AYR to the Throne or Spinning around in the AYR?

[Thistle88]

Or Docherty? Heard someone shouting something today.

[CotterJag]

1 hour ago, Third Lanark said:

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

Not sure what basis you're measuring that on.

Their average home support can't be more than 2,000, including away fans, so they've travelled with circa. 33% of their fans.

I don't think that's too bad.

QP looked to only have about 100 fans last week and I'm sure they get more than 300 fans at home games, when in Glasgow.

I've said before, that we probably travel with a larger %age of our fan base than just about any other club.

I doubt Ayr take more than 584 to many games.

[Auld Jag]

Imo unless we win promotion this season, it will be a very different Thistle team next season.

[jlsarmy]

30 minutes ago, Weebaw1 said:

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.

Re Fitzy , terrible attitude, tons of ability as  he proved at the end with his crosses into the box .

Jogged around the park , never showed for the ball .

Kevin Holt took a booking for him when he lost the ball and meandered back .

Similarly , dreadful mistake by Brownlie but Fitzy never showed for the ball and left Brownlie with few options .

Fitzy is going to be “ another one who could have made it “ , saw Banzo and Doc having a go at him.

Unfortunately I don’t think the penny is going to drop for him what it takes to be a top professional football player.

Dools can’t start him as it is too big a risk because of his work ethic .

[jlsarmy]

15 minutes ago, Auld Jag said:

Imo unless we win promotion this season, it will be a very different Thistle team next season.

Think regardless if we win or don’t win promotion it’ll be a different team next season 

[westertonjagfan]

2 minutes ago, jlsarmy said:

Re Fitzy , terrible attitude, tons of ability as  he proved at the end with his crosses into the box .

Jogged around the park , never showed for the ball .

Kevin Holt took a booking for him when he lost the ball and meandered back .

Similarly , dreadful mistake by Brownlie but Fitzy never showed for the ball and left Brownlie with few options .

Fitzy is going to be “ another one who could have made it “ , saw Banzo and Doc having a go at him.

Unfortunately I don’t think the penny is going to drop for him what it takes to be a top professional football player.

Dools can’t start him as it is too big a risk because of his work ethic .

Agree with you. I really like Fitzy and the boy can play but you could see today why he doesn't get a start from Doolan.

[Cfirejkl]

I would have expected a few more Ayr fans also given the magnitude of the game, good weather and proximity.

However a crowd of 4,000+ is decent.  I did see Falkirk got a few hundred more against Airdirie!  Dunfermline 5k+

So if we are in the Championship next year and they both come up (replacing Cove/Hamilton).  Maybe some bigger crowds.

[Gary Peebles Tackle]

On our day we are by far the best team in the league. Priority now has to be securing playoff spot, ideally 2nd, but regardless, we need to be in the mix. Do that & we have a chance.

[Thistle88]

12 minutes ago, Gary Peebles Tackle said:

On our day we are by far the best team in the league. Priority now has to be securing playoff spot, ideally 2nd, but regardless, we need to be in the mix. Do that & we have a chance.

On our day I think we are actually by far the best footballing side in the league. I’m worried about the end of this season/ start of next if we do not go up.

So many players out of contract.. don’t get me wrong the players who will be here are a good base to start with, McCalls recruitment has always been up and down.. but the ups have always been very good to us.

I worry about who we could get in next season, especially since it seems we aren’t offering some very good players new contracts.

[Jimmy McD]

2 hours ago, CotterJag said:

Very decent support from Ayr too.

If this had been an away game and we were in the same positions we would have had 1500 jags fans down at Ayr...

[Auld Jag]

Our last 2 attendances have proved if we are playing well and are going for promotion the fans will turn up in good numbers. 

[CotterJag]

17 minutes ago, Jimmy McD said:

If this had been an away game and we were in the same positions we would have had 1500 jags fans down at Ayr...

I'm sure we would. I've been at Killie when we had 4k + but Ayr aren't us.

I think 584 is fair enough for them.

[jaggy]

1 hour ago, jlsarmy said:

Re Fitzy , terrible attitude, tons of ability as  he proved at the end with his crosses into the box .

Jogged around the park , never showed for the ball .

Kevin Holt took a booking for him when he lost the ball and meandered back .

Similarly , dreadful mistake by Brownlie but Fitzy never showed for the ball and left Brownlie with few options .

Fitzy is going to be “ another one who could have made it “ , saw Banzo and Doc having a go at him.

Unfortunately I don’t think the penny is going to drop for him what it takes to be a top professional football player.

Dools can’t start him as it is too big a risk because of his work ethic .

Disagree about him not showing for Brownlie. It was the obvious simple pass that was on but for some reason Brownlie seemed to change his mind and tried to play it wide.

Agree with the rest of your post though

[King Kenny]

Tiffoney was done ten minutes before half time. He spent the whole of half time in the physio room before hobbling around for twenty minutes.

Why was he not taken off sooner? He’s done this previously this season and we had no attacking outlet down the left which caused us to constantly play sideways along the back.

Docherty wasn’t fit and Graham was miles off the pace. Doolan was poor to keep them  on 

Fitzpatrick I’ve mentioned before. Terrible attitude, summed up by throwing the ball away when we needed to win the game. He’s frustrating as the two late chances created show his ability.

Big chance squandered, playoffs at best now

[Thistle88]

9 minutes ago, King Kenny said:

Tiffoney was done ten minutes before half time. He spent the whole of half time in the physio room before hobbling around for twenty minutes.

Why was he not taken off sooner? He’s done this previously this season and we had no attacking outlet down the left which caused us to constantly play sideways along the back.

Docherty wasn’t fit and Graham was miles off the pace. Doolan was poor to keep them  on 

Fitzpatrick I’ve mentioned before. Terrible attitude, summed up by throwing the ball away when we needed to win the game. He’s frustrating as the two late chances created show his ability.

Big chance squandered, playoffs at best now

I genuinely think our downfall is when Graham has an off day the whole team suffers badly. 

[Jaggernaut]

After a brilliant goal, a totally lacklustre display just about all round, reverting to completely pointless sideways and backwards passes, usually at walking pace. And some frankly shocking casualness, with several players strolling with the ball at their feet and then losing it due to complete disregard for the possibility that an opposition player might take it off them.

Graham was simply awful, wasting some chances to do something but always preferring to back into the defender and then fall down and mouth at the ref for rightly getting nothing. Mitchell did well, and Lawless looked like the only one capable of injecting any life into the affair. Pity we did nothing at all in the 2nd half until the final 5 minutes. 

Typical Jags: a reasonable turn out of fans, many of whom are probably not regulars (any more), and many who will not be back again for some considerable time. 

[Norgethistle]

13 hours ago, Auld Jag said:

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.

Great to have a chat with you yesterday, even with a poor result my nephew has had a fantastic trip over, and meeting Dools and the players on Friday too was a great touch by the club 

[Fawlty Towers]

11 hours ago, Auld Jag said:

Imo unless we win promotion this season, it will be a very different Thistle team next season.

There will be changes one way or the other. In the management team will McDonald continue as assistant as that would mean we need someone to come in to head up the youth academy. If he goes back to the academy we need to bring in an assistant. Jordanhill Jag has said that Kenny Arthur will be leaving (and I have no reason to doubt him) so that means a new goalkeeping coach. Doolan may want to freshen things up in the sport science/analysis area as well.

On the playing side there are 7 players contracted for next season so a lot or work to be done to get a full squad in place for next season.

Off the pitch the Fan Ownership issue is trundling along (things have gone a bit quiet there) but that will have an impact. I personally would like to see the Board either hold a Q&A at Firhill or at least put out a substantial statement at the end of the season explaining where we are now and what the plan is moving forward so we can be realistic about what is achievable next season.

Interesting times ahead.

[The Thistle Archive]

thethistlearchive.net →     DOOLAN'S FIRHILL RUNS CONTINUE

● For only the 7th time in history there are 7 players aged 30+ in Thistle's starting eleven. 4 of these elevens have been registered in the last 4 weeks. The club-record (8) was set 2 weeks ago!

● Thistle's opener was their 10th goal without reply in the Championship.

● Scott Tiffoney scores his 21st competitive goal for Partick Thistle. He's had 4 goals or assists in the last 3 games.

● After 10 games, Kris Doolan's Jags have yet to concede a first half goal, and it's 11-in-a-row for the club overall. You need to rewind to April 1992 to find a longer run (12).

● After 4 competitive games, Kris Doolan's Jags remain unbeaten at Firhill.

● Thistle go 5 competitive home games without defeat to Ayr United.

ongoing sequences:

● 43 consecutive competitive appearances for Jack McMillan, 9th Jul 2022 to date, a new personal best. (Longest run since: James Penrice - 51 games, 7th Sep 2019 to 10th Apr 2021. Club-record: Johnny Jackson - 313 games, 28th Aug 1926 to 25th Mar 1933.)

[Dick Dastardly]

35 minutes ago, Fawlty Towers said:

On the playing side there are 7 players contracted for next season so a lot or work to be done to get a full squad in place for next season.

I’d be surprised if all 7 contracted players are with us next season 

[Lambies Lost Doo]

A lot of glass half full responses with the Sunday blues

[lady-isobel-barnett]

Regardless of what league we''ll be in the average age will have to be addressed. I believe we'll only have two first choice players contracted that will be under 30. Even if we had the funding redressing this is easier said than done. The apparent fact we don't have the funds will probably mean an over reliance on youth players stepping up and young loan players living up to their billing. We may well go from having a too old starting XI to a very inexperienced one. 

 

 

Edited April 16, 2023 by lady-isobel-barnett

[sandy]

15 minutes ago, lady-isobel-barnett said:

Regardless of what league we''ll be in the average age will have to be addressed. I believe we'll only have two first choice players contracted that will be under 30. Even if we had the funding redressing this is easier said than done. The apparent fact we don't have the funds will probably mean an over reliance on youth players stepping up and young loan players living up to their billing. We may well go from having a too old starting XI to a very inexperienced one. 

 

 

I have no issue with us playing more of the youth players in a blend with an experienced team spine. If we can hang onto Milne and extend Turner, Sneddon and Holt/Muirhead, we might still have a decent team.

Would be good to see the likes of Mackenzie and Stanway break into the first team.

[Auld Jag]

I wasn't at Inverness for the game 4 weeks ago but watched on TV. From what i remember Brownlie made the exact same mistake in that game as he did yesterday, both resulting in us conceding a goal. This has cost us a possible 3 points. I know yesterday a number of players were very slack/sloppy with their passing, but surely after his mistake from the Inverness game he would have tried something different, like just booting it up the park. Imo this shows he hasn't learned from his previous error. 

[lady-isobel-barnett]

6 minutes ago, sandy said:

I have no issue with us playing more of the youth players in a blend with an experienced team spine. If we can hang onto Milne and extend Turner, Sneddon and Holt/Muirhead, we might still have a decent team.

Would be good to see the likes of Mackenzie and Stanway break into the first team.

Likewise but this should be by natural progression and not a case of being thrown in thru absolute necessity.