VictorOnopko

I'll admit I was despairing of our prospects under Caldwell at Christmas - and again after the home draw to Falkirk - and I still think we may have left ourselves too far back to avoid finishing in the last two places, but this transfer window has been superb. To eject so many of Archibald's terrible panic-buys in a single window is extremely impressive, and the Keown-Anderson swap is almost unbelievable business. Only really Bell and Storey (who we're probably stuck with) are left who I would definitely punt. I can't remember the last time we had a transfer window which so obviously improved the squad, so full credit to him. Onwards and (hopefully) upwards.

We disagree that Caldwell has managed him well. Hopefully he will get more gametime from now on (and Storey far, far less), Thistle will keep winning, and we'll all be happy.

I have a different opinion from you and expressed it in a polite and respectful way. Read it, or don't. I don't care.

I think Caldwell is a pretty poor manager on the evidence of his first dozen games and the extremely low points total he has gathered overall so far. The arrogance in his terrible media handling is just an aside. He won't be leaving before the end of the season unless we're totally adrift, so I'm not part of the "Caldwell Out" brigade; we need to get on with it now. Fitzpatrick is notably talented and should have been playing more (one start for a young player where he didn't impact the game isn't really giving him a go - I don't think he started or participated in any of our Jan league games till yesterday?!) especially during a time when we were desperate for some creativity and fearlessness in taking defenders on (e.g. Falkirk at home, when Caldwell left Harkins on far too long). Yesterday Fitzpatrick showed what he can do. Storey should have been playing less, or ideally not at all - rather than every week for the whole of Caldwell's reign. You obviously disagree; fair enough. Maybe (hopefully) we've turned a corner, maybe it's not enough. Our next three games are ICT and Alloa away and Ross County at home (Alloa have three home games). They don't fill me with any confidence whatsoever, but I would be delighted to be proved wrong and praising Caldwell this time next month.

The time to judge Caldwell will be at the end of the season. We were 8th (I think) when he took over, and it remains to be seen whether his dire run of 1 win in 12 at the start of his time in charge will get us relegated (to be honest, it probably will). I wasn't there yesterday but sounds like Fiztpatrick was a MOTM candidate - the young talent who didn't get a sniff on our dismal run of losses and occasional draws in Oct-Dec. If we stay up then he'll probably stay on, as he seems at least to be able to recuit reasonably well. If we go down then he's obviously been a disaster for us. It's as simple as that.

I like how short the club website announcement is. I suppose it would have been nonsense to thank him for his contribution, given that he didn't make one. An absolute charlatan signed last summer by a panicking manager. Archibald had already shown that he was unable to identify competent footballers, but was handed the task of squad rebuilding for a "promotion push" anyway. At least the first team squad now has a right-back... six months into the campaign, with us at the bottom of the league.

Sorry, it's 1 in 13 isn't it? We were attempting our second win of his reign yesterday, with the usual end result. Strengthens the point that Caldwell is an absolute dud, anyway.

I was prepared to give Heed a chance - but after 2 wins in 12, and failing to beat our main rivals at home, largely due to him leaving Harkins on the pitch until he was sent off, and listening to his banal comments every week, it's clear he is not the right man for the job. He is almost certainly not capable of keeping us in the division. Falkirk are improving, and have a competent manager. Alloa are doing fine, and are already well ahead of us. But most important of all, Caldwell doesn't seem aware of how critical the situation is, and his comments rarely seem grounded in reality. He's the reason we'll be in League One next season. If it's true that he's simply not picking Coulibaly when the player himself reckons he is fit (surely that means he could at least start building match fitness from the reserves, and/or coming off the bench) then that is truly baffling, almost to a "picking Miles Storey every week" level.

Ah, I think I see where you're going here - a kind of butterly effect theory where for every "Archibald/Caldwell out!" / "Jacqui and Gerry are incompetent clowns" post on an internet forum, Miles Storey sclaffs a cross, McGinty gives away a penalty, one of our many keepers flaps at a goalbound shot, and/or Christie Elliott makes a calamitous goal-costing error. Who knows? Maybe you're onto something.

Except that Erskine has been one of our best players when he has played this season (not saying much, but still...), never gives up, and yet Heed has barely given him a chance. Falkirk fans commenting that he gave them a very hard game last time when we won at Firhill, and this time he'll not be on the pitch. Hard to perform when you're on the bench (or dropped altogether), and yet frauds like Miles Storey who can't kick a ball are getting picked before you. Doolan has gone very quiet and is getting on a bit (like CE) but given decent service, which he hasn't had for a long time, he'd still be bagging us double figures every season. Who scored at Tannadice at the weekend? In short, Erskine and Doolan deserve loyalty because they both still have something to offer. Archibald should have been emptied straight after the final whistle against Livi.

I know what you mean, and loyalty is pretty rare in football - but we did stand by him and - albeit for selfish motives - pay him throughout a very long injury spell (2 years+ I think) when we had no obligation to do so, presumably including access to facilities and treatment. For him to finally get back to regular football in his ninth season at Thistle then to piss off after 6 months to Ayr United when we're in a difficult situation would be pretty disappointing. That said, it would also give us some insight on what he thinks is likely to be achieved under Caldwell...

The only thing I like about that final was possibly the worst ever piece of BBC Scottish football reporting. According to the national news, not only were we both Falkirk and Thistle, but we won! Even the dinmwit reading out the rubbish prepared for him realises it doesn't make any sense.

This is even more delusional than believing that Miles Storey is, in fact, a talented winger. Overall, I'm extremely worried by what I have seen of Caldwell so far. His matchday strategy resembles Archibald (with less of an end product, if that is even possible), he answers questions like a much dimmer version of Gordon Strachan, and apparently rates himself as a sort of Scottish Ranieri, engaged in wacky ideas to improve teamwork. Meanwhile, we are bottom of a league we were expected to do well in, and all signs are that we'll still be there at Christmas and beyond. I wonder if he'll beat his Chesterfield win rate by the team he's punted? He'll have to actually win a game first...

When's Coulibaly back? Massively clutching at straws I know, but we urgently need to find someone capable of regularly kicking the ball into the opponents' net. I think yesterday was our 4th 1-0 loss in the last eight matches, during which time we have scored three goals.

I just spotted this - very odd indeed. I reckon we could probably squeeze past the US State of Georgia's soccerball team (or at least, I'd rather we played them than the former Soviet Georgia, who always derail our campaigns). The Estonia flag appears, bizarrely, to be one which was a historic suggestion, but never chosen. You have to look quite hard to find it!

Because one guy proudly played for his country regardless of the circumstances or the manager, and the other went in a huff because he "wasn't being picked" and the team were struggling, declared he was no longer interested, then later hoped to get back in when they were doing better. I'd say that's a dichotomy - between commitment/playing any time you're needed and selfish sulking/choosing when it suits you to play. My own personal view is that if it's your country, you should get on with it and try your best. Others might disagree. One of the two players here was a great player and a model pro who did his country proud and achieved a lot of great things in his career. The other is Kris Boyd.

Much as I agree that Willie is embarrassing in his ignorance of how the Nations League works, he spoke with dignity and pride about playing for his country, no matter the manager - in reply to the thick, fat mess Kris Boyd, who was busy justifying walking out on Scotland and hinting he thought he should have been recalled under Strachan.

If what has been said about Caldwell being in regular contact with Wee Gordon Strachan is true, then it seems he (bafflingly) thinks WGS's media policy is really clever. The problem with regularly talking absolute shite, though, is that it infuriates and alienates your own fans. Something he is managing to do really, really quickly, just like his mentor did with Scotland. Same team selection week after week, same nonsense spouted each time after a poor result. It's Archibald v2.0 at the moment. I wasn't at the game either, but based on the commentary's description of our insipid, ineffective build up play, and on the result, it's impossible to square his claims of an "outstanding performance" and "bravery" with a 1-1 draw away to the team at the bottom of the league, having managed to defend our lead for less than 120 seconds.

Here's some of Billy's explanation of what happened and why he accidentally avoided tax (Herald, 8/11/15): I WAS interested to read the comments made by Lord Drummond Young after last week’s development in the Big Tax Case. He said that “if bonuses had not been paid (the players) might well have taken their services elsewhere.” Well, I can say that definitely wasn’t the case in my situation and a few others who were in the same boat. There was no mention of an EBT or any other payment like that when I signed for Rangers. I had already agreed my deal for a certain amount of money so it played no part in me moving to the club. I never got or was offered an EBT when I signed. I was due money at the club when I left and got it via an EBT then. So the idea that I would have taken my services elsewhere had I not got an EBT when I signed definitely didn’t apply in my case or in the case of several others. So, that's all right then, as Private Eye would say. Except, obviously, it isn't - ignorance is no defence (and he also doesn't elaborate on whether he knew what an EBT was when he was paid off with one). Getting back on topic, what has really annoyed me in the past couple of weeks is that over and over again we've been subjected to pundits on Sportsound, paid from the licence fee to give their views on Scottish football, spending a lot of time lobbying for their pal (who is also on the programme, getting licence fee money) to get an assistant's job. "Biscuits" has been the worst offender, and has been an absolute moron on the topic (as he is on every other topic). I don't care who the assistant manager of Dundee is, but in this case, having listened to him and his pals' pleading and exaggeration of his talents, I'm very glad they didn't appoint Billy Dodds.

Awww, Billy Dodds didn't get the Dundee assistant job and will need to find another way to pay back his EBT tax bill. "Biscuits" and indeed everyone else on Sportsound will be raging on behalf of their pal. What a wee shame.

More pushing of their pal Doddsy for Dundee, with "Biscuits" even suggesting that the current coach should be removed to make way for him as he's been there too long (I think that's what his wittering was suggesting). He can see them going up the league if they get Doddsy in because he's that kind of guy. "Bullie's infectious", apparently. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

No, I'd say aiming at survival is the realistic approach and not ridiculous at all - 4th place is a pipe dream when you look at our personnel and is a laughable aim right now, as Armand2 has just said above. We are where we are due to the Board's frankly suicidal decision to let Archibald attempt to rebuild a squad over the summer, even though a) he'd just got us ignominiously relegated, and b) his track record for recruitment has always been pisspoor. Our stars in the past few years have pretty much all been players who pre-dated him, with the rare exceptions of Lyle Taylor, season 1 of Barton (more than cancelled out by season 2), and Liam Lindsay. The sheer amount of dross that has passed through Firhill in the past 5 years is mind-boggling - and sadly, much of it is still there. Miles "2 goals in 33 games" Storey is a good example, as are the fact that we have one decent defender, O'Ware, who is out for months, no right back, and no better-than-bang-average midfielders apart from Bannigan. "Archie" has dug us a very deep hole, and Caldwell now has to try to get us out of it. He could start by giving game time to Fitzpatrick, a young, talented, hungry player, which is something Archibald seemed incapable of doing. Other than that, we need to hope for a few solid new players in Jan who are genuinely better than what we have, and goals from Coulibaly. Survival in the 2nd tier is by no means guaranteed at the moment.

Fortunately, Morton and Newcastle could still both compete in the UEFA Champions League in the same season, as the Red Bull teams have now set the precedent.

The Argies in 86... the first World Cup I watched as a youngster. Happy days.

Nah, Firhill basin's posts are nowhere near as patronising, long-winded and soporific enough to be Gerry. Kudos for being genuinely ITK though!