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Thistle v Raith Rovers


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3 hours ago, The Thistle Archive said:

All the post-match updates in place via the home page →

:detective:  ROVERS RUN ENDED AT FIRHILL

Kyle Turner's excellent assist is his 19th in competitive action in less than 2 seasons.
Brian Graham is on the ascent in all goals charts, and today moves outright into our All Time Top 40 League scorers chart with 37 goals to his name.
Kris Doolan's Jags retire at half-time with a one nil lead for the third time in his four games. They've yet to concede a first half goal.
Harry Milne registers his 5th assist of the season to go with his 5 goals, giving him a fine double figures return in competitive action.
Scott Tiffoney nets his second brace as a Jag, following on from his League double away to Airdrie in March 2021.
Aidan Fitzpatrick hits a new personal best of 13 consecutive appearances in competitive action.
● Referee Greg Aitken awards what can only be described as an embarrassing penalty award to Raith Rovers, mis-reading a situation directly in front of him. In his last 13 Thistle games he's awarded six penalties against Thistle and only one in favour.
David Mitchell faces a Raith Rovers penalty for the second time this season, the first being the final nail in a 3-0 League defeat at Stark's Park in October.
David Mitchell is the first Thistle goalie to save a penalty which preserved a winning clean-sheet in the League since Kenny Arthur did so at Pittodrie in February 2003.
Stuart Bannigan, Jagzone man of the match, has yet to be booked in his testimonial year!
● Raith Rovers 14 game unbeaten run (reportedly their best in 30 years) comes to an end at Firhill.
Kris Doolan, confirmed as permanent new manager the day before, is the 4th Partick Thistle gaffer to remain unbeaten in his first 4 competitive matches. Only Murdo MacLeod (5) and Alan Archibald (10) have been on longer runs.
 
ongoing sequences:
● 37 consecutive competitive appearances for Jack McMillan, 9th Jul 2022 to date, a new personal best. (Longest run since: Jamie Sneddon - 41 games, 28th Aug 2021 to 9th Jul 2022. Club-record: Johnny Jackson - 313 games, 28th Aug 1926 to 25th Mar 1933.)

If Dools could surpass Archie that would be great.

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On 3/4/2023 at 11:16 PM, JAG1970 said:

What really impressed me today, apart from the score line, was the sheer commitment of the players. Everyone put in a terrific shift, doubling up and helping out their nearest teammate and never giving Raith a moment until some tired legs late in the game. A team that was undefeated in their last 14 games.

Credit to IMC (that will be unpopular with some) but he signed that starting eleven today, and it helps when your best players are fit. Maybe it’s the new manager bounce, but the belief, strength and organisation on display today suggests Doolan may be taking this team up a gear. On todays performance they look as good as anyone in the league. He must be putting something in their tea. 

I guess the test will come after a defeat, how well they react in order to measure their resolve. But Dools has already picked them up from where they were, and if we can maintain this level of form, organisation and discipline (and our key middle to front stay fit) this could be an extremely interesting run in and that game against QP could be huge.

I can't help but to correct some selective memory, claiming that it was only because of the injuries that we had those back to back defeats to Hamilton and Cove, but if you were to check, this was the line up  which faced Cove.

image.thumb.png.d374eec0dd7e3d3d1a2498d2a664f06b.png

Not a bad starting 11 and all first team players with another 5 first team players on the bench. Even against Hamilton it was a decent enough starting 11, although I will admit that the bench was a bit week. (Sneddon, McMillan, Milne, Holt, Turner, Bannigan, Hodson, Mullen, Fitzpatrick, Muirhead, Docherty)

 

Also, Doolan has NOT YET been able to play a full side. yesterday he had Sneddon, Holt and Brownlie all out, arguably the starting central defence and keeper,  but still the team managed a clean sheet and convincing win. There have been at least 2 or 3 likely starters missing from every squad he has picked so far. Rather than saying "it's not fair, McCall never had a full team" why not start asking how good we will be when Doolan eventually gets a full team to select from.

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17 minutes ago, Dick Dastardly said:

I can't help but to correct some selective memory, claiming that it was only because of the injuries that we had those back to back defeats to Hamilton and Cove, but if you were to check, this was the line up  which faced Cove.

image.thumb.png.d374eec0dd7e3d3d1a2498d2a664f06b.png

Not a bad starting 11 and all first team players with another 5 first team players on the bench. Even against Hamilton it was a decent enough starting 11, although I will admit that the bench was a bit week. (Sneddon, McMillan, Milne, Holt, Turner, Bannigan, Hodson, Mullen, Fitzpatrick, Muirhead, Docherty)

 

Also, Doolan has NOT YET been able to play a full side. yesterday he had Sneddon, Holt and Brownlie all out, arguably the starting central defence and keeper,  but still the team managed a clean sheet and convincing win. There have been at least 2 or 3 likely starters missing from every squad he has picked so far. Rather than saying "it's not fair, McCall never had a full team" why not start asking how good we will be when Doolan eventually gets a full team to select from.

The conclusion is that McCall lost the dressing room.

The Graham sending off was the final straw. He has been excellent under Dools. I hope he apologised to McCall.

 

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27 minutes ago, Lambies Lost Doo said:

Think that's a rash conclusion.  My understanding is squad were gutted he had left

I heard that too but he simply couldn’t motivate them any longer.

On Saturday they went up a gear after 25 minutes to destroy the opposition. No sign of that in previous 2 games.

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I think there is a big difference between players being fit for selection and being 100% match fit.

Arguably Tiffoney was never 100% match fit under McCall, I still think there is more to come from him but its only been since the Rangers game that he's been able to start games. Graham looks like he's moving with less pain. Under McCall he struggled to do much more than 60 minutes but last 2 games he's getting closer to 80 minutes. Docherty and Lawless have only really came back to match fitness in the last 2/3 games.

The games we lost at home to Hamilton and Cove looked like we fielded a few players that were nowhere near 100% fit and fairly low on confidence as a result. Against Cove both Lawless and McMillan looked nowhere near fit. (I still think McMillan isn't 100%)

However I still think there is a major positive difference under Doolan that doesn't appear explainable by player fitness. Since Doolan came in we have been much more solid defensively and given the change in centre-back pairings its not down to what players are available.

Even when we had good games under McCall we always looked like we would cough up a goal. Since Doolan came in we've moved to a 4-2-3-1 and I think also told the fullbacks that only 1 can go forward at anyone time. Its made us less open to breakaway goals and the players look more comfortable with it.

I liked McCall and thought it was too early for him to go but he struggled to organise the defence and we only managed 2 clean sheets in the league (both against Arbroath). In Doolan's 4 games we've now kept more clean sheets that McCall did in 23 games.

 

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24 minutes ago, Lenziejag said:

What I am struggling to understand is the shift between December and January. We had some great results in December and seemed to be back on track. I can only assume that the reality of our financial situation became apparent and McCall lost his motivation.

In December we played Cove away which we were lucky to draw and the performance was by all accounts terrible. We then beat an Ayr team that had a makeshift defence and an ICT team that was struggling to get a team together.

In January we play Queens and largely our defensive frailties are exposed again. We then beat Morton at home through a penalty and an own goal. We struggled in both games to score from open play.

Then we get to Hamilton and Cove. Hamilton we play well in the first 45 but cant score, Hamilton change tact at halftime and hit us with a breakaway goal. Cove we were terrible in the first 45, got hit on the break and when Graham got himself sent off we were done.

Don't think there was any shift between December and January. In reality we weren't playing well, we just got some wins because we played some teams who were in a worse state. As soon as we played teams reasonably well organised who we couldn't score or outscore, we struggled and more often than not our defensive weaknesses got exposed.

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3 hours ago, Dick Dastardly said:

I can't help but to correct some selective memory, claiming that it was only because of the injuries that we had those back to back defeats to Hamilton and Cove, but if you were to check, this was the line up  which faced Cove.

image.thumb.png.d374eec0dd7e3d3d1a2498d2a664f06b.png

Not a bad starting 11 and all first team players with another 5 first team players on the bench. Even against Hamilton it was a decent enough starting 11, although I will admit that the bench was a bit week. (Sneddon, McMillan, Milne, Holt, Turner, Bannigan, Hodson, Mullen, Fitzpatrick, Muirhead, Docherty)

 

Also, Doolan has NOT YET been able to play a full side. yesterday he had Sneddon, Holt and Brownlie all out, arguably the starting central defence and keeper,  but still the team managed a clean sheet and convincing win. There have been at least 2 or 3 likely starters missing from every squad he has picked so far. Rather than saying "it's not fair, McCall never had a full team" why not start asking how good we will be when Doolan eventually gets a full team to select from.

I never said that. I said Doolan looks to be taking this team up a gear. 
Graham and Tiffoney, arguably our two most influential players, were on the bench in your team list above because they weren’t fully fit. But the performances against Cove and Hamilton were pretty diabolical and McCall’s time was up. 
But there’s no disguising this team has several good players signed by McCall but maybe it will be Doolan that gets the most out of them.

 

 

 

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9 minutes ago, Lenziejag said:

What I am struggling to understand is the shift between December and January. We had some great results in December and seemed to be back on track. I can only assume that the reality of our financial situation became apparent and McCall lost his motivation.

It would be difficult to argue against that assumption. Again you have to read between the lines on that one. Even if true I still believe it would only be a contributory factor.

Something tho' that's obvious to me is that the performances against Dunfermline, Accies and Cove were far from acceptable. Regardless of the injuries the squad should be strong enough to cope. Injury excuses should only be valid when facing top table sides. Certainly not when at home against lower division teams. 

Another way of viewing McCall's dismissal is one I give a good bit of credence to. That's the Jamie Sneddon goal saved McCall theory. I know I'm not alone in thinking had we got beaten that day at Cove there was a strong likelihood McCall would be sacked. That would make the wins against Ayr & ICT, good results tho' they were, still requiring us to push on thru January. So you get a situation where the manager is 1 minute away from losing his job up at Cove following up with three league wins on the plus side against three league defeats to the deficit. No improvement when you factor in five of the league games were at home you get a significantly less than average return. If McCall was indeed on a shoogly peg up at Cove then subsequent results were obviously not enough to save him, and his sacking all the likelier. 

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I have to laugh at the selective memory comment.

My arguments have not been about  a squad with one or two players injured but that there have been two occasions this season where we have had serious injury problems

- when we lost 5 lesgue games in a row

- and in January. 

The former was described by IMC as the worst injury situation he has known in 40 years in football.. McCall, who tended just to get on with the job, also subsequently admitted playing players who were not fully fit and who carried injuries (I assume this referred to January)

My argument is quiet clear - the injury problem suffered in the above periods affected results. I don't see what so difficult about understanding this unless of course readers are of the opinion we should never have brought IMC back as manager in the first place  etc.

I thought it was interesting that after the Raith game their Manager, Ian Murray, was bemoaning the fact that he was missing TWO influential players and that the result would have been different if he had been able to select them.

Wonder how he would have felt if he hadn't been able to select Tiffoney, Graham, Docherty, Holt, Brownlie, and from the bench, Dowds and McKinnon.

I an not up on the details of the injury situation at ICT or Arbroath but if Dodds and Campbell are to be believed they are blaming their poor results this season on injuries to a number of key players. The difference though is they have not been sacked yet!

In summary all I am saying is that injuries affect performances and results and we have had more of our fair share of injuries. Many will be pleased to hear this post is my final comment on the impact of injuries on our season. 

My best wishes to IMC in the future. The manner in which you lost your Jon was disgraceful and it will be good to see the back of this interim board.

To Kris Doolsn I wish him all the best on his appointment and just say if he can get us to 65,/66 points (that means just one defeat in the remaining games and at least 7 wins including a victory over QP) we can win the league. Go for it Kris!

 

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3 hours ago, lady-isobel-barnett said:

It would be difficult to argue against that assumption. Again you have to read between the lines on that one. Even if true I still believe it would only be a contributory factor.

Something tho' that's obvious to me is that the performances against Dunfermline, Accies and Cove were far from acceptable. Regardless of the injuries the squad should be strong enough to cope. Injury excuses should only be valid when facing top table sides. Certainly not when at home against lower division teams. 

Another way of viewing McCall's dismissal is one I give a good bit of credence to. That's the Jamie Sneddon goal saved McCall theory. I know I'm not alone in thinking had we got beaten that day at Cove there was a strong likelihood McCall would be sacked. That would make the wins against Ayr & ICT, good results tho' they were, still requiring us to push on thru January. So you get a situation where the manager is 1 minute away from losing his job up at Cove following up with three league wins on the plus side against three league defeats to the deficit. No improvement when you factor in five of the league games were at home you get a significantly less than average return. If McCall was indeed on a shoogly peg up at Cove then subsequent results were obviously not enough to save him, and his sacking all the likelier. 

I am past arguing that McCall should have been kept on, and although I was sceptical that Kris Doolan was the right man to achieve the board’s objective of promotion, he hasn’t half started well. I am still of the opinion that the “1st 11 “ group of players is good enough to get promoted and even under McCall at the start of the season we were top of the pile, before the injuries kicked in(and the board room issues came to a head).

The Jamie Sneddon game was still under the Low regime, and 4 days before they walked away. Is it really credible to think their last act would have been to sack the manager ?

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57 minutes ago, lady-isobel-barnett said:

Good point, I'd overlooked that, but I could still believe McCall's card was marked from that date.

...and one if that boards is on the interim board...and apparently not a fan of Mr McCall...

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Some very selective memory on here...I think I can hear Muttley chortling.

It should be obvious to anyone who has actually been to games over the past two seasons that a fit Tiffoney is absolutely crucial - we had that on Saturday for the first time since early in the season...two goals and an assist...he was also involved in all our other near things. I saw Raith fans were lamenting injury absences for their poor performance though, after carrying no threat, they had four good chances once we substituted our best players.

When I saw the line-up for the recent Hamilton game, my immediate thought was scraping a 1-0 victory would be a good result as we were relying on Mullen & Fitzpatrick as our strike force. The starting 11 for the Cove game was only marginally stronger. However, the 2 points out of 12 for the home games against Hamilton & Cove are the reason we are not top of the League - we somehow contrived to draw the first game against Cove which we should have won at least 5-0.

Injuries could be bad luck or bad management but have undoubtedly affected our performances. From first look, McAvoy looked a class act and a big upgrade on our other central defenders. It's time to look forward but I hope that Dools' contacts are as good.

 

 

 

 

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16 minutes ago, Gary Peebles Tackle said:

Assume Morton don’t have undersoil heating, so given the -7 forecast from Thursday, reckon the game could be in real doubt.

Seen a headline on the Scottish news tonight saying Mortons closure, for a split second i thought the football club was in trouble. It is in fact the rolls company.:doh:

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