AYR to the Throne or Spinning around in the AYR?

[Jimmy McD]

Big chance missed today,we score a great goal and then sit back for the next 70 minutes and do nothing,, ,fans gave the team another fantastic backing ,, but no response from the players..

[johnkebab71]

Confident opening 10/20 mins…done absolutely nothing after that. 
 

Dowds should have been on 10 mins earlier and Tiff could have gone another 10 mins before being hooked….

bizarre performance…draw a fair result…sickening goal to lose though! 

[Cfirejkl]

Yup - points dropped.

Ayr and ICT right on our tails - one of us is going to miss out, but it is still in our hands.

Cove look sunk and Morton dropped points that could have put them right in the fight.

Only Raith have nothing to play for with three games to go.

[partickthedog]

Not entering into the McCall/Doolan debate, but having reviewed my performance I have now resigned as match thread starter. Hopefully somebody else can do a better job next week.

[partickthedog]

Brilliant goal and some other good moves early doors. Unlike the QP game we were not spurred on by scoring but sat back and let Ayr dominate the game. Draw fair result in the end, especially after our impressive re-enactment of the goal we lost at Inverness.

[westertonjagfan]

Not a great game at all. IMO, Doolan should have put Mullen and Dowds on at the same time as Fitzy. Graham worked hard all game but was getting nowhere and was constantly being fouled too.

[lady-isobel-barnett]

Thought we looked rather leggy from the off. Wonder if a few were playing with knocks?

if we had got a second goal I could see the sense in ceding possession and getting behind the ball but to do that with a single goal lead was asking for trouble. Brownlie's error wasn't a one off. Three other players had given the ball away cheaply just before.  Against QP we didn't miss Milne but today we lacked playing with width for much of the game, which didn't make keeping possession any easier.

btw could Morton dropping 2 pts today turn out to be a plus for us? 

[exiledjag]

2 minutes ago, partickthedog said:

Not entering into the McCall/Doolan debate, but having reviewed my performance I have now resigned as match thread starter. Hopefully somebody else can do a better job next week.

Don't be too hard on yourself PTD. Two out of three isn't that bad. If I were you I'd give myself another vhance and open the thread for the next game.

Oh, and there should be no McCall-Doolan debate. That's old history now. We are all Jags fans.

[exiledjag]

3 minutes ago, lady-isobel-barnett said:

Thought we looked rather leggy from the off. Wonder if a few were playing with knocks?

if we had got a second goal I could see the sense in ceding possession and getting behind the ball but to do that with a single goal lead was asking for trouble. Brownlie's error wasn't a one off. Three other players had given the ball away cheaply just before.  Against QP we didn't miss Milne but today we lacked playing with width for much of the game, which didn't make keeping possession any easier.

btw could Morton dropping 2 pts today turn out to be a plus for us? 

Thanks LIB for raising the 'leggy' issue.

I can't travel to games at the moment due to some not serious but nuisance value heath issues.

I wondered if the players were nervous, trying too hard to the point of not being relaxed or perhaps felt under pressure to perform in front of a 4k+ crowd.

I have seen this happen a number of times over the years when the team have frozen in front of a good crowd when expected to do well!

Just a thought!.

[JAG1970]

15 minutes ago, lady-isobel-barnett said:

Thought we looked rather leggy from the off. Wonder if a few were playing with knocks?

if we had got a second goal I could see the sense in ceding possession and getting behind the ball but to do that with a single goal lead was asking for trouble. Brownlie's error wasn't a one off. Three other players had given the ball away cheaply just before.  Against QP we didn't miss Milne but today we lacked playing with width for much of the game, which didn't make keeping possession any easier.

Spot on. Got a goal then proceeded to do nothing for the remainder of the first half and most of the second. Woke up after conceding but too little too late. Curious to know if conceding possession was a tactic or we were merely honking. 

[Winter of '63]

A wide range of emotions watching the game today...most of them negative. A well-worked opening for an early goal although I thought the keeper should have saved Tiff's shot. Inexplicably, we then ceded possession to Ayr and made no real effort to score. It was a bit embarrassing that we were time-wasting after 20 minutes and had to be told to provide spare balls behind their goals.

It was a great opportunity to push on with a bigger than usual support eager to be entertained. Instead I was genuinely bored with the way we played and when Ayr equalised it was a goal we very definitely deserved to lose. Brownlie repeated his stupid error from Inverness - he has been very poor this year - the injuries to McEvoy & Milne have been a real loss.

We are all willing Doolan to be a success but that was a serious tactical misjudgement today.

Almost as annoying as blowing the chance to be within touching distance of the title is reading the pathetic contributions of this Forum's most irritating poster who never goes to games and never makes a constructive post.

[partickthedog]

I thought that Lawless was again excellent today though much of his best work had to be done in covering, and gaining and holding possession (including winning a few aerial duels) rather than in threatening the opposition goal.

[Auld Jag]

After Ayr had an early chance that Mitchell saved easily Thistle dominated the ball for the next 15 minutes or so we scored a very good goal then seemed to stop doing what we had been doing. Imo we were to casual and sloppy in our play paces being misplaced and we could not seem to hold onto the ball for any length of time. We managed to go in still ahead, even though Ayr had a lot of the ball once we scored i don't remember Mitchell having to do much. I hoped we would come out in the second half and show more of the play we started the game with, unfortunately it was a continuation of the last 25 minutes of the first half. Ayr did not look like scoring until Brownlie gave the ball away. We did not really get back into the game until with about 5 or so minutes to go,but by then to late.

I said a week or so back when others were talking about the title we had to cement our play off place first. By the time we next play we could be 5th in the table.

It was good to spend the game with @partickthedog who decided to come down to my level for the full game. Also good to speak to @Norgethistle safe journey back tomorrow.

[Fawlty Towers]

Disappointing to give away 2 points but it now boils down to taking 9 points from the remaining 3 games - do that and we will be 3rd at worst (I think it will get us 2nd).

[CotterJag]

1 hour ago, exiledjag said:

Thanks LIB for raising the 'leggy' issue.

I can't travel to games at the moment due to some not serious but nuisance value heath issues.

I wondered if the players were nervous, trying too hard to the point of not being relaxed or perhaps felt under pressure to perform in front of a 4k+ crowd.

I have seen this happen a number of times over the years when the team have frozen in front of a good crowd when expected to do well!

Just a thought!.

What was the crowd EJ?

A real chance of 1st if we'd won today.

Target now is as high in the mini play-off league as we can.

2nd place would be massive for a couple of reasons.

[Fawlty Towers]

3 minutes ago, CotterJag said:

What was the crowd EJ?

A real chance of 1st if we'd won today.

Target now is as high in the mini play-off league as we can.

2nd place would be massive for a couple of reasons.

Crowd was 4,102 with 584 Ayr fans.

[CotterJag]

1 minute ago, Fawlty Towers said:

Crowd was 4,102 with 584 Ayr fans.

Very decent support from Ayr too.

[Auld Jag]

No matter who the manager is, 60minutes or so of today's performance was very poor and if we are to make the playoffs our management team have to make that plain, between now and next week.

[Anniesland Jag]

Defence poor today and to be honest we were lucky to get off with only one goal for a decidedly workmanlike but meh Ayr .Should have hooked big Brian at half time as he just was not on the boil at all .Also thought the Dowds/Mullen combo would have been more fruitful if it had been on 30 mins earlier.

[Third Lanark]

15 minutes ago, CotterJag said:

Very decent support from Ayr too.

Really? A Saturday afternoon in great weather a massive game in terms of promotion I actually expected a 1000 plus

[dl1971]

So the games next week look tasty. Ayr at home to QP. ICT at home to Dundee. Twists and turns still to come. 

[Lambies Lost Doo]

We did look leggy, like we were recovering from a tough midweek game.  Nice goal then defence played deep with a massive gap between Graham and Midfield.

Bad mistake from Brownlie.q1

Substitutions didn't really help although we did pick up in last 10 mins so I'm contradicting myself there but we really needed someone to carry the ball up the field or with real pace.

For those at JHS City end how close was the chance at the end with the cross?

 

[lady-isobel-barnett]

13 minutes ago, Lambies Lost Doo said:

For those at JHS City end how close was the chance at the end with the cross?

Quite close. Type of ball that prompts an own goal. If anything Fitzpatrick hit it too well. A more scuffed effort and someone might have got a touch. Definitely the type of ball if played often will result in a goal. So too little, too late.

Btw backing up what others have been saying about us not pushing on. Our first corner was on 88 mins!!! 

[Weebaw1]

We should have had it wrapped up after 25 minutes. Poor deliveries from Lawless who was unplayable at the start and McMillan cost us dear.

They rolled up their sleeves and troubled us for the rest of the game with hard graft, something Fitzpatrick should have learned by now. We completely fell apart when Tiff went off. Was he Ill or something? Couldn’t believe that sub! Can Fitzy just not be bothered?

Mullen played well again. Time for a few starts for him and the defence coped well with Akinyemi. Perhaps McMillan should be moved to CB with McKenzie at RB? Brownlie has now had 2 howlers and is a cart horse.

[Thistle88]

Is Turner off to Killie pre contract?