potty trained Posted December 30, 2012 Report Share Posted December 30, 2012 Folk won't like it but. Hugh Murray has started 9 games for us in the league. 8 of those saw him playing behind/beside Paton. Of those 9 games we have won 7. Loosing only 1. The Morton game he was red carded. In the 7 games he has not been a part of, we have only won 3. And one of them was against a piss poor airdrie team. Of the current 33 points, he has been a part of 2 thirds of that. So, we've had more success with him in the team, than without. And it's practically always with Paton part of the 3. Does that mean that not having him in the team is heaping too much pressure on Paton to do all the defensive cover? Having Murray behind him allows Paton to be more involved in the attacking side of our game. At the start of the season, Paton was pinging balls out to both wings for our wide players. Some might say he slows the game down... Others would say that without him in the team, we too easily give up on playing the passing game, and hoof it up the park too often and give the ball to the opposition. Others have said that morton's midfield/squad has experience. We have a guy warming the bench who has 3 winners medals to his name, 2 1st division trophies and a challenge cup win. As well as years of experience in the SPL. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1 John Lambie Posted December 30, 2012 Report Share Posted December 30, 2012 Murray will get his chance again, he was deservedly dropped for a stupid red card & had a stinker in the last game he started. The fact he isn't playing is really his own fault for his red card v Morton. Our best midfield combination is; Paton, Bannigan & Welsh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twinny Posted December 30, 2012 Report Share Posted December 30, 2012 Murray will get his chance again, he was deservedly dropped for a stupid red card & had a stinker in the last game he started. The fact he isn't playing is really his own fault for his red card v Morton. Our best midfield combination is; Paton, Bannigan & Welsh. I'd disagree. I'd say that Murray tidies up the defence much more than Paton and Bannigan do. I'd play Murray alongside one of Paton or Bannigan in defensive midfield and have Erskine, Welsh and Lawless in attacking midfield. This was how we started the season and that was when we played our most effective football. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
potty trained Posted December 30, 2012 Report Share Posted December 30, 2012 (edited) Murray will get his chance again, he was deservedly dropped for a stupid red card & had a stinker in the last game he started. The fact he isn't playing is really his own fault for his red card v Morton. Our best midfield combination is; Paton, Bannigan & Welsh. He wasn't dropped for his red card... He was suspended then picked up an illness that kept him on the bench for a few games. His last start was against Livi I think. We kept a clean sheet in a 2.0 victory. I can live with that sort of stinker. Incidentally, your ideal midfield 3. Today's only the second time they've started together in a 3. The other being the cup defeat to Hamilton. Edited December 30, 2012 by potty trained Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
partick monkey Posted December 30, 2012 Report Share Posted December 30, 2012 JagFox has finally made a valid point.... Bring back the blurple strip!!! We were different class in the blurple.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaggernaut Posted December 30, 2012 Report Share Posted December 30, 2012 One thing that's becoming clear is that we're not actually as good as many of us were starting to think we were. And other teams are clearly waking up to that fact. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lenziejag Posted December 30, 2012 Report Share Posted December 30, 2012 Auld yin has singled out a number of players as being off the boil. In the last 6 games only one of those mentioned hasn't scored. GSUS, in my opinion Smith has been directly responsible for 2 of the defeats Hamilton and Morton. Twice vs Morton he punched the ball straight to one of their players, one they scored the other was cleared by Sinclair ? Why are you so defensive of Smith ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G SUS Posted December 30, 2012 Report Share Posted December 30, 2012 Why are you so defensive of Smith ? Because he has been, unfairly in my opinion, been given the role of "scape-goat". Why don't you blame Paton, Muirhead and Forbes, all of whom failed to last the 90 minutes in the three games we lost? Why don't you praise Smith for the crucial saves he made v Raith and Airdrie which contributed to us gathering 4 points out of 6? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lenziejag Posted December 30, 2012 Report Share Posted December 30, 2012 How many shut outs has he had ? 1 from 6. How many has Fox had. 9 from 18. Accept the facts, Fox is a better keeper and should be 1st choice if fit. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jagfox Posted December 30, 2012 Report Share Posted December 30, 2012 (edited) Thought we missed Forbes big style yesterday. Noone was able to get the ball down or pass it or run with it to any great effect. Suggested before but we should be sitting in more on the road then hitting on the break and exploiting weaknesses as the game progresses. Look at Morton, unbeaten on the road. They over egged the point by just being shit in the first half against us and their players couldn't believe they were only one down. Moore let them stew for a bit then just told them to go and pass the ball. We know the rest. Currently in a mini slump, but we can get back. We just need a bit more steel to go with the silk, imo. Murray and Forbes may be back in contention and I can't wait for a fit Stephen O'Donnell to return. Our poor run has coincided with his wee drop in performance and subsequent injury. C'mon the Thistle! Edited December 30, 2012 by jagfox Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jagfox Posted December 30, 2012 Report Share Posted December 30, 2012 JagFox has finally made a valid point.... Bring back the blurple strip!!! We were different class in the blurple.... We were wearing the Blurple PM. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garscube Road End Posted December 30, 2012 Report Share Posted December 30, 2012 Theres been a few factors at play since we came blazing out of the traps. Firstly Welsh being on long term injury. Then moving Bannigan into midfield to cover and bringing Sinclair back.gOALKEEPEING INJURIES And defence changes have contributed in our recent run. Having to move Muirhead to RB has lost us more impetud from the back whre Aaron could move through midfield allowing Erskind to play further up and imposing ourselves on teams. Smith getting used to players in front of him, and they continually changing hasnt helped. OK the red cards have been a pain, but again disrupting our style. Obviously, these things happen through a season, but we have seen a few disruptions recently. I think we will beat Accies on Wednesday and we will start to steady the ship. Maybe bring Murray back in, move Paron to RB and utilise Muirhead alongside Balatoni, pushing Erskine further upfield, until O'Donnell returns. And bring Doolan back in from the start, even if we sign Craig. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G SUS Posted December 30, 2012 Report Share Posted December 30, 2012 How many shut outs has he had ? 1 from 6. How many has Fox had. 9 from 18. Accept the facts, Fox is a better keeper and should be 1st choice if fit. How many times has the defence been consistently the same, and not at least one change between games? Consistency of selection breeds familiarity. I've never denied Fox was better, just that Smith isn't as liable as you trying to make him appear. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twinny Posted December 30, 2012 Report Share Posted December 30, 2012 How many shut outs has he had ? 1 from 6. How many has Fox had. 9 from 18. Accept the facts, Fox is a better keeper and should be 1st choice if fit. Fox went out the team around the same time Murray did. And Welsh. I think that there are a few factors we can blame. I think Fox would have done better on Boxing Day, but not yesterday. Yesterday the Airdrie goal was the fault of the defence letting the ball and man go free. We also weren't firing in attack. Muirhead did well getting up and down the wing but he's a centre back and his crossing wasn't up to it. We were too slow to every second ball all over the park. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
potty trained Posted December 30, 2012 Report Share Posted December 30, 2012 As has been a common the all season Twinny. There's no point pumping long balls up the park if you aren't anticipating the second ball. The one fault this team has is when they panic and pump high balls, we don't anticipate the second ball. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uberteeb Posted December 30, 2012 Report Share Posted December 30, 2012 Folk won't like it but. Hugh Murray has started 9 games for us in the league. 8 of those saw him playing behind/beside Paton. Of those 9 games we have won 7. Loosing only 1. The Morton game he was red carded. In the 7 games he has not been a part of, we have only won 3. And one of them was against a piss poor airdrie team. Of the current 33 points, he has been a part of 2 thirds of that. So, we've had more success with him in the team, than without. And it's practically always with Paton part of the 3. Does that mean that not having him in the team is heaping too much pressure on Paton to do all the defensive cover? Having Murray behind him allows Paton to be more involved in the attacking side of our game. At the start of the season, Paton was pinging balls out to both wings for our wide players. Some might say he slows the game down... Others would say that without him in the team, we too easily give up on playing the passing game, and hoof it up the park too often and give the ball to the opposition. Others have said that morton's midfield/squad has experience. We have a guy warming the bench who has 3 winners medals to his name, 2 1st division trophies and a challenge cup win. As well as years of experience in the SPL. That's an interesting point that hadn't crossed my mind. Paton has played really well all season but thinking about it was a lot better and was able help us link up the midfield with Lawless and Erskine in particular when he had Murray beside him doing a lot of the dirty work. He also seemed more chilled out with Murray beside him, a full 90 minutes of being pretty much the only ball winner in the middle seems to make him lose the rag a bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Stronach Posted December 30, 2012 Report Share Posted December 30, 2012 , if thistle fail to beat Hamilton on Wednesday i think the league for us will be over, and i hate to say that. Shut up, just shut up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lenziejag Posted December 30, 2012 Report Share Posted December 30, 2012 I didn't start out making Smith the scapegoat and I don't think that he is the only reason recent results have been poor,but I do think we would have lost fewer goals if Fox was in goal. We will need to be careful how we bring the players back. One or two changes only at a time and I think Murray and Welsh will need to be brought back gradually, because of the length of time they have been out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry Wragg Posted December 30, 2012 Report Share Posted December 30, 2012 There are a number of reasons for the so called "slump" in form, I say so called slump cos 1st half against Morton we were fabulous , just didnt get the luck needed to go in 3 up at HT, in the cup 10 men against Dungfy and we were still the better side , again no luck and terrible reffing , we WILL win the league , Morons luck will run out and ours will eventually come in plenty of time , not even halfway there yet and had we played our Cowden game then we would still be top despite the bad results recently, just believe !!!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeanieD Posted December 30, 2012 Report Share Posted December 30, 2012 I know this will be very unpopular but perhaps it would be a good thing if Wednesday's game is postponed due to weather! A chance to regroup? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garscube Road End Posted December 30, 2012 Report Share Posted December 30, 2012 I know this will be very unpopular but perhaps it would be a good thing if Wednesday's game is postponed due to weather! A chance to regroup? ERM!!!! NO!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avie-man Posted December 30, 2012 Report Share Posted December 30, 2012 sorry im a bit worried after that. we dropped points to an absolutely crap team, i dont think we can afford to do so at any point. league isnt over but it was a very worrying sign for me. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lady-isobel-barnett Posted December 30, 2012 Report Share Posted December 30, 2012 As above one point from a possible six, from the past2 games, aint good enough. That's rather stating the obvious. I don't suppose Dunfermline are too chuffed with one point from a possible twelve either. As for Smith I rather think he's done not too bad for a guy drafted in from nowhere. . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColinKelvin Posted December 30, 2012 Report Share Posted December 30, 2012 I think "from the past two games" is the key phrase here - this is not a major collapse - it's just one game where we were pretty unlucky (v Morton) and one which was by all accounts dreadful (v Airdrie). You can't expect to play well every week. I wasn't at the away game, but we played some great stuff on Boxing Day and basically were only let down by finishing in the first half (and by deeply dubious refereeing). It's just unfortunate that it was against Morton, as it would have been nice to coast to a win and put some space between us but hey ho. I doubt many of us would have turned down being two points off the top with a game in hand at New Year, if we were offered it at the start of the season. We still have a great chance of winning the league. Disappointed to read that folk were booing them at Airdrie. One bad day isn't enough reason to get on their backs. The recent home wins against Dunfermline and Raith were fantastic days out - so I for one am staying positive and optimistic and looking forward to the next couple of months. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
read'n'yell Posted December 30, 2012 Report Share Posted December 30, 2012 The most encouraging factor about yesterdays loss was the performance of Welsh. He looked hesitant early on but grew into having a good game and controlled play for us. I read in the just in thread of someone saying he was "anonymous" until he got subbed - absolute rubbish, I would suggest this fan was clearly more anonymous at watching. I mentioned before our record with and without Welsh with the past 9 matches being not all susscessful. Couple this comeback with hopefully O'Donnell in a couple weeks and we will be back on track. Yesterday, particularly in the first half, we turned into a team that hit the by-line and crossed the ball - with no sucess. This isn't our style and it doesn't work. It was mainly due to Muirheads style of play that caused this but fairplay to the big man as he is out of position and put in a shift. He just doesn't have the killer skill or final ball O'Donnell can produce - often by cutting inside the defender rather than crossing. It goes without saying our current form, in terms of points not performance, is not title winning. But I remain optimistic as we have yet to be outplayed by any other team and were unforunate against Morton. If we had won or even drawn that game, I doubt I would have this thread to write in. One game doesn't matter unless it is in the final run in which we are no where near. The points will come and to kick it off I can see a comfortable win against an in-form Hamilton team - lets bring them back down to earth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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