Thistle v Ayr United 27th April

[lady-isobel-barnett]

19 minutes ago, chunky jag said:

I've been going to Thistle since 1992, i cant think of a more two footed player we've had in that time than Fitzy.

Only fella I can think of in recent years is James Craigen. But he was nowhere near as skilful. I'd like to see Fitzy switch wings more often. Especially with no Lawless these days. 

18 minutes ago, michael m said:

Ref was Matthew McDermid - the most recent appointment to the FIFA list in January.  It is his 4th Thistle game this season having done the previous 3 against Dundee United.  He is easily the best we have had this season and very consistent as to what is a foul.  I think he has a real chance of going to the very top

Oh, he's a Rangers supporter?

Agree. Thought he had an excellent game. 

[JAG1970]

21 minutes ago, lady-isobel-barnett said:

Oh, he's a Rangers supporter?

Agree. Thought he had an excellent game. 

A photo drinking a beer in the Louden bar ought to secure any refs future in Scotland. ….  🤝. 😉

[jaggy]

30 minutes ago, lady-isobel-barnett said:

Only fella I can think of in recent years is James Craigen. But he was nowhere near as skilful. I'd like to see Fitzy switch wings more often. Especially with no Lawless these days. 

Oh, he's a Rangers supporter?

Agree. Thought he had an excellent game. 

Like last week he tried to let the game flow. He got some right and some wrong but overall can’t complain 

[exiledjag]

11 hours ago, dl1971 said:

Let's hope you are proven wrong. Karma owes us one. 

I would love to be wrong but don't think I will be.

If the miracle did happen and we got promoted we would have to embark on a massive close season  recruitment campaign as I doubt many of the current squad are either ready or good enough to play in the SPL.

We would also need more than  Karma - we would need a competent and impartial referee.

[partickthedog]

Cannot think of anything to argue with anyone about. As I walked up the road after the game, I reflected that I had not shouted at the referee as much as I normally do and that he indeed did all he could to let the game flow without inserting himself unnecessarily into the action. Good to see that others also recognised a sensible refereeing performance. Not much else to say.

I am sure that we can take it up a level in the play offs. I hope that Aero’s injury was not too serious. However we do at least have decent back up in O’Reilly.
 

 

 

[fenski]

Was Aero injured? Well other than the injury he's been carrying all season. I took that it was a substitution to give O'Reilly minutes and Aero a rest.

[dl1971]

1 hour ago, exiledjag said:

I would love to be wrong but don't think I will be.

If the miracle did happen and we got promoted we would have to embark on a massive close season  recruitment campaign as I doubt many of the current squad are either ready or good enough to play in the SPL.

We would also need more than  Karma - we would need a competent and impartial referee.

We ll see. Many thistle fans didn't predict our performance level last time round in the play offs. You may have been in that camp too. Let's cut to the chase and forget the referee conspiracy nonsense. That's too OF for my liking. Nb the ref was v good today as others have said. 

[Jaggernaut]

Too many pointless sideways passing, and too many of those passes either under-hit or over-hit, or poorly received. Oh, and the terrible, inaccurate punts. Not to mention the totally useless throw-ins, not helped by nobody showing interest in receiving one. Midfield weak, too often sitting back. Some poor final balls at the end of attacks, and poor attempts at finishing (did the Ayr keeper actually have even one save to make?).

Otherwise, well played!

[Auld Jag]

1 hour ago, fenski said:

Was Aero injured? Well other than the injury he's been carrying all season. I took that it was a substitution to give O'Reilly minutes and Aero a rest.

I noticed he was holding the back of his left leg about 5 minutes or so before he came off.

[partickthedog]

1 minute ago, Auld Jag said:

I noticed he was holding the back of his left leg about 5 minutes or so before he came off.

Yes, at that point O'Reilly was rushed into readiness to come on. However, it would seem that the urgency dissipated, as O'Reilly was stood down and sent for a few more runs before coming on 5 minutes later. So there was perhaps an element of precaution, but not undue concern.

[partickthedog]

The most interesting part of the afternoon was a half-time conversation with a Frenchman, part of a party of around ten over in Scotland for some sort of celebration, possibly a wedding? They were staying in Edimbourg, but were keen for some football, and having heard of Partick Thistle, were eager to see us in action. They enjoyed the atmosphere in the John Lambie, and loved Kingsley. With help from Auld Jag's fluent French, I hope that I managed to explain the following:

• Partick is 3 miles from Maryhill.
• If you want to describe our team in one word, it is "Thistle", not "Partick".
• Games with Ayr are normally entertaining and high scoring.
• The Premier League play-off system. I think he got it!?
• That for people with intelligence, character and independent spirit, Thistle are the only football team in Glasgow worth supporting.

Sadly I had to concede that yesterday was pauvre fare. I do not think that they will be abandoning their support of Olympique Marseille to be travelling over to Firhill on a regular basis.

Edited April 28 by partickthedog
fare, not fair (nothing is ever fair)

[jaggy]

57 minutes ago, Jaggernaut said:

Too many pointless sideways passing, and too many of those passes either under-hit or over-hit, or poorly received. Oh, and the terrible, inaccurate punts. Not to mention the totally useless throw-ins, not helped by nobody showing interest in receiving one. Midfield weak, too often sitting back. Some poor final balls at the end of attacks, and poor attempts at finishing (did the Ayr keeper actually have even one save to make?).

Otherwise, well played!

He didn’t have many but did make a good save from Fitzy’s last contribution. 
 

Mitch never had much to do either

[Dick Dastardly]

8 hours ago, exiledjag said:

I would love to be wrong but don't think I will be.

If the miracle did happen and we got promoted we would have to embark on a massive close season  recruitment campaign as I doubt many of the current squad are either ready or good enough to play in the SPL.

We would also need more than  Karma - we would need a competent and impartial referee.

We need a massive recruitment whatever league we are in. I think that only 11 of the current squad are signed up for next season. 6 of yesterday’s starting 11 will be off.

[Lenziejag]

13 hours ago, michael m said:

Ref was Matthew McDermid - the most recent appointment to the FIFA list in January.  It is his 4th Thistle game this season having done the previous 3 against Dundee United.  He is easily the best we have had this season and very consistent as to what is a foul.  I think he has a real chance of going to the very top

Question regarding what is a foul. It happens week after week when a defender has his arms all over the attacker, manhandling with some force, but a foul is rarely given. When did that stop being a foul.

[Duke Gekantawa]

35 minutes ago, Lenziejag said:

Question regarding what is a foul. It happens week after week when a defender has his arms all over the attacker, manhandling with some force, but a foul is rarely given. When did that stop being a foul.

For as long as I’ve watched football certainly. Which is since the eighties. I did wonder when VAR was being introduced whether there would be a huge number of penalties given for this, forcing defenders to change their approach. It never happened though- probably for the best really.

[JAG1970]

4 hours ago, Dick Dastardly said:

We need a massive recruitment whatever league we are in. I think that only 11 of the current squad are signed up for next season. 6 of yesterday’s starting 11 will be off.

I might be wrong but I think we have 14

McCready

Milne, Williams, OReilly, McBeth

Bannigan, Stanway, McKenzie, Lyon

Graham, Fitzpatrick, Robinson, Lawless, Diack 

Need at least one keeper (Mitchell deserves a contract extension IMO) but probably two since McCready doesn’t seem to have had any game time with Spartans. A right back assuming McMillan leaves, another centre forward and cover for our wingers. Then general cover/improvement!
 

Something like

Mitchell + 1

Milne, OReilly, McBeth, Williams + 2/3

Stanway, Bannigan + 2

Robinson, McKenzie, Lyon?,  Fitzpatrick, Lawless + 2

Graham, Diack + 1

Doolan might offer extensions to others like Muirhead and might try to sign one of the loan players like McInroy

But think this is for a new thread! 

 

Edited April 28 by JAG1970

[Lenziejag]

4 minutes ago, Duke Gekantawa said:

For as long as I’ve watched football certainly. Which is since the eighties. I did wonder when VAR was being introduced whether there would be a huge number of penalties given for this, forcing defenders to change their approach. It never happened though- probably for the best really.

It is so frustrating, as it doesn’t seem to work the other way round.

[lady-isobel-barnett]

26 minutes ago, Lenziejag said:

Question regarding what is a foul. It happens week after week when a defender has his arms all over the attacker, manhandling with some force, but a foul is rarely given. When did that stop being a foul.

Aye. Each week (mostly via VAR replays) we're hearing commentary along the lines of "not having much of his arms on the attacker", "hardly much of a tug on his shirt" and a kinda stock comment "if a foul was given for that then the game would be stopped every minute" often followed up with a "it is after all a contact sport".

I guess the increase in level of permitted manhandling is something that's come into effect gradually and somehow refs are of the opinion it's part and parcel of the game. I could accept that to a degree if they weren't so pernickety about other decisions. It's more the latter that stops the game flowing. 

 

[lady-isobel-barnett]

13 minutes ago, Duke Gekantawa said:

For as long as I’ve watched football certainly. Which is since the eighties. I did wonder when VAR was being introduced whether there would be a huge number of penalties given for this, forcing defenders to change their approach. It never happened though- probably for the best really.

Agree it's always been there but think over the years it's gone up a couple of notches.

[jaggy]

Ayr seemed particularly good with arms and hands, especially 14 & 23 (who both played very well outwith pushing & holding) Chalmers looked decent as always but I sometimes wonder about his lack of end product 

Edited April 28 by jaggy

[Third Lanark]

32 minutes ago, JAG1970 said:

I might be wrong but I think we have 14

McCready

Milne, Williams, OReilly, McBeth

Bannigan, Stanway, McKenzie, Lyon

Graham, Fitzpatrick, Robinson, Lawless, Diack 

Need at least one keeper (Mitchell deserves a contract extension IMO) but probably two since McCready doesn’t seem to have had any game time with Spartans. A right back assuming McMillan leaves, another centre forward and cover for our wingers. Then general cover/improvement!
 

Something like

Mitchell + 1

Milne, OReilly, McBeth, Williams + 2/3

Stanway, Bannigan + 2

Robinson, McKenzie, Lyon?,  Fitzpatrick, Lawless + 2

Graham, Diack + 1

Doolan might offer extensions to others like Muirhead and might try to sign one of the loan players like McInroy

But think this is for a new thread! 

 

Agree completely about Mitchell.

By far our best goalkeeper and deserves a contract extension 

[michael m]

1 hour ago, Lenziejag said:

Question regarding what is a foul. It happens week after week when a defender has his arms all over the attacker, manhandling with some force, but a foul is rarely given. When did that stop being a foul.

I guess as you describe it should be a foul but there will be many which must be very close to a threshold which each ref will have - my liking for yesterday’s ref is that in the 4 matches he’s done of ours he’s been very consistent - that’s all you can ask for and that’s why I think he’s one of the best around

[The Thistle Archive]

Thistle 0 Ayr 0 →

HUGE MILESTONE FOR BANNIGAN

● Jack McMillan registers his 100th appearance for Thistle in all competitions.

● It's huge congratulations to Stuart Bannigan who becomes just the 15th Jag in history to reach the 400 appearances mark in 'all competitions' (i.e. major and minor). The club will officially mark the 400 'major' appearances in 2 games time!

● It's just 1 goal conceded in 540 mins (a penalty!) and 3 consecutive clean-sheets for David Mitchell who is hunting down his personal best (4) set during the play-offs last term.

● In all competitions, Thistle go 8 home games without defeat versus Ayr United (2020 to date), matching the joint-club-record previously set from 1930-1937 and 1983-1989.

● Jags go two games without a booking for the first time since September 2022.

● Alas, an unprecedented two-in-one-season 'Grand Slam' is not-to-be for Brian Graham but, having scored in 3 of the 4 league games vs. Ayr United this term, he gets the consolation 'Hogan' joining Aidan Fitzpatrick who did likewise vs. Arbroath this season.

● Kris Doolan's Thistle remain unbeaten in 14 games played in the months of April and May.

ongoing sequences:

● 7 competitive games without defeat, 16th Mar 2024 to date. (Longest run since: 11 games, 1st Apr 2023 to 1st Jun 2023. Joint club-record: 16 games, 15th Nov 1975 to 21st Feb 1976 & 30th Sep 2000 to 13th Jan 2001.)

● 29 games in 3rd place (30th Sep 2023 to date), an extension of the club-record for a position outwith outright top or bottom. Overall, it's the longest run since the club-record of 33 games in bottom pace (12th), set between 20th Sep 2003 and 15th May 2004.

● 34 consecutive competitive appearances for Lewis Neilson, 15th Sep 2023 to date, a new personal best. (Longest run since: Steven Lawless - 60 games, 18th Feb 2023 to 6th Apr 2024. Club-record: Johnny Jackson - 313 games, 28th Aug 1926 to 25th Mar 1933.)

[Auld Jag]

Good crowd yesterday, just over 4,200 and a very good response from both sets of fans to the only one Gerry Collins chant on the 4th minute of the game. 

[Jaggernaut]

On 4/28/2024 at 8:15 PM, The Thistle Archive said:

Thistle 0 Ayr 0 →

HUGE MILESTONE FOR BANNIGAN

● Jack McMillan registers his 100th appearance for Thistle in all competitions.

● It's huge congratulations to Stuart Bannigan who becomes just the 15th Jag in history to reach the 400 appearances mark in 'all competitions' (i.e. major and minor). The club will officially mark the 400 'major' appearances in 2 games time!

● It's just 1 goal conceded in 540 mins (a penalty!) and 3 consecutive clean-sheets for David Mitchell who is hunting down his personal best (4) set during the play-offs last term.

● In all competitions, Thistle go 8 home games without defeat versus Ayr United (2020 to date), matching the joint-club-record previously set from 1930-1937 and 1983-1989.

● Jags go two games without a booking for the first time since September 2022.

● Alas, an unprecedented two-in-one-season 'Grand Slam' is not-to-be for Brian Graham but, having scored in 3 of the 4 league games vs. Ayr United this term, he gets the consolation 'Hogan' joining Aidan Fitzpatrick who did likewise vs. Arbroath this season.

● Kris Doolan's Thistle remain unbeaten in 14 games played in the months of April and May.

ongoing sequences:

● 7 competitive games without defeat, 16th Mar 2024 to date. (Longest run since: 11 games, 1st Apr 2023 to 1st Jun 2023. Joint club-record: 16 games, 15th Nov 1975 to 21st Feb 1976 & 30th Sep 2000 to 13th Jan 2001.)

● 29 games in 3rd place (30th Sep 2023 to date), an extension of the club-record for a position outwith outright top or bottom. Overall, it's the longest run since the club-record of 33 games in bottom pace (12th), set between 20th Sep 2003 and 15th May 2004.

● 34 consecutive competitive appearances for Lewis Neilson, 15th Sep 2023 to date, a new personal best. (Longest run since: Steven Lawless - 60 games, 18th Feb 2023 to 6th Apr 2024. Club-record: Johnny Jackson - 313 games, 28th Aug 1926 to 25th Mar 1933.)

All of those great stats could be the basis of a thread on their own!

Edited April 29 by Jaggernaut