Just In V Kilmarnock

[Camallain]

Another 2 points needlessly thrown away due to our inability to kill off a team when we are in total control of a game. To be fair Craig Samson did play a blinder in the Killie goal but we should still have had the three point in the bag before the half time whistle.

 

Some excellent play from Thistle, especially in the first half, but a 10 to 15 minute period of pretty shocking stuff at the start of the 2nd period cost us dear.

 

I was really impressed with Isaac Osbourne today and Kris Doolan put in a hard working shift however I thought Stuart Bannigan was well short of his usual high standards.

 

Hope we get a win at Firhill PDQ before a phobia about playing at home starts to develop.

[watties wallies]

Thought bannigan was played too far forward

Centre midfield pushing forward much better

Osbourne best man on the park by a mile. Great game

I think o'donnell will be hard pushed to keep McMillan out when he is match fit

Ref again poor how Boyd just got yellow for the tackle on Sinclair

 

Again when the opposition started to pressurise us further up the park we seem to lose our shape and composure

Elliott again was good when he came on. Hit the post and made some good forcing runs

 

[ThickAsThieves]

Ref again poor how Boyd just got yellow for the tackle on Sinclair

To be fair, I don't think it was any worse than the other meaty tackles flying in ie. Doolan's late one on the half-way line.

 

Thought it was a good game, we looked our usual selves in the first half, playing some neat and tidy football. We reverted back to our performance v Aberdeen for the opening spell of the second half though. Didn't think Welsh, Bannigan and O'Donnell were too effective today, Osbourne, Doolan and Taylor-Sinclair were good though. Elliott played well when he came on.

 

Will need to see it again but thought Fox could've done much better with Boyd's goal.

 

Another point clear of St. Mirren & Hearts, we're top six, lovely stuff. But still looking for that first home win, need to get it ASAP.

 

Verdict: Better than last week.

[Dick Dastardly]

To be fair, I don't think it was any worse than the other meaty tackles flying in ie. Doolan's late one on the half-way line.

 

Thought it was a good game, we looked our usual selves in the first half, playing some neat and tidy football. We reverted back to our performance v Aberdeen for the opening spell of the second half though. Didn't think Welsh, Bannigan and O'Donnell were too effective today, Osbourne, Doolan and Taylor-Sinclair were good though. Elliott played well when he came on.

 

Will need to see it again but thought Fox could've done much better with Boyd's goal.

 

Another point clear of St. Mirren & Hearts, we're top six, lovely stuff. But still looking for that first home win, need to get it ASAP.

 

Verdict: Better than last week.

 

Better than a 3-0 thrashing ..... you are easily pleased. Killie and Hearts are not good teams. We need to be beating them well.

[angry gaz]

Points Dropped,no doubt about it.Same story as usual in the first half ; dominating play but little in the way of shots on target.We just dont look as if we are ever going to score from any cross into the box from open play,corner or free kick.In saying that I felt Dools had a very good game.First twenty in the second hald we were as bad as in the Aberdeen game.Our central defenders really need to start bossing opposition forwards around more.Their goal was dreadful defending and if not for two briliant saves from foxy we could have caved in.

Took us a long while to get going in the second with two many of the midfield missing and again out muscled.I thought Big Ozzy got us almost single handed back into that game.

Elliot and forbes made a big contribution when they came on.Elliot should be due a start,he has a lot of the physical presence that we're missing.

Edited September 21, 2013 by angry gaz

[Lindau]

Another kick in the knackers for all those that said we didnt need another striker before the window shut. The game should have been over at half time but yet again the lack of a proven goalscorer has hit us hard. The other problem we have is that no-one is scoring from midfield which is making the forwards inability to score stand out ever more. Probably time to give Christie a shot up front. We regained control when he came on and he gave them plenty to think about. Yet again we played some great stuff but it was two points dropped. Plus points today was the fact that both Hearts and St Mirren got beat. Very disappointed with that result today but not the performance

[chunky jag]

Total domination in first 45, was brilliant. Second half started very poorly, killie looking dangerous. Got their goal n we went into our shell. We improved a bit later in game, particularly with the introduction of Elliot, but couldn't get the goal.

 

Foxy played well,but Osbourne motm by a mile.

 

No point in going over old ground, we know why we've not scored from open play at home in 4 games.

[ThickAsThieves]

Are you saying it's not better than a 3-0 thrashing?

 

I don't think they are good teams either. We've played better than both of them - we just haven't been able to kill them off. We're a young side, we've got pretty much a full squad who haven't played at this level, they're learning. If you're expecting us to win every time we play Killie, Hearts, St. Mirren, Ross County then you're not being realistic. 10th will be a success for us.

[ThickAsThieves]

Elliot and forbes made a big contibution when they came on.Elliot should be due a start,he has a lot of the physical presence that we're missing.

 

I think Forbes is due a start. We're too quick to try play it down the wings, which we're effective at, but when that gets shut down we need someone in the middle who can do something special and have a shot. Forbes is that man, I feel.

[GrantB]

Very frustrating today however, apart from the first 15 mins of the 2nd half, there wasn't a lot wrong with our performance. On another day Doolan and Elliot could have had doubles. Samson has improved no end since he last played against us.

 

I'm more raging that Boyd was allowed to stay on the park after his assault of a tackle on ATS.

 

Killie were abysmal with the exception of Samson and the boy Ibrahim who was a class act.

[angry gaz]

Just seen the goals on Sky News.Dont know what the Killie players were complaining about the penalty for, their guy nearly halfed Lawless in two.

Their goal is piss poor defending but Boyd does what our strikers arent doing and that's just stepping back and away from the defender to make space. Our guys need to learn some new tricks pretty quickly

Edited September 21, 2013 by angry gaz

[The Cup]

17 points off 12th spot.

 

Good times.

[stillresigned]

I think we all know our main problem and I doubt there is anything to be gained by wishful thinking about where we'd be if we had an out and out goalscorer. As others have said apart from the first 15 minutes or so of the second half we were the dominant side. I'll admit its totally frustrating to see us spurn chance after chance, almost as if its a competion amongst the players to see who can miss the most chances, which I do not for one minute think that is actually the case obviously.However in all honesty, I can't complain overmuch about the football served up by this team. In particular considering the Aberdeen, it was imperative to put on a decent display and I think we did. Issaih Rennie deservedly was named Man of the Match, adding a welcome bit of aggression in the middle of the park, Scott Fox had what is becoming the norm for him. of having a few really good saves. The defence looked quite steady and again apart from that wee bad spell looked quite watertight. As ever we were industrious and tidy up front and did force Samson into making a fair few saves. Incidentally, how did that c**t Boyd stay on the park? Overall, having just listened to Archie, I'm feeling much the same a bit pissed at not winning, but at the same time reasonably happy with the football we are playing.

[Stewarty]

A mixed bag, as the cliche goes. We dominated in spells, particularly in the first half. Doolan played well, and showed why Baird should be consigned to the bench. I also thought Welsh looked sharper, until he took a hit to the ankle, and big Christie had a positive impact coming off the bench. Fox was excellent too, as ever.

 

There's a lot of talk of Osbourne being MOTM. I'm a bit bemused by this, as his distribution was iffy at best, and for a defensive midfielder he's not the best at tracking runners. But he did put in few meaty challenges, which is always gets the crowd going. More worrying is the form of Lawless, which has dropped off the edge of a cliff. He's been largely anonymous in the previous two matches. Playing Bannigan further forward didn't really work either. I'd move Higgy into the no.10 role and give Christie a start on the left.

 

A bit deflating given the first half performance, but we're still picking up points. We'll finish them off next time.

[LochburnJag]

Thought Osborne was excellent today and dragged us back into the game 2nd half. He's looking like a key player for us this season already. He was the only player in our team who matched up physically when needed. The amount of headers and 2nd phase balls lost today was a concern as it was in the Aberdeen match. I feel sorry for Doolan as the service to him wasn't good enough with too many high balls leaving him isolated against the big Kille defenders. I thought he still had a good game though. Good to see Conrad back after last week's battering. Elliott also made a difference when he came on and was a good sub at the right time by Archie. All in all, a much better performance, but just a shame about our missed chances late on.

 

3 home points (and a goal from open play) would be great v Hibs in 2 weeks time.

 

 

[Barney Rubble]

Here's a fact from the first seven games.

 

The two games we've won, goals from Lawless 2, Doolan, Forbes and Higgy - all forward players.

 

The other five games - 2 goals from 2 penalties.

 

Go figure.

[allyo]

Another kick in the knackers for all those that said we didnt need another striker before the window shut. The game should have been over at half time but yet again the lack of a proven goalscorer has hit us hard. The other problem we have is that no-one is scoring from midfield which is making the forwards inability to score stand out ever more. Probably time to give Christie a shot up front. We regained control when he came on and he gave them plenty to think about. Yet again we played some great stuff but it was two points dropped. Plus points today was the fact that both Hearts and St Mirren got beat. Very disappointed with that result today but not the performance

 

I thought Doolan was our best player. We may be struggling to score goals, but I'm not convinced that it's for lack of a striker. Agree that Christie's been impressive, but wouldn't start him over Doolan (or Lawless).

[Yellow & Redneck]

The problem I don’t think is the number of strikers in the squad, but rather the number of strikers in the starting 11. Once Elliot came on today and played side-by-side with Doolan, we looked a lot more threatening. Doolan always had an option to pass to, and it just seemed to open the game up a lot more.

 

Doolan’s first touch is world class, but for all his hard work, he doesn’t have a lot of support up front, so I’d like to see us go 4-4-2, and have someone up supporting him.

[Winter of '63]

Two points dropped - but perhaps the most encouraging thing is that it was again disappointing not to to beat opposition that we looked better than.

 

We played some excellent stuff particularly in the first half but then lost the place for 15 minutes before finishing the stronger team. We started to punt a few aimless balls in the general direction of Doolan latterly which were easy for them to defend against though.

 

Two great saves from Fox, Osbourne was a real grafter and Welsh made some excellent passes. Taylor-Sinclair had a good game but the game seemed to pass Bannigan by - would like to see him play on the left with Higginbotham infield behind Doolan.

 

Elliot certainly made an impact as sub - great shot against the post but failed to score with two decent chances then foiled by an outstanding tackle.

 

Why was Boyd allowed to blatantly shove Thistle players without even jumping? At least five times without a foul.

 

Hope we don't regret the failure to put teams away come the end of the season - this team deserves better than a struggle to survive in the Division.

[kni]

Here's a fact from the first seven games.

 

The two games we've won, goals from Lawless 2, Doolan, Forbes and Higgy - all forward players. BOTH AWAY FROM HOME

 

The other five games - 2 goals from 2 penalties. OUR ONLY LEAGUE GOALS AT FIRHILL

 

Go figure.

 

So why can't our forwards score at home?

Edited September 21, 2013 by kni

[allyo]

Here's a fact from the first seven games.

 

The two games we've won, goals from Lawless 2, Doolan, Forbes and Higgy - all forward players.

 

The other five games - 2 goals from 2 penalties.

 

Go figure.

 

Sorry. Don't think I get the point. That we get better results in the games that we score goals?

[Barney Rubble]

Sorry. Don't think I get the point. That we get better results in the games that we score goals?

 

That when our forwards score, we win.

 

Our forwards haven't been prolific this season, so when the opposition snuff out our forwards they are on to a point or more.

[The Cup]

We'll beat St Johnstone. They're pish.

[rustic]

Fair result imo.

 

We're such a confidence team, getting the first goal got us playing the way we can. Even before half time, though, they were getting back into it because we hadn't converted our great play and dominance into a goal. I believe we would at least have got a draw last week if we'd scored first. By the second half, we were losing that confidence again. Osbourne kept us in there. Both Elliot and Forbes impressed, Elliot with his keenness, willingness and directness, Forbes with his skill and creativity. If either can keep that going for a whole game or even most of it, they'll hold down a starting place. Forbes was unlucky with his deflected shot, which looked unstoppable.

 

Despite the disappointing result, there was some exquisite play today and I really enjoyed the game.

[kni]

That when our forwards score, we win.

 

Our forwards haven't been prolific this season, so when the opposition snuff out our forwards they are on to a point or more.

 

The problem is that we can't score at home from open play.