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Thistle v Dundee


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1 hour ago, johnkebab71 said:

He’s had a couple of decent games and a few good moments over the season but nowhere good enough to be near a promotion seeking team. Still looks like he’s blowing out his arse at this stage, decision making and work rate is abysmal. 

Need better than him if we want to go anywhere. 
 

He was worth a punt but hopefully it was a 1 year contract. not worked out. He will end up down the leagues.

Agree that I can’t see Dowds scoring a lot of goals. Works hard but just doesn’t happen for him.

 

Think Aiden has got another year , there is a player there , maybe should talk to Kevin Nisbet  ! 

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9 hours ago, The Legend Blows said:

Brownlie best defender in the league (Sure that was a McCall claim) Guy is a solid journeyman hoofball merchant. If he doesn't punt it up the pitch aimlessly, he gives it to the keeper to punt. Grim stuff. 

Reminds me of Gerry Collins comparing John-Paul McBride to Juan Sebastian Veron.

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As @lady-isobel-barnett mentioned Fitzpatrick is capable of doing all the defensive duties and being a match winner the frustration is he has only really done it on occasions.

A guy with his abilities should be able to provide a big impact from the bench when up against tiring defences however I can't think of too many times when Aidan has come of the bench and changed the game in our favour. When's been good he's tended to do it when starting. 

Yesterday was set up for him to be our matchwinner in a big game and push for a starting spot. Instead his first touch gives the ball away on the halfway line and Dundee almost score from it. He fails to pass to Tiffoney when he's clean through, fails to play in Turner when he's also free in favour of taking an unlikely shot and swipes at fresh air at a ball coming across the 6 yard line.

To my mind when he comes off the bench its as though he is completely fixated on him personally scoring a goal. His attempts all end up looking either greedy or overly ambitious. 

I don't know what instruction he's getting when he comes on as a sub but I hope someone is saying to him that we need him to create opportunities for others rather than win the game on his own. He's still only 21 so hopefully he can develop. I think we'll be lucky to keep Tiffoney next season so we will need Fitzpatrick to step up.

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Fitzpatrick just doesn’t look interested when he comes on as a sub. Meandered on yesterday, gives the ball away with his first touch and looks like he’s blowing out his arse after five minutes.

Both Docherty and Graham gave him a bollocking for his lack of work rate. He’s not alone, Mullen and Dowds brought zero to the party as well. 
 

Fitzpatrick has obvious ability but at some point the penny needs to drop. 
 

As for the game, it summed up where we are. A decent starting 11 but take out a few players and our back ups are not good enough. Milne was a big miss.

Brownlie was fine defensively but he’s carrying a lot of weight and as mentioned elsewhere, his distribution is awful. We missed McAvoy bringing the ball out of defence.

Two points dropped, Dundee were very poor and offered little. 

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:detective:  

LONGEST UNBEATEN RUN IN OVER A YEAR

● Thistle field their oldest starting eleven (av. 29y, 8m, 6d) since Dick Campbell's Jags (av. 29y, 11m, 2d) won 1-0 at home to Forfar Athletic in January 2006.
● After 6 games, Kris Doolan's Jags have yet to concede a first half goal, and it's 7-in-a-row for the club overall.
● The run of 15 games without a draw in the Thistle vs. Dundee fixture comes to an end. It's the first draw between the sides since November 2015.
● Defensively, the concession of just one goal in six games for Kris Doolan's Jags represents the greatest starting ratio of any Thistle manager in history.
Kris Doolan remains unbeaten in his first 6 competitive matches. Only Alan Archibald (10) has been on a longer run at the beginning of a managerial tenureship.
 
ongoing sequences:
● 6 competitive games without defeat, 18th Feb 2023 to date. (Longest run since: 6 games, 18th Dec 2021 to 9th Feb 2022. Joint club-record: 16 games, 15th Nov 1975 to 21st Feb 1976 & 30th Sep 2000 to 13th Jan 2001.)
● 39 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.)
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One the problems McCall had was he stuck to 4-3-3 no matter if it worked or what the state of the game was. If we made subs it was like for like in the hope that fresh legs would make plan A work better.

Doolan has tried to address that. We are clearly better for moving to a 4-2-3-1 and he is trying to develop a plan B by switching from 4-2-3-1 and moving to 4-4-2 if we need a goal. 

Going to 4-4-2 does tend to lead to the centre-half's playing long balls to Dowds and Mullen but that's not necessarily a bad thing as it does give the opposition a different problem to deal with.

Actually thought our back 4 were very comfortable yesterday and Brownlie was absolutely fine. If I had a criticism of Brownlie its not that he goes long ball its more that his speed of short passing out to McMillan isn't quick enough and he can be slightly inaccurate meaning McMillan has to stop and control it then turn back rather than having the ball in front of him to move forward.

Beyond missing Milne in attack we also miss Muirhead when we have a corner. Muirhead is great at making a quick run to the front post which either causes confusion or allows him a free header. Brownlie and Holt seem to want to stay central at corners making it easier for the opposition defence to cope. 

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3 hours ago, javeajag said:

We are simply not good enough and we don’t look like a championship winning team. Hard to see us coming through the play offs if we make them. A severe lack of creativity is becoming evident. And this league next season is going to be very difficult again.

The teams we are likely to play against, if we make it, we have outscored so far, with only Ayr to play again, I think, so there are reasons to be optimistic, particularly if we continue with our current form.  

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4 hours ago, johnkebab71 said:

He’s had a couple of decent games and a few good moments over the season but nowhere good enough to be near a promotion seeking team. Still looks like he’s blowing out his arse at this stage, decision making and work rate is abysmal. 

Need better than him if we want to go anywhere. 
 

He was worth a punt but hopefully it was a 1 year contract. not worked out. He will end up down the leagues.

Agree that I can’t see Dowds scoring a lot of goals. Works hard but just doesn’t happen for him.

 

I do feel a bit sorry for Dowds. Started the season strongly with several goals off of the bench. However, the form and leadership of Graham combined with niggling injuries when Graham is out means he hasn’t really had a sustained run in the team (and when he had a mini-run during the six defeats on the spin, the rest of the team was under-strength. 
 

Whether there is a player in there or not remains to be seen but I do feel he has been a bit unfortunate. 

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16 minutes ago, Stephen1876 said:

I do feel a bit sorry for Dowds. Started the season strongly with several goals off of the bench. However, the form and leadership of Graham combined with niggling injuries when Graham is out means he hasn’t really had a sustained run in the team (and when he had a mini-run during the six defeats on the spin, the rest of the team was under-strength. 
 

Whether there is a player in there or not remains to be seen but I do feel he has been a bit unfortunate. 

My view of Dowds is roughly along the lines that he's more or less similar in every department to Graham but just not as good in every department as Graham. A tiring Graham after 60-70 mins is possibly no better or worse than a fresh Dowds. One aspect of the Dowds for Graham substitution is we don't require to change tactics/formation mid way thru the 2nd half. I don't think that's usually that beneficial as I sense Dools is going to be more prone to change and less inclined to like for like subbing. 

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This was right up there with one of the worst games ever. Dools gets credit for games we should be winning and perhaps McCall might have won also. Cant see no obvious change in our play, I see mention of 4,3,3 & 4,4,2 which basically means nothing when we just play the same way anyhow. Its the same old substitions (no change there).

When chasing the game It would be interesting to keep Graham on with Dowds as support. Without organisation and service to them that's all pretty academic of course. maybe now's the time to find a creative ball winning attacking mid fielder.    

Dundee were mince which is a less offensive word for Sh*te, and to think they could win the play offs beggars belief. The wee laddie with the crossbar challenge totally summed up Thistle.

I congratulate the Spiders on winning promotion (just so long as its not at firhill) and Owen Coyle on wiping his Ars* on the rest of the bogus League managers.  

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19 hours ago, The Thistle Archive said:
:detective:  

LONGEST UNBEATEN RUN IN OVER A YEAR

● Thistle field their oldest starting eleven (av. 29y, 8m, 6d) since Dick Campbell's Jags (av. 29y, 11m, 2d) won 1-0 at home to Forfar Athletic in January 2006.
● After 6 games, Kris Doolan's Jags have yet to concede a first half goal, and it's 7-in-a-row for the club overall.
● The run of 15 games without a draw in the Thistle vs. Dundee fixture comes to an end. It's the first draw between the sides since November 2015.
● Defensively, the concession of just one goal in six games for Kris Doolan's Jags represents the greatest starting ratio of any Thistle manager in history.
Kris Doolan remains unbeaten in his first 6 competitive matches. Only Alan Archibald (10) has been on a longer run at the beginning of a managerial tenureship.
 
ongoing sequences:
● 6 competitive games without defeat, 18th Feb 2023 to date. (Longest run since: 6 games, 18th Dec 2021 to 9th Feb 2022. Joint club-record: 16 games, 15th Nov 1975 to 21st Feb 1976 & 30th Sep 2000 to 13th Jan 2001.)
● 39 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.)

Was Archibald’s 1st loss the Ramsdens cup final ?

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10 hours ago, sabbath said:

This was right up there with one of the worst games ever.

Sorry for the very selective quoting.

Saturday's game was indeed dire but I don't even think it ranks as the worst game this season, never mind "ever". Albeit we're talking subjective here. Certainly poor as we were we've played worse on a good few occasions this season and there's been nearly as many poor spectacles.

Unrelated to the quote the result, a home draw to one of the league leaders, isn't in itself as disappointing as a fair handful of our other results. I suppose I shouldn't be the least bit shocked but the fact we were averaging a shade under 5 goals a game with Dundee, a goalless draw was still a bit of a surprise. A draw didn't do either team a favour league wise so you'd have thought a few goals would've been in the offing.  

Thanks to The Thistle Archive for highlighting this but I think the average starting age on Saturday of nearly 30 years old significant. And also alarming. Milne missing only raised the average marginally. So folk that see parallels with Archibald taking over from McNamara and Doolan from McCall are overlooking one huge difference. Even if we were in a situation where we could re-sign out of contract players we'd still be facing a major headache for next season. Regardless of whoever the manager he's facing a major problem. 

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1 hour ago, lady-isobel-barnett said:

 

Thanks to The Thistle Archive for highlighting this but I think the average starting age on Saturday of nearly 30 years old significant. And also alarming. Milne missing only raised the average marginally. So folk that see parallels with Archibald taking over from McNamara and Doolan from McCall are overlooking one huge difference. Even if we were in a situation where we could re-sign out of contract players we'd still be facing a major headache for next season. Regardless of whoever the manager he's facing a major problem. 

Didn't realise the team was that old but I guess when I think Graham, Lawless, Bannigan, Hodson... then it adds up. 

One thing that has impressed me since Doolan came in is the workrate of the team, it seems a gear higher than before. Special mention to Docherty who was immense and probably the most fouled player on the park. That workrate no doubt is squeezing out an extra point here and there but like others have said our decision making in the final third remains frustrating. So it seems that Dools is getting the max out of the squad in terms of effort and conceding so few goals does give us a chance on a head to head in the playoffs. 

On the assumption we are in the championship again next year then maybe letting a handful go plus the probability one or two out of contract will sign elsewhere, it would give him the scope to the reduce the age profile for next season. Clearly we cannot rely on the likes of Graham and Lawless to play 90 mins every week anymore. And if Tiffoney signs elsewhere then we're looking at a new frontline as neither Mullen nor Dowds looks the part. And Fitzy needs to up his game if he wants to make his mark. Hopefully Dools as a striker knows exactly what is needed, and hopefully we have the funds to do so. 

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Spoke to one of the players after the game and he said there had been a sickness bug that had run through the squad during the week and they they all were struggling coming into the game.

Said that they were all absolutely shattered towards the end of the game so this maybe explains why we were off it a little bit.

 

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11 hours ago, Lenziejag said:

Was Archibald’s 1st loss the Ramsdens cup final ?

Yes.

 

9 hours ago, Duke Gekantawa said:

Lost the tie, but not the match. I think it counts as a draw statistically

 

Absolutely not! A knockout tie by its very nature can only be won or lost and there is no in-between. The only people who should be interested in declaring draws are bookies laying odds on the outcome at either 90 minutes or 120 minutes.

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