VictorOnopko

I thought the last three questions were probably requests by JL so she can use the findings for some more whining in the near future. On your last point - I hope I am wrong about this, but I thought in the previous presentations/announcements, they mentioned that in fact, our current PR disaster/chairman would remain on the board even after the fan takeover - with the obvious intention of continuing to pull the strings (after buying the club with the training ground money then selling it to the fans...).

I would say Chick is the personification of unskilled, and I doubt he has training or actual qualifications in journalism - just a very long and surprising career of failing upwards. Pretty sure the BBC could find some talented journalists under the age of 50 (perhaps even under 40!?) to replace the grumpy auld yins you mention. Eilidh Barbour was excellent on OAM at the weekend, as several people said. There must be some other younger, intelligent, well-informed, trained reporters/journalists out there who could freshen things up. Some ex-pros are fine (Derek Ferguson is knowledgable and sounds like he cares) and the better ones do add something, but there seems to be no quality control at all at the matches or in studio discussions. Does anyone really think Steven Pressley should be on again?

Being repeated tonight. The bit where he bangs the desk while sounding especially thick is lovely stuff.

I couldn't agree with this more. The "Family Club" cringe PR, the emphasis in a slew of Rangers-esque "statements" on our cherished status as innocent victims, and most importantly the fact that we are so utterly rancid on the pitch (despite being full timers in a part time league) are all infuriating. Jacqui Low, our very own ex-Tory spin doctor for Michael Forsyth and failed Tory MSP candidate, deserves the lion's share of the blame. She has closely overseen our steady decline down to where we find ourselves now, battling with East Fife and Montrose for a play off spot in the third tier. Unfortunately for us, she is a typical Tory in being oblivious to her own total lack of ability, and in her apparent refusal to take any responsiblity for anything. Can she pick a manager? No. Can she forge ahead and fund/plan training facilities or a scouting capacity? No. Can she bring in new backers? No (she can fend them off though, by sleekitly using the money for the training ground to take over the club and get her arse back in the chair, then stalling the plan to hand over to the fans). Can she establish any support among other clubs in how we are dealt with during Covid? No. As a self-declared "PR Supremo", can she do basic, non passive-aggressive PR? No. If we lose tonight, the entire management team and most importantly our charlatan of a chairman should all do the decent thing and f*ck off. On the plus side, our centenary cup winning strip is fantastic. Swings and roundabouts...

Haha - yeah, me too. There's three things I dislike about it. 1) the rolling 20 rounds means that if you only play a handful of comps a year, a good score from possibly 2 years ago will have a big impact when it drops off. 2) It used to be possible to calculate during a (good) medal round how many shots you were breaking handicap by and what that meant. Now it's just "wait and put the number into the supercomputer and see what comes out". 3) Those of us who spent years grinding their way down to a target handicap could have expected to drift up very slowly (0.1 at a time) in the old system, and now it can jump all over the place quickly. Some see that as a plus; I don't. Talking of wild fluctuations in scoring, delighted to see Spieth win again last night.

It clearly wasn't ready when they launched it last year. It had me listed at the wrong club (one where I used to be a country member), took 2 months to rectify, and they tried to blame that club, knowing full well that it was an issue with their app. I'm sure this must already have been discussed earlier in the thread but I think the new WHS is a pointless change and a downgrade on the old system.

Great player, legend on the field in his day, obviously. Sadly he's long been a shite, lazy pundit who tells the nation almost every week on OAM that he is cold/bored/wants to go home/is glad the game is finished. His tone of voice is so depressing that it casts a pall over whatever game he is at. I don't actually mind him on Scotland match nights, in the build up etc., in a kind of "view from the rocking chair" way, from a man who has achieved great things and rocked up at World Cup Finals in the very distant past, and is now raising an elderly eyebrow at our leaky defence. But, week to week in the league? Nope. Let your spree commence.

Agree, she was excellent - in fact, she sounded like a professional broadcaster who was focused on describing what was happening. An island of competence in a sea of drivel. When Thistle inevitably conceded Yinited's late winner yesterday, Willie could barely contain his joy at "getting to go home". One of the most annoying tics on OOM is the moan-banter between the (generally older) "reporters" about wanting to get home for their tea. Yeah, you've got a really tough gig watching the football for a living, lads. Dismal stuff.

Benromach 10 is a gem. Dalwhinnie 15 is great value. And almost anything by Bunnahabhain (Islay but not usually peaty). If you're looking for a light dram, Glen Moray is actually really good despite the very low price point.

Spelling error in the thread title - pretty sure it should be Fortmartine v Mothterwell.

This absolute rabble should not be allowed to wear our smart new cup centenary shirts on Saturday.

I didn't say we were robbed - and I am glad you agree that we weren't "especially fortunate". My main point here is that we do now need luck with other results in this group. Stating the obvious - but we had started the campaign with two wins, the matches between the 2nd and 4th seeds in the group wouldn't now be so important to us.

Not really. It's fairly self-evident that after a slow start, we need some other results to go our way. If Denmark perform as expected as top seeds and Austria don't drop points to Israel or the minnows, then we can't finish 2nd unless we beat them in Vienna or do significantly better against the Danes than them (very unlikely in both cases). Other matches matter as well as our own. Every team which isn't romping a group needs luck. People often cite losing to Georgia in 2015 as the reason we didn't qualify. But if Germany (the world champions) had beaten Ireland in Dublin, we would have been in the playoffs.

We were poor last night, first half on particular was dreadful, but it's not over yet. Austria are (a bit) better than us, and we basically need them to trip up against Israel. The problem is, we don't tend to get all that much luck in terms of the other games in our qualifiation groups (e.g. Ireland beating Germany in 2015 - a ludicrous result - when we'd done the job and got 4 points v Ireland and drawn away to Poland - they also beat Georgia away in the 90th minute). I wouldn't be surprised if Austria take something off Denmark too, while we fail to do so. In the big picture, we've got no international standard CBs, RBs or strikers, and GK is getting shaky too, with no one coming through. If we somehow come second in this group despite these obvious weaknesses, based on having some decent midfielders and KT, then it will have been both lucky and a great achievement.

Big match for Scotland coming up so here's a BBc preview. But is the game on Thursday or Friday? Who knows?

Oh, I agree that Stelling is a smoother pro than our own Richard Gordon (Stelling is probably the best in the business) - but I also totally disagree that Gordon should be sacked, as a couple of folk on here were suggesting. RG is not the problem on Sportsound - he's perfectly competent, a good broadcaster, and he does his best to carve out a decent programme every week from the shambles most of the pundits and reporters are serving up. With all due respect to their relative shiteness, with the possible exception of Nicholas (now gone), none of the pundits you mention are anywhere near as biased, ignorant or downright infuriating as Bonner, "Biscuits", or the bold Chick.

Geoff Stelling is working with half-decent pundits who know how to describe a game, rather than raging simpletons like "Biscuits" and Chick who are completely unable (or unwilling) to do basic things on OOM. I think Richard Gordon does well to try to keep them in line, e.g., asking them for the millionth time to say which team/player has actually scored - and cutting off some of their interruptions and drivel when he knows something more important is happening elsewhere. RG is also informative and professional throughout, unlike the rabble around him. It's a tough gig and he only occasionally sounds exasperated. He also gets bonus points for me for having a thinly-veiled contempt for Chick and being happy to mock him on air.

You literally couldn't be more wrong.

Yes, I know what he meant by it. I was surprised he said it and the "big trouble" comment though, because both could be taken as digs at the people still in charge of the club who allowed these things to happen. I also didn't say he was negative about our team/prospects as such - I just thought he seemed stressed and uncomfortable throughout.

Yes. He seems stressed and unhappy - not exactly raring to go - which you would hope he might be prior to the restart of a shortened season with a full-time team in a part-time division, with ground to make up. Also a bit surprising to hear him say he had no idea why Erskine left the club, and that we were in "big big trouble" back when he took the job. It's good to hear that frankness - but goes against the Low PR line that we are where we are because everyone was nasty to "Partick Thistle Family Club".

Morton fan cashes in on being a few league pyramid places above a basket-case Thistle for the first time this millenium. Cute, I suppose (but also a bit weird). Must be the giddy elation of Morton maxing out their stratospheric potential* this season (despite losing at home to Ayr, who are every bit Morton's equals in stature and history). Can't recall the last time I glanced at the Morton forum on here, although I still remember the pure comedy of the "Great Feeling at Cappielow" thread a few years back - with its poetic narrative arc which moved from excitement and joyful optimism back to an inevitable crushing anger and depression when reality hit. * By "maxing out their stratospheric potential", I mean, of course, surviving another year without conceding ten goals in a single match or ending up in the bottom tier of the league system again.

Haha! Maths aside, it's also pretty unlikely as Kilchoman is really small in terms of output, so I doubt they'd be repackaging their whisky into supermarket products. Much more likely to be somewhere like Caol Ila.

Couldn't agree more. We were rank rotten before things were halted, and the best we can hope for here is that we come out of the enforced break in less of a shambles than December, perhaps with a tiny edge over some of the teams around us just because we're full time. A few signings of journeymen and schoolkids and the usual long injury list are unlikely to give us much of a boost. We're not getting out this division (in an upward direction) until we start scoring a lot more goals.

Yup. The Sportsound team isn't exactly stellar, but if they ditched Chick and Preston (well, OK, let's add Bonner too) then the programme would be significantly more listenable. I wonder if anyone at the BBC ever does performance appraisals on these goons? It seems they have jobs for life - which is bad news for us listeners.

Point taken, and absolutely fair enough if you already condemned the idiots at (and in) your own club to condemn the idiots on the other side of town. I suspect there may be some double standards from some though, who perhaps weren't quite so critical towards their own team's fans. For those of us who have obeyed the lockdown rules to the letter, and have watched both sets of OF fans acting like absolute wallopers en masse, it's hard to see much difference, and tbh it sticks in the craw a bit to see any attempted point scoring from green to blue or the other way around. I very much hope your child gets the op they need soon, and I wish you and them all the best.