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How we scoffed at their 59 supporters announcement. They played like a team with 59 supporters. Absolute garbage.

Then we give them 2 comedy goals. We should have been busting a gut to score a 3rd. No runners from midfield. We depended on Lawless and Mc Millan to create but when McMilllan came off we were clueless. Milne the only runner.

I agree that we played some good stuff but the profligacy up front needs to be addressed asap. Wee Weston should get a run.

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3 minutes ago, Weebaw1 said:

How we scoffed at their 59 supporters announcement. They played like a team with 59 supporters. Absolute garbage.

Then we give them 2 comedy goals. We should have been busting a gut to score a 3rd. No runners from midfield. We depended on Lawless and Mc Millan to create but when McMilllan came off we were clueless. Milne the only runner.

I agree that we played some good stuff but the profligacy up front needs to be addressed asap. Wee Weston should get a run.

He was ready to come on today but McCall changed his mind when Cove scored their first. Think myself that Weston used as a sub should at least get on earlier in the game than his usual late appearance. Certainly hope he gets a start against Falkirk.

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1 hour ago, lady-isobel-barnett said:

He was ready to come on today but McCall changed his mind when Cove scored their first. Think myself that Weston used as a sub should at least get on earlier in the game than his usual late appearance. Certainly hope he gets a start against Falkirk.

I hope Weston plays next week also.

He was due to come on and was at the side of the pitch the other week and was told to sit back down. A bit ridiculous really.

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15 minutes ago, Fearchar said:

Is it a matter for concern that Aero, Banzo and Stevie Lawless, all members of McNamara's promotion team, are returnees to the team? Does this betray a lack of initiative among our managerial group?

Imo Lawless has been one of our best players this season. Muirhead also up there as one of our better players. Bannigan been dropped recently but deserved his motm for today, Lawless a close second.

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11 hours ago, lady-isobel-barnett said:

I tend to believe our inability of turning attacking pressure into goals is our weak point. For much of the game up at Gayfield that was the case as well. We needed a sending off to ensure the three points then. Today we were coasting to a win but failed to capitalise on all our possession in the opposition's half. We're close to getting things very right but I feel under McCall tho' improvements are there, progress is painfully on the slow side. Let's hope it's not too slow. 

Totally agree wit your comments about possession turning into goals.

This weakness of not scoring enough goals is a historic one and not unique to IMC.

The greatest forward line in red and yellow in my life time was Cowan, Whitelaw, Hainey, Duffy and McParland (add Flemming I think when Whitelaw left) and according to Neil Duffy they failed to win the league because they couldn't score enough goals.

That forward line was against the likes of the Rangers 5 of  Henderson,  McMillan, Miller, Brand and Wilson.

Kilmarnock had players like McInally, McIlroy, Sneddon and the aging Andy Kerr.

We have just never been able to afford a prolific goal scorer and when we occasionally find a good goalscorer we can't afford to keep him, for example, the afore mentioned Andy  Kerr,  McAdam, Melrose, Somner  and Bone.

Dominating some games snd not turning possession into goals has been a Thistle trait for as long as I have been a Jags fan and that's over 60 years. I suspect this isn't going to change anytime soon.

The answer if we can't score enough goals at one end of the park is not to lose them at the other end. The number of goals lost from set plays is serious. This is something IMC and others can do something about. He has to look at this as a defensive unit problem and that to me means bringing Sneddon back In goal. When he was our No.1 I felt the defence played better as a unit by showing more alertness, awareness, organisation and discipline. With Mitchell in goal the defence seems nervy and disjointed. This isn't all down yo Mitchell as we must forget we are looking, with the exception of Holt and entirely new back 5. All good players individually but not knotting together do far.

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14 hours ago, Gary Peebles Tackle said:

What just happened?!? 
Coasting it, should’ve been more ahead then two of the scrappiest goals you’ll see. Poor defending but as others said we should’ve been out of sight by then.

3 subs at once was a crazy decision, knocked us off our rhythm & we paid the price. Need to learn from that.

Two (easy) points lost.

He was only going to bring on Dowds and Fitzpatrick, but McMillan pulled up just at the same time and had to be replaced. Two was the decision, the 3rd was forced. If anything, Dowds and Fitzpatrick should have been on earlier.

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1 hour ago, Lenziejag said:

He was only going to bring on Dowds and Fitzpatrick, but McMillan pulled up just at the same time and had to be replaced. Two was the decision, the 3rd was forced. If anything, Dowds and Fitzpatrick should have been on earlier.

Agree with Dowds and Fitzpatrick coming on earlier as Big Brian and Tiff both off the boil.

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1 hour ago, Lenziejag said:

He was only going to bring on Dowds and Fitzpatrick, but McMillan pulled up just at the same time and had to be replaced. Two was the decision, the 3rd was forced. If anything, Dowds and Fitzpatrick should have been on earlier.

Even so, bring them on one at a time would have broken up the game and wasted more time. If McMillan had to come off, don't make the other 2 at the same time.

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More things change the more they stay the same.

Losing late goals, losing goals from set pieces, powderpuff mindset where we don't have the guts to grind out results against weaker teams, players mysteriously disappearing out of the team unexpectedly. 

That is one of the worst games I've been to where we haven't actually lost. Up there with Culter. Cove are a rubbish part time team who will be relegation fodder. We have the ability to win the league but we don't have the organisation or mentality to do it. 

It all goes back to McCalls loser mentality and Archibald's training. Not fit enough, not organised enough. If they weren't time-wasting they could have easily gotten a third. 

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4 minutes ago, avie-man said:

More things change the more they stay the same.

Losing late goals, losing goals from set pieces, powderpuff mindset where we don't have the guts to grind out results against weaker teams, players mysteriously disappearing out of the team unexpectedly. 

That is one of the worst games I've been to where we haven't actually lost. Up there with Culter. Cove are a rubbish part time team who will be relegation fodder. We have the ability to win the league but we don't have the organisation or mentality to do it. 

It all goes back to McCalls loser mentality and Archibald's training. Not fit enough, not organised enough. If they weren't time-wasting they could have easily gotten a third. 

Agree a lot with what you say but I didn't come away from the game thinking it had been that bad a match. Maybe because I don't believe Cove are "rubbish". Their three previous games kinda back that up (narrow defeats and a draw). Certainly tho' they're a side that we should be beating comfortably at home if we've serious aspirations of gaining promotion. 

What is worrying is when their first goal went in I was hardly surprised that they got a second. Neither was I surprised the goals came from set pieces. So yes the mentality is all wrong, as is the defending. The mentality is a  collective problem as of course is defending set pieces. McCall time after time comments after a match that on another day we should've scored four, five, six, take your pick, goals. He's factually correct insomuch that most teams with either the chances and/or possession in attacking areas would expect to score a good handful of goals. But it's his job to make us like most teams in that situation. Similarly with defending set pieces. He can't do too much about individual errors but it's a totally different matter when it's the whole team defending set pieces. 

We are tho' fortunate that other likely top table teams are also having their "bad days at the office".  We're top of the division and that at least buys us time to get this sorted. We're really not far off being a very good 2nd tier outfit.

 

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Whilst it was great to see Bannigan score I'm not sure how he got MotM. Lawless was the very good all game and even to the last minute the most likely to create something.

Thought Docherty was good as was McMillan before his injury. First half Turner was causing a few problems with running at and behind the Cove central defenders but second half he seemed to stop doing that and become less influential. Neither Turner or Bannigan did enough to stop Mckinnon returning straight back into the starting 11.

Milne looked very subdued and rarely overlapped. 

Wasn't surprised to see Graham and Tiffoney subbed when they were. I think our management team thought the game was over and better to keep them fresh for the next challenge and in theory Dowds and Fitzpatrick should have got more joy against a tiring Cove defence.

Dowds did ok, lots of energy and putting himself about. However Fitzpatrick needs to do better. Wasted a very good chance by trying to go for the spectacular and never really put any pressure on Shay Logan or the Cove back three. 

Definitely 2 points dropped but we are top of the league and we've only lost 1 game. Still feel like there is more to come from this team and at the moment its not really got out of first gear.

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Last week's game was postponed so we had time to prepare for the mighty Cove, and again we witness McCall's ability as a manager. Grabbing virtual defeat from the jaws of victory.  When the team was cruising along, McCall decided in his greater wisdom to upset the complete rhythm of the team by throwing on 3 like for like substitutions at the one time. this more or less stopped the game for us and let cove into a game that should have been out of sight. I now realise why our bench is so silent during games, it's clearly because they are clueless, devoid of motivation or inspiration they sit in silence and watch as 3 points almost dissolved to 0.

Give McCall a post as a scout, there is no doubting his ability to spot talent. He just cant manage...

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31 minutes ago, laukat said:

Whilst it was great to see Bannigan score I'm not sure how he got MotM. Lawless was the very good all game and even to the last minute the most likely to create something.

Thought Docherty was good as was McMillan before his injury. First half Turner was causing a few problems with running at and behind the Cove central defenders but second half he seemed to stop doing that and become less influential. Neither Turner or Bannigan did enough to stop Mckinnon returning straight back into the starting 11.

Milne looked very subdued and rarely overlapped. 

Wasn't surprised to see Graham and Tiffoney subbed when they were. I think our management team thought the game was over and better to keep them fresh for the next challenge and in theory Dowds and Fitzpatrick should have got more joy against a tiring Cove defence.

Dowds did ok, lots of energy and putting himself about. However Fitzpatrick needs to do better. Wasted a very good chance by trying to go for the spectacular and never really put any pressure on Shay Logan or the Cove back three. 

Definitely 2 points dropped but we are top of the league and we've only lost 1 game. Still feel like there is more to come from this team and at the moment its not really got out of first gear.

It was his 30th birthday.

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When we were spraying the ball around and moving into space and creating chances, I mentioned that we were easily the best team in the league. 


But if we want to win the league, there is no room to relax intensity. That shower will probably be relegated. They offered nothing. They were as disbelieving as we were when they scored at all, never mind twice. They should have been blown away.  
 

Where McCall has to improve is making the players appreciate that 3 points against Cove = 3 points against Caley or Dundee.  He should show them videos of Liverpool and Celtic banging in 9.  He should tell Tiff and Graham that their misses were unacceptable. Doesn’t matter whether it’s 1st or 95th minute, those chances should be converted.
 

We don’t have a Liam Lindsay to win every high ball so we need an organiser at the back. Perhaps O’Shaunessy could do that similar to the job Mair did.

Finally, I hope McMillans injury ain’t serious as his partnership with Lawless has been joyful.

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Attempting to take the positives out of yesterday's late debacle.

We have an encouraging variety of creative players who can make and take (at least sometimes) chances. 

We have a distressing habit of losing second half goals in quick pairs (Dundee, Queens Park and Cove), mainly due to an inability to defend set pieces, usually corners.

That distressing habit can hopefully be worked on, minimised and possibly eliminated by coaching, practice and teamwork.

If there is a lack of creativity, no amount of coaching and hard work can make up for this (as we found in the second half of last season).

So, reasons to be cheerful!? I am trying hard to convince myself of the logic of the above.

 

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20 hours ago, Weebaw1 said:

When we were spraying the ball around and moving into space and creating chances, I mentioned that we were easily the best team in the league. 


But if we want to win the league, there is no room to relax intensity. That shower will probably be relegated. They offered nothing. They were as disbelieving as we were when they scored at all, never mind twice. They should have been blown away.  
 

Where McCall has to improve is making the players appreciate that 3 points against Cove = 3 points against Caley or Dundee.  He should show them videos of Liverpool and Celtic banging in 9.  He should tell Tiff and Graham that their misses were unacceptable. Doesn’t matter whether it’s 1st or 95th minute, those chances should be converted.
 

We don’t have a Liam Lindsay to win every high ball so we need an organiser at the back. Perhaps O’Shaunessy could do that similar to the job Mair did.

Finally, I hope McMillans injury ain’t serious as his partnership with Lawless has been joyful.

Agree with almost everything you say but a fit Darren Brownlie would certainly make a difference to our defence, attacking the ball at set pieces etc 

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I can only formulate an opinion from what I've read, as didn't see the game but it seems we tried to turn on the fancy stuff before we were out of sight.

I think we thought we had it won at 2-0 but as we've seen that's not enough to take your foot off the gas.

My method would be to obliterate teams and score as many as possible but reading about 3 early subs and ball greedy players and others doing back heels, makes me think we thought we were too good.

Part of me is happy that we have belief and a wee bit of a swagger but let's just hammer teams whenever we can.

Match days are not the time to muck about.  

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