, is...".

[falklandal1]

Pretty well sums up my feeling as well,doesnt seem to be a lot of communication across the back four,thats why I prefer Gallagher in goal,he seems to control the defence better than Fox.

[BowenBoys]

If you don't buy a 50/50 ticket you wouldn't know they had a sponsor, the announcer should say something like "& the winning number for this weeks half-time draw, sponsored by Pizza Express, is...".

 

NO...

[potty trained]

 

 

I saw that but did know it was a director's company but as long as they are paying the going rate then I don't have a problem with that. It is not uncommon in Scottish football for teams to be sponsored by their chairman or a director's firm - Night & Day at Dundee Utd when Eddie Thompson was in charge and Mr Rae at Morton has had his firm's name on the shirts for years. I actually think we are doing okay with sponsorship in that we have a sponsor for the front and back of the tops as well as the shorts. Also, apart from the JH Stand all the hoardings are taken, the programme has plenty of adverts and we even have a sponsor for the 50/50 tickets.

 

I was tending towards it was a car manufacturer, maybe in tandem with the Centenary Fund(?) ... Now it's one of Billy Allan's firms.

 

I suppose I just have it in my mind that as a Premiership team, we should be able to achieve external funding. Especially in one of the best sites for sponsorship, in the stadium.

 

It's no biggy, just the things you notice as you look around the ground.

Edited September 14, 2014 by potty trained

[Duke Gekantawa]

Pretty well sums up my feeling as well,doesnt seem to be a lot of communication across the back four,thats why I prefer Gallagher in goal,he seems to control the defence better than Fox.

Conversely, I think we are a better attacking side with Fox in goal. Gallagher has a tendency for aimless punts, while Fox prefers throwing the ball out and building from the back.

[lady-isobel-barnett]

Conversely, I think we are a better attacking side with Fox in goal. Gallagher has a tendency for aimless punts, while Fox prefers throwing the ball out and building from the back.

 

Undoubtedly. It's all very saying we can't hold on to a lead but when you're constantly giving the ball straight back to your opponents the chances of holding on to a win reduce many fold. Always feel more comfortable when we control the ball out of defence. Even if it ends up with a misplaced punt up the park it's usually to an area that takes a bit of good counter stuff before we have to defend again.

That's not necessarily an endorsement of Fox ahead of Gallacher. It'll always come down to a combination of the safest pair of hands and the best shot stopper. Over the piece I've probably favoured the latter more often but that sort of thing is a variable.

Edited September 14, 2014 by lady-isobel-barnett

[sb1876]

Can't be at St Mirren game- a bit pissed off about that but knowing Thistle we'll f**k up when we've the chance to go 10 ahead - Saints have got to get a point soon.

 

No doubting you've been a thistle fan for years, exactly what I was thinking, here's hoping for another convincing win on Fri tho.

[partickthedog]

In view of some of the not always justified criticism of Ryan Stevenson's fitness and workrate, it does seem unfortunate that the official site is showing him sitting on 5 chairs simultaneously. How much would he pay for occupying 5 seats on a flight to New York? Or is he keeping seats for the other 4 midfielders?

[scottymagoo]

I thought we deserved the win but we didn't perform as well as we were capable of. The defence looked shaky / disorganised in the first half but was much better after the break. The midfield didn't look as composed as normal but battled well and attacked with pace and numbers.We looked dangerous everytime we went forward. Lawless was MotM for me. Lost the ball a few times in the first 20 minutes but after that looked lively and provided good battling defensive cover. Stevenson looks a bit off the pace but was by no means awful. Doolan had an off day. Craigen linked up well when he came on.

[Armand2]

As others have touched upon, it was a bit of an odd game. Inverness were very impressive in the opening quarter and moved the ball around well whilst we looked quite disjointed and lacked shape; however, once we (undeservedly, in my opinion) got ourselves back into the game, we pinned them back for prolonged spells and looked dangerous in the wide areas. We looked extremely vulnerable on the counter in the second half and Higginbotham's goal was vitally important as I think we would have surrendered the one-goal lead. A fourth goal would have been far too flattering and wouldn't have fairly reflected the game but still disappointed with a very tame effort from Dools.

 

On that evidence, Carroll is a million miles away from being good enough and we were incredibly fortunate that Inverness never punished his ineptitude. I've read some folk suggest that he was tasked with man-marking Watkins which makes little sense to me, especially when he was being drawn in-field and further forward towards the ball and other players on many other occasions; indeed, if he was marking Watkins, he failed pretty miserably as he never got near him. He was drawn well out of position for the goal and was caught ball-watching on numerous occasions. He seemed completely reluctant to overlap and in all honesty, looked like he'd never played at full-back in his puff. I can see why we identified him as a replacement for Sinclair as he's quite similar in terms of physique and looks like a decent athlete but we can't really afford to have a work-in-progress in such a vital position for our formation. Keenan wasn't/isn't (and unfortunately, probably never will be) ready for the first team but the difference between him and Carroll seems to be negligible.

 

A good few folk around me were questioning Archie's apparent ignorance of the unfolding situation with Carroll and I too wondered why he refused to make a change. Upon reflection, had he hooked Carroll, his confidence would have been shot to pieces so I don't disagree entirely with keeping him on (easy to say when we won the match). I would have brought Christie on to protect him a lot sooner than we did but thankfully Inverness never did a good enough job of exploiting him. He'll need to vastly improve if he's selected on Friday.

 

Conversely, McMillan's return was very welcome. I'm pretty staggered that some people appear to have watched his performance and deduce that O'Donnell is a superior player or offers more to the team. He would be my captain all day long even if Welsh was fit and his presence in the back-four provides us with much more solidity, in my opinion. Some may say that O'Donnell is better going forward - and I'd agree that he's much more flamboyant - but McMillan's eagerness to overlap and support shouldn't be belittled. First name on the team-sheet for me.

 

I thought Lawless played well and looked more like the player we all know he can be. Like most of the team, he struggled to get to grips in the first 15-20 minutes and threatened to get bullied out of the game but his goal turned his performance around and he started to play with a bit more confidence. The Inverness left-back, Shinnie, made it criminally easy for his goal but it was a tidy finish nonetheless. Stevenson got the plaudits for the knock-on for Higginbotham's goal but it was a great off-the-ball run from Lawless to make it happen.

 

It's still early days, and I do expect him to come good eventually, but at this stage Stevenson doesn't look fit enough to play in our team/system. For some reason, he seems devoid of confidence - the Ryan Stevenson from last season would have motored down the pitch on that one-on-one and stuck it away but he was a deer stuck in the headlights when the opportunity presented itself on Saturday. Positionally, he's not fitted into our system either and it's starting to become a slight concern. What he does do though is work hard during the time he's on the pitch and he offers us a physical presence that we've missed but soon enough, that isn't going to be enough.

 

Seaborne had a solid game and deserved his Man of the Match award (although Lawless was my choice) but was very fortunate not to give away what looked like a blatant penalty; still not sure why no Inverness player claimed for it as it was a stone-waller. Great header from Osman and he had a relatively decent game but he has a habit of ball-watching which left him out of position a number of times. Doolan had a thankless task but it wasn't his best performance and as previously mentioned, a pretty awful penalty summed up his day. Unfortunately, I had a complete moron in front of me who abused Dools at every opportunity, suggesting his physique was disgraceful and he should be told to get in the gym. The sadder thing was that he was there with kids who began to echo his criticism - one moron educating another generation to be morons.

 

If I have to tolerate clueless idiots in return for three points every week, I'll take the hit.

[Paulo]

Surreal feeling to know that we didn't play anywhere near our best, but still won the game 3-1, against the team sitting top of the league without conceding a goal up till Saturday. A win on Friday night would constitute a run!

[partickthedog]

When did we last win two consecutive games in the top flight? I'm thinking that the Toastie hat trick game v Kilmarnock would have been one of the two but no doubt someone can give a precise answer.

Edited September 15, 2014 by partickthedog

[lady-isobel-barnett]

When did we last win two consecutive games in the top flight? I'm thinking that the Toastie hat trick game v Kilmarnock would have been one of the two but no doubt someone can give a precise answer.

 

Pretty sure that would be right.