Just In From Crappielow

[ayrshire jag]

A bad day at office for Jags , can't defend corners, Fox glued to his line, lost 2 goals down to this. Even so we should have been well ahead t ht as played some great football. Erskine and Lawless were poor today. Murray is becoming a liability after his first half yellow it was always on cards he would get sent off. Horrendous tackle IMHO deserved a straight red. And oh nearly forgot the ref, Roach absolute joke denied us a stonewall penalty when it was 2-1.

Finally great support upwards and onwards, hope today was just a lip.

AJ

[Lord Rosebury]

A bad day at office for Jags , can't defend corners, Fox glued to his line, lost 2 goals down to this. Even so we should have been well ahead t ht as played some great football. Erskine and Lawless were poor today. Murray is becoming a liability after his first half yellow it was always on cards he would get sent off. Horrendous tackle IMHO deserved a straight red. And oh nearly forgot the ref, Roach absolute joke denied us a stonewall penalty when it was 2-1.

Finally great support upwards and onwards, hope today was just a lip.

AJ

I thought Erskine was causing them plenty of problems and it should have been Lawless taken off- who , after a good first half faded a bit.

Not too desponded - before the sending off we were by far the better team.

[Willjag]

I thought Lawless played well, a total handful for the Morton defenders. Erskine just had one of the games where the ball would fall just behind him or just go a couple of yards too far in front of him. Archie Craig and maybe Bannigan I thought were best for us today. Considering how badly we were struggling to defend corners in the first half, I felt Bannigan should have just played the ball up the park instead of trying to sheperd it out for a goalkick in the lead up to the second Morton goal. Apart from the corners, Morton just didn't look like they would threaten at all in the first half

 

From the Thistle end, it was hard to judge the tackle from Murray that brought the second yellow, it did look like two players going full blooded for a 50-50 ball, but the ref was closer, so perhaps he did actually get something right. Murray might have avoided the first yellow if he had taken the Morton player out near the half way line and out on the touchline, but he let him get away and had to haul him back near the 18 yard box.

 

Had Thistle got what did look like a blatant penalty when we awere pressing for the equaliser, he would have had to have sent off Rutkiewicz for a second yellow as well. Just looks like he'd botlled it.

 

We definitely need Welsh back I think. We look a lot better with him in the side athough Forbes looked not bad today, just a little slow.

[Fearchar]

To be fair to Fox, he is not being defended in the box: opposition sides put someone directly in front of him, and no defender gets between them. This offers ample opportunity for "accidents" of various kinds to happen out of sight of the officials. Then Scott Fox is blamed for poor goalkeeping, when in fact he's being pinned back or down and not given the freedom to move that a goalkeeper needs.

 

Murray looked as if he didn't really want to be there, and that was true in the previous game too. Jackie McNamara should have taken him off at halftime and put Bannigan in his place, bringing Sinclair on at left back. In the event, he was forced to do that, but by taking Erskine off.

 

On that narrow park, where the long ball game was even being used by Scott Fox (not entirely ineffectively), Craig should have had another striker to combine with, and that could have been Erskine. Later on, once Craig began to tire, he could have been substituted with Doolan; he and Erskine know each other's play well enough by now to combine effectively as a striking pair. Lawless was being pummelled consistently, and although he won one free kick for his pains (literally!), he was subdued throughout the game. If the substitutions had been made and 4-4-2 adopted. we'd have been in with a chance. After all, it took almost half a match playing with 11 against 10 for Morton to score from open play.

 

Slane was noticeable for making an obvious foul. He is a winger, and couldn't offer anything on this kind of park, but if that's his contribution, he can stay warming the bench.

 

Muirhead should be Archie's successor as captain: Paton has been mentioned as a contender, but today he launched wild tackles even after being yellow-carded. Muirhead controls play at the back and sometimes spots openings and probes to take advantage of them, contributing one shot from a distance that, if it had been targeted a little lower, would have brought us back into the game - in addition to directing others from defence, and distributing the ball well. (He did fluff a few, but still got back to cover.)

[stillresigned]

We simply weren't good enough on the day. Although we maybe didn't deserve to lose and certainly didn't deserve to lose 3-1. That being said, the centre of the defence and the defence generally were at fault for conceding two soft goals from corners, Scott Fox didn't win any prizes either for the goals.

Other than that, we played some nice football at times. Wehit the post from a free lick and maybe should have been awarded a penalty for what looked suspiciouslly like nandball, but the view at Cappielow is so poor that I couldn-t see if it was hand to ball or the other way around. Same for the sending off, it looked to me initially like a typical 50/50 tussle and if any I thought the Morton guy was a fraction late. Still, as the guy got carried off it might well have been a correct decision. The referee was the usual low standard we've come to expect and certainly didn't do us any favours.

The annoying thing is that we got beat by a distinctly ordinary team, who fair enough took their chances.

Just hope the manager sorts out the defence and gets us back on track. The worrying aspect is that we've had a bit of sucess based on playing nice football and today we were resorting to the tired old tactic of lumping the ball up the park.

[Fearchar]

One other point about Scott Fox: can someone not give him a cap to shield his eyes when the sun is low? This seemed so obvious, but it wasn't picked up. Morton should have been looking for corners from the sunny side all game. Maybe the fact that Craig Hinchcliffe has deepset eyes has, er. blinded him to this weakness in Scott Fox.

[MWM]

Murray has gradually gotten worse the last few weeks and needed dropped anyway regardless of the red card. Even his basic passing has been poor, he's been caught flat footed several times and his lack of pace has been found wanting recently.

 

Some absolute weapons behind me spent his whole time on the park slaughtering Erskine. I felt he was our best player when on the pitch too, poor substitution by Jackie IMO.

 

Referee was utterly hopeless and did us no favours. I'm confident this was an off day however. We need Welsh back ASAP and Morton were no great shakes themselves. Could hardly notice we had a man less for much of the second half.

Edited October 7, 2012 by MWM

[Fearchar]

Murray has gradually gotten worse the last few weeks and needed dropped anyway regardless of the red card. Even his basic passing has been poor, he's been caught flat footed several times and his lack of pace has been found wanting recently.

 

Some absolute weapons behind me spent his whole time on the park slaughtering Erskine. I felt he was our best player when on the pitch too, poor substitution by Jackie IMO.

 

Referee was utterly hopeless and did us no favours. I'm confident this was an off day however. We need Welsh back ASAP and Morton were no great shakes themselves. Could hardly notice we had a man less for much of the second half.

 

Oh, did you have some too? We had some troglodytes nearby, too, urging the team to punt the ball up the park when we were in possession. When the team did........oh, well, we all saw what happened there.

[Charlie Endell]

Murray has gradually gotten worse the last few weeks and needed dropped anyway regardless of the red card. Even his basic passing has been poor, he's been caught flat footed several times and his lack of pace has been found wanting recently.

 

Some absolute weapons behind me spent his whole time on the park slaughtering Erskine. I felt he was our best player when on the pitch too, poor substitution by Jackie IMO.

 

Referee was utterly hopeless and did us no favours. I'm confident this was an off day however. We need Welsh back ASAP and Morton we're no great shakes themselves. Could hardly notice we had a man less for much of the second half.

Apparently if you criticize Murray on here you know nothing about football...

[Guy Incognito]

Murray has gradually gotten worse the last few weeks and needed dropped anyway regardless of the red card. Even his basic passing has been poor, he's been caught flat footed several times and his lack of pace has been found wanting recently.

 

Some absolute weapons behind me spent his whole time on the park slaughtering Erskine. I felt he was our best player when on the pitch too, poor substitution by Jackie IMO.

 

Referee was utterly hopeless and did us no favours. I'm confident this was an off day however. We need Welsh back ASAP and Morton we're no great shakes themselves. Could hardly notice we had a man less for much of the second half.

 

It is always the way with Erskine. Come rain or shine, good game or bad, there will always be at least one "supporter" giving him pelters. I think we missed him big time after we went down to ten men, because he would have given us an out ball. I though he might have picked up a knock but he seemed fine as he was running off.

 

Fair point about the ref too - he made the guy last week look like Pierluigi Collina.

[Guy Incognito]

Oh aye, just a word about the catering (in true Wearethistle tradition). It was awful. One wee wagon for about 1,000 supporters! I waited in that queue for 20 minutes and that was before half-time (missing their second goal, perhaps mercifully). Pish.

 

To be fair to the guy running the thing he said that he had been told to expect about 600 fans. I donn't suppose it is his fault that near enough twice that number turned up!

[chunky jag]

We were crap just the same as last week, and both times it's been against really poor teams.

 

Not just saying it because he's been sent off, but I've been saying for weeks Murray is the weak link. Only there to break up play - but when he is short of the pace, which is often, he just resorts to blatant fouls. His first yellow was a joke, he had a few chances to deal with ball before being dispossessed and conceded yellow. 2nd challenge looked a bad one. Hope it's a lengthy time out for Shug and we can get someone in there who is a better player, which should be pretty easy to do.

 

The abuse of Erskine is really getting on my tits. Who are you fckn morons? The guy is our most dangerous player, and he needs confidence. Yes he gives away the ball more than most, but that's because he gets possession more as he's our most creative. I remember the Raith challenge game - a few people coming away with "he had an ok game". 2 goals and an assist. It seems he needs to have a motm performance every week or it's dogs abuse. Really tired of these idiots who in my opinion do not know anything about the game. Have a wee think about the bigger picture before opening your trap. Or at least be consistent. Give other the players the same crap every time they are dispossessed.

 

We despeately miss Welsh. Get him back and in 2 weeks time I'm sure we'll be sitting top of the league and in a cup final.

[Gordie]

Erskine should not have been taken off if he was fit. We have missed Welsh, Murray and Forbes can't play together, too slow, both good players but together? not for me. Sinclair looks short of confidence.

[Lin1876]

Better team won, at least in the sense that goal win games. I felt there wasn't much in the first half overall and we were unlucky to go in behind, but our inability to defend corners a big concern.

 

More concerning is what was going through Hugh Murray's mind when he lunged in like that on a booking, the man's becoming a liability right now. Deserved a straight red, and apparently he broke the Morton player's leg in that as well. I hope the "fans" who booed him off are pleased with themselves.

 

While that did change the complexion of the game, we never really looked like scoring from there. Poor tactics from McNamara in brining off a genuine goal threat when we were behind, and while the penalty claim was probably justified (it certainly looked like it from where I was standing), those things happen. Fair play to Morton who deserved to win, but I felt the result said more about us than about them.

[chunky jag]

I hope the "fans" who booed him off are pleased with themselves.

 

do you mean applauded? I didn't hear any boos from Jags fans? Only plenty of applause for a guy who just gave the points on a sliver platter to Morton.

 

Can one of you who clapped him off please explain why u thought that tit deserved a round of applause?

Edited October 6, 2012 by chunky jag

[G SUS]

do you mean applauded? I didn't hear any boos from Jags fans? Only plenty of applause for a guy who just gave the points on a sliver platter to Morton.

 

Can one of you who clapped him off please explain why u thought that tit deserved a round of applause?

 

I think he's talking about the fans that booed off Stirling.

[Lin1876]

I think he's talking about the fans that booed off Stirling.

 

Yes, I am. I didn't make that particularly clear.

[The Earl of Hathaway]

Pretty annoyed about that today, but willing to cut some slack since ITS ALWAYS THE F*CKING SAME AT CAPPIELOW. I genuinely believed we had a new mentality, a new capability with this squad but it's always the same - get sucked into playing their long ball, launch it up the park game, get a man sent off, same old same old. Sick of it. Morton are an Alan Moore team of Weatherstons (!!!!) and launch it up the park merchants and we can't cope with that. You win the battle before you win the war. Murray is an arseh*le for getting pulled into the St Mirren/Morton derby stuff, and that's the mentality behind his sending offf - listen, look down at the badge, it's only those Morton toss*ers who give a sh*t about your past these days...

 

We now have to deal with teams getting 10 men behind the ball when we get it and decide how we deal with that, strategically and psychologically. We played ALL the football today - score goals with that and we win the league. It's that complex, and that simple.

[1971]

do you mean applauded? I didn't hear any boos from Jags fans? Only plenty of applause for a guy who just gave the points on a sliver platter to Morton.

 

Can one of you who clapped him off please explain why u thought that tit deserved a round of applause?

 

Murray was stupid to get himself sent off, but can we lay off abusing our own players? Lots of fans today seemed to be intent on having a go at Sinclair too, numpties.

 

We lost two sloppy goals today, and the sending off meant it was always going to be an uphill struggle. However we played some good stuff at times against a team of long-ball merchants, there was plenty of effort from the players and on another day we would have won the game well. We have done exceptionally well this season, but we were always going to lose at some stage- it's how we respond to it that matters. I have every faith that we will still have a very successful season.

[Big Dave]

It really astounds me how some "fans" have a go at Erskine. In my time of 40 years of going,this boy is up there with the best and most entertaining player I've seen in years. At Firhill there's a couple of morons near me who constantly give him abuse and then go all quiet when he scores or sets up a goal. Probably a couple of Sevco fans without the bus fare.

[lady-isobel-barnett]

Crazy tho' the Murray tackle was I doubt he lost us three points. Felt we might have got a draw with eleven on the park but we were too sluggish in midfield from the kick off. Gordie made a good point about having both Forbes and Murray in the team and Paton isn't exactly that nippy as well.

I fully expected that Shug would pick up many a yellow card and perhaps a red or two. What I never expected to see was such a needless ordering off so high up the park. I feel he owes the fans, manager and teammates a big time apology.

[Norgethistle]

Jesus we've lost 1 league game this season, bad day in the office it happens lets see how we bounce back before we unsheath the knives

[Garscube Road End]

Jesus we've lost 1 league game this season, bad day in the office it happens lets see how we bounce back before we unsheath the knives

 

Well said!! We never dreamt we would have such a great start!! We WILL be in the mix, there will be disappointments along the way. NOW weve a cup final to get to. Cmon the Jags!!

[Jaggyman]

Bad day at the office was pretty confident we would still win at half time we were the better team in first half. Word of advice to messrs Murray and Bannigan ----- dont try and be clever and shield the ball to let it run out of play howff it out the park. If murray hadnt been caught doing this he wouldnt have got his first booking and if Bannigan had did this they wouldnt have scored their 2nd goal. Not too despondant we were going to lose at some point it how we respond that matters. Mon the jags

[Pie Of The Month]

Jesus we've lost 1 league game this season, bad day in the office it happens lets see how we bounce back before we unsheath the knives

 

I don't think there's been too much of an overreaction to be honest. In fact there's been games where we've won this season where there's been a just in thread with more complaints.

 

 

Also (not directed at Norgethistle) what's with this "fans" in inverted commas because they booed Stirling off the park? How on earth does booing someone being stretchered off make someone any less of a fan? A bit daft certainly but a few of those that I saw doing it I've seen week in week out at pretty much every away game getting behind the team so I'd hardly question their credentials as a fan because of that.