King Kenny Posted January 24 Report Share Posted January 24 A lot more nervy than it needed to be but we deserved the win. If Chalmers had scored that penalty I think we’d have hammered them, the place was jumping at that point and the miss made things a bit flat. Second half was always going to be tricky as Ayr chucked everything at us and it was a poor goal to lose. MacPherson should have cleared his lines and we were ponderous when the initial shot was blocked. Clarke had a poor mistake last week but that was a brilliant save at the end from Oakley, got us the 3 points. Samuel had a brilliant game, topped off by a fantastic header. He’s got a turn of pace now and is clearly much fitter and full of confidence, makes a real difference up top. No real poor performances today but Chalmers was well off it after the penalty miss. I thought Crawford and Martin did well when the came on, helped tighten up the midfield although Crawford should have buried his chance. I actually thought it was a clear penalty for handball from the second shot but perhaps the ref was doing us a favour not giving it! Macbeth was good, so much better at the back than midfield. Big 3 points. Wilson and Rae doing a great job, just a pity we won’t have much in the tank to help them this month. Delighted we have Wilson over Brown, that guy doesn’t have a clue how to manage a team. Im assuming the fact Lawless was missing again means he’s for the off? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimmy McD Posted January 24 Report Share Posted January 24 Just listened to Alex Rae , and Alex Samuels on Jagzone, 2 very good interviews, thought Samuels had his best game in red and yellow today.. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen1876 Posted January 24 Report Share Posted January 24 2 hours ago, lady-isobel-barnett said: Samuel was very impressive. Gone in a few weeks from being an effective impact sub to being a first choice starter. In doing so negates a bit the need to sign another wide attacker as we change set up for Alex. Still want to see one come in but slightly less urgency Agreed - I wasn’t convinced when we signed him but that was another outstanding performance, everything you could ask for from a centre forward. He worked a high quality and experienced Ayr backline all afternoon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaggernaut Posted January 24 Report Share Posted January 24 Samuels had a great game; what an amount of effort. He even muscles in when he knows he's probably going to get chopped down in a tackle. Nobody had a bad game, although as somebody mentioned, Chalmers seemed to go off the boil after his penalty miss. Got to say again: it was striking how we didn't go in for the lazy, garbage pass-to-you-sideways-and-you-pass-it-back-to-me-or-to-the-keeper routine that we've been doing for almost the whole season. Give me the more direct attack at them anytime. Now, if only we could actually try to make our throw-ins to our advantage. In the second half yesterday Ayr threw two quick and long balls that got them from their end of the park up the park to ours in a few seconds.. That led to another which got lobbed directly into our box, causing some anxiety for our defence. We simply never seem to even think of trying such things. Finally, Stanway is not the man to take corners, please. A suggestion, Mr Wilson: Chalmers for corners, Stanway for penalties. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Winter of '63 Posted January 25 Report Share Posted January 25 Initially I wasn't convinced our formation was right...then we were 2-0 up and had a penalty. It was another telegraphed effort from Chalmers - if he had scored, we would probably have handed out a bit of a beating but we ended up making hard work of winning the match. We dug in well though with good defending by McBeth & O'Reilly and an outstanding save by Clarke. Midfield was off the pace today with Chalmers a bit lost, Stanway quietish and Smyth as poor as I have seen him. Banzo was the best midfielder on the park. Special mention to Samuel - i wasn't enthused when he signed but he was great today with a superb header. In contrast to last season, we have had good entertainment at Firhill this year with thanks today to Ayr for their panicky defence and to Scott Brown for losing his Celtic exemption to receiving yellow & red cards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weebaw1 Posted January 25 Report Share Posted January 25 8 hours ago, Winter of '63 said: Initially I wasn't convinced our formation was right...then we were 2-0 up and had a penalty. It was another telegraphed effort from Chalmers - if he had scored, we would probably have handed out a bit of a beating but we ended up making hard work of winning the match. We dug in well though with good defending by McBeth & O'Reilly and an outstanding save by Clarke. Midfield was off the pace today with Chalmers a bit lost, Stanway quietish and Smyth as poor as I have seen him. Banzo was the best midfielder on the park. Special mention to Samuel - i wasn't enthused when he signed but he was great today with a superb header. In contrast to last season, we have had good entertainment at Firhill this year with thanks today to Ayr for their panicky defence and to Scott Brown for losing his Celtic exemption to receiving yellow & red cards. Smyth’s spell on loan at St Mirren hasn’t done him any favours. 😊 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jagfox Posted January 25 Report Share Posted January 25 9 hours ago, Winter of '63 said: We dug in well though with good defending by McBeth & O'Reilly and an outstanding save by Clarke. I think Ashy made a fantastic block inside the box at one time too. The defence won loads of headers but we struggled to win the second ball most of the day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fawlty Towers Posted January 25 Report Share Posted January 25 If we get a penalty in the near future I would have Ben McPherson take it purely based on the fact he is the only outfield player not to have scored yet. I am hoping that it is a wet and windy night in Perth on Tuesday and Ayr give St Johnstone a tough, physical game before we play them on Friday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laukat Posted January 25 Report Share Posted January 25 I thought yesterday was an interesting tactical game rather than a game of individual performances. Whilst Samuel and Ashcroft put in strong performances the game changed throughout the 90 minutes based on the formational changes and personal the respective managers deployed. Brown always goes with 2 up front so playing 3 at the back made defensive sense. However rather than deploying a traditional 3-5-2 Wilson surprised Ayr by deploying almost a 3-4-2-1. That led to the early 2 goal lead and Ayr didn't really know how to handle that until the manufactured break in play after the penalty. At that point Brown clearly issued instructions to his players that in possession Ayr should always have a centreback free so if they built the play using Bannigan and brought a centrehalf up then they would have spare man in midfield and therefore the bulk of possession. It stuck like that but Ayr never really made clear opportunities so I think WIlson was happy to persist. It changed a little when Main came on for the ineffective Bonar. Main helped pin our back 3 and MacKenzie was more effective for Ayr in midfield than Bonar had been. That started to increase the pressure on us that led to the Ayr goal. However Wilson then reacted well by taking off Chalmers and putting on Crawford which gave us a much more traditional 3-5-2 and the balance of play then evened up and arguably we created the best opportunity. That started to limit Ayr who with limited creativity could only really throw on Oakley to try and get higher up the park. Bringing on Martin further solidified our midfield and meant we were either stopping any balls getting to Ayr's front two or winning more of the second balls. So maybe yesterday Mark Wilson had a shout at being man of the match? 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaggernaut Posted January 25 Report Share Posted January 25 9 hours ago, Winter of '63 said: Initially I wasn't convinced our formation was right...then we were 2-0 up and had a penalty. It was another telegraphed effort from Chalmers - if he had scored, we would probably have handed out a bit of a beating but we ended up making hard work of winning the match. We dug in well though with good defending by McBeth & O'Reilly and an outstanding save by Clarke. Midfield was off the pace today with Chalmers a bit lost, Stanway quietish and Smyth as poor as I have seen him. Banzo was the best midfielder on the park. Special mention to Samuel - i wasn't enthused when he signed but he was great today with a superb header. In contrast to last season, we have had good entertainment at Firhill this year with thanks today to Ayr for their panicky defence and to Scott Brown for losing his Celtic exemption to receiving yellow & red cards. Good point about Bannigan. His passing was excellent, and he covered a lot of ground. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lady-isobel-barnett Posted January 25 Report Share Posted January 25 laukat sums things up very well and much as I saw it. A three at the back set up can often be negative and to offset that we accommodated three attack minded players in the starting XI. The formation worked and we were 2-0 and a missed penalty to the good to justify it. Despite being narrow in set up we still managed a good bit of width. Tho' you could argue that Bannigan was the best midfielder on the park, that's maybe more down to us creating the space to allow him that honour. Certainly the introduction of Crawford and Martin changed control of midfield in our favour. One thing I was glad of was that the likes of Dowds, Main & Oakley are not noted for speed. If Ayr could've brought on a nippy frontman I don't know how Ashcroft would've coped. As it was he struggled badly as the game progressed. Normally he can counter pace with guile and experience. I hope it's a case of carrying knocks rather than a sign of his legs going. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert's Ghost Posted January 25 Author Report Share Posted January 25 1 minute ago, lady-isobel-barnett said: I don't know how Ashcroft would've coped. As it was he struggled badly as the game progressed. Normally he can counter pace with guile and experience. I hope it's a case of carrying knocks rather than a sign of his legs going. I think it's a bit of both. He's been toiling badly in the latter stages recently. Never was fast. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dick Dastardly Posted January 25 Report Share Posted January 25 To carry on from what Laukat says, it is really good that teams can’t be certain what formation we will line up, which makes it difficult to play against. The criticism of McCall and Doolan was that we had no plan B. Under Wilson we have multiple plan A’s and I think that is getting results better than the individual players 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
partickthedog Posted January 25 Report Share Posted January 25 This was the report on Alex Samuel's goal on the main PTFC website: Luke McBeth crossed the ball into the Ayr box where Alex Samuel was able to help it into the far corner off the inside of the post. Match reports can often be over-effusive and sensationalist when describing goals. This is quite the opposite. In fairness to Alex, he did rather more than help the ball in. It was a brilliant header, both in conception and execution, perfect in power and in the precision of its direction! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lady-isobel-barnett Posted January 25 Report Share Posted January 25 Especially for those who couldn't attend yesterday. Without any doubt the real Man of the Match https://www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/news/scottish-news/25794003.glasgow-teen-lifesaver-jordan-kerr-honoured-partick-thistle-match/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook#Echobox=1769277223 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a f kincaid Posted January 25 Report Share Posted January 25 3 hours ago, Jaggernaut said: Good point about Bannigan. His passing was excellent, and he covered a lot of ground. I'd go as far as saying Bannigan had one of his best games at Firhill. Hardly a ball wasted, never hides, good outlet when his team mates are in trouble. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
partickthedog Posted January 25 Report Share Posted January 25 11 minutes ago, lady-isobel-barnett said: Especially for those who couldn't attend yesterday. Without any doubt the real Man of the Match https://www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/news/scottish-news/25794003.glasgow-teen-lifesaver-jordan-kerr-honoured-partick-thistle-match/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook#Echobox=1769277223 You are also helping to inform those who could attend yesterday. The public address system is so poor in the John Lambie that I had no idea who our guest was. Well done, Jordan! A retrospective extra round of applause from me. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auld Jag Posted January 25 Report Share Posted January 25 4 hours ago, lady-isobel-barnett said: Especially for those who couldn't attend yesterday. Without any doubt the real Man of the Match https://www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/news/scottish-news/25794003.glasgow-teen-lifesaver-jordan-kerr-honoured-partick-thistle-match/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook#Echobox=1769277223 Could we do something else, like invite him and his family to a game with hospitality as well ? Agree with @partickthedog could only make out some of the introduction in John Lambie. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaggernaut Posted January 25 Report Share Posted January 25 9 hours ago, partickthedog said: This was the report on Alex Samuel's goal on the main PTFC website: Luke McBeth crossed the ball into the Ayr box where Alex Samuel was able to help it into the far corner off the inside of the post. Match reports can often be over-effusive and sensationalist when describing goals. This is quite the opposite. In fairness to Alex, he did rather more than help the ball in. It was a brilliant header, both in conception and execution, perfect in power and in the precision of its direction! Agreed. The in-off-the-post description often makes it sound like pure luck, but the way Samuels got down to the header and steered it in that direction was what counted, along with the cross. It was a great goal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
partickthedog Posted January 26 Report Share Posted January 26 1 hour ago, Jaggernaut said: Agreed. The in-off-the-post description often makes it sound like pure luck, but the way Samuels got down to the header and steered it in that direction was what counted, along with the cross. It was a great goal. Tried to like, but my allocation was used up! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weebaw1 Posted January 26 Report Share Posted January 26 21 hours ago, Albert's Ghost said: I think it's a bit of both. He's been toiling badly in the latter stages recently. Never was fast. Does was one on one with Ashy late on. A good striker would have scored. But was he fouled? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Thistle Archive Posted January 26 Report Share Posted January 26 Ayr archived → AND THEN THERE WERE TWO ● It's double figures in the competitive goals charts for Logan Chalmers; 10 goals means a new personal best as a senior pro in any one season. ● Alex Samuel nets his 7th competitive goal of the season. Amazingly, he follows Logan Chalmers by just 2 minutes in terms of hitting his personal best season as a senior pro! ● Thistle have missed 3 successive penalties in open play, a poor feat last seen in November 2020. The club-record (4) was last equalled in March 2000. See Every penalty (taken). ● Aidan Fitzpatrick misses his first game of the season meaning that no player will be an ever-present in 2025-26. ● Ayr United have lost only two league games away from home all season - both at Firhill! ● It's a new club-record of 11 home league games unbeaten versus Ayr United, passing the record 10 set from 1977 to 1989. ● Partick Thistle and Heart of Midlothian are the last two standing with unbeaten home records in the 2025-26 SPFL. Jags are aiming for a 6th "invincible" home season in the league following on from 1896-97, 1899-00, 1910-11, 1970-71 and 2001-02. ongoing sequences: ● 7 away League games without a win; 11th Oct 2025 to date. (Longest run since: 7 games; 6th Apr 2024 to 28th Sep 2024. Club-record: 26 games; 20th Mar 1935 to 29th Aug 1936.) ● 13 home League games without defeat; 25th Apr 2025 to date. (Longest run since: 14 games; 16th Mar 2024 to 28th Dec 2024. Joint club-record: 23 games; 27th Aug 1910 to 14th Oct 1911 & 29th Aug 1970 to 6th Nov 1971.) ● 20 consecutive competitive appearances for Paddy Reading, 4th Oct 2025 to date, a new personal best. (Longest run since: Aidan Fitzpatrick - 45 games, 11th Mar 2025 to 17th Jan 2026. Club-record: Johnny Jackson - 313 games, 28th Aug 1926 to 25th Mar 1933.) 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rid Skwerr Posted January 26 Report Share Posted January 26 I love reading these game stats. Thanks a lot for pulling them together for us. 👍 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auld Jag Posted January 26 Report Share Posted January 26 5 hours ago, The Thistle Archive said: Ayr archived → AND THEN THERE WERE TWO ● It's double figures in the competitive goals charts for Logan Chalmers; 10 goals means a new personal best as a senior pro in any one season. ● Alex Samuel nets his 7th competitive goal of the season. Amazingly, he follows Logan Chalmers by just 2 minutes in terms of hitting his personal best season as a senior pro! ● Thistle have missed 3 successive penalties in open play, a poor feat last seen in November 2020. The club-record (4) was last equalled in March 2000. See Every penalty (taken). ● Aidan Fitzpatrick misses his first game of the season meaning that no player will be an ever-present in 2025-26. ● Ayr United have lost only two league games away from home all season - both at Firhill! ● It's a new club-record of 11 home league games unbeaten versus Ayr United, passing the record 10 set from 1977 to 1989. ● Partick Thistle and Heart of Midlothian are the last two standing with unbeaten home records in the 2025-26 SPFL. Jags are aiming for a 6th "invincible" home season in the league following on from 1896-97, 1899-00, 1910-11, 1970-71 and 2001-02. ongoing sequences: ● 7 away League games without a win; 11th Oct 2025 to date. (Longest run since: 7 games; 6th Apr 2024 to 28th Sep 2024. Club-record: 26 games; 20th Mar 1935 to 29th Aug 1936.) ● 13 home League games without defeat; 25th Apr 2025 to date. (Longest run since: 14 games; 16th Mar 2024 to 28th Dec 2024. Joint club-record: 23 games; 27th Aug 1910 to 14th Oct 1911 & 29th Aug 1970 to 6th Nov 1971.) ● 20 consecutive competitive appearances for Paddy Reading, 4th Oct 2025 to date, a new personal best. (Longest run since: Aidan Fitzpatrick - 45 games, 11th Mar 2025 to 17th Jan 2026. Club-record: Johnny Jackson - 313 games, 28th Aug 1926 to 25th Mar 1933.) Paddy Reading has been a good signing. Played the ball in to Chalmers for our first on Saturday and also put the cross into Samuel when we got the penalty. In any game i have seen him he usually puts in at least a 7 out of 10 performance. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jagtastic Posted January 27 Report Share Posted January 27 On the Scott Brown, goalkeeper goes down so that he can have a team meeting during the game point - why don't a couple of our players (or any other opponent's players for that matter since apparently it's a weekly occurrence) just go over and stand in on it if we aren't using the time to have our own chat? They are all on the field of play so literally nothing to stop them, and they either get the gist of what's being instructed, or their players start getting touchy about it, handbags ensue and the ref has to come over and get involved rendering the whole thing pointless. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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