Ad Lib

Find me a footballer in this division who would turn down a 30% pay rise at a rival club, any time in the last deade, and it's pretty much "Kris Doolan" and that's it.

Obviously not.

Speaking as someone involved in the fan ownership structure at Thistle, credit where it’s due to The Well Society for showing some backbone here. The principle of majority fan ownership is one worth fighting for. Wise investors recognise this and work with it, recognising that this, simply put, means they don’t get to be the largest shareholder and they don’t get to dictate the lion’s share of the Club Board. Fan ownership is a model whereby investors don’t get control. Influence? Fine. Control? No.

For what it’s worth, merchandise sales rates, including shirt sales rates, don’t make a significant difference to our financial position. Broadly speaking, Greaves pays a pre-agreed sum for the rights to be the official merchandising partner. It then assumes most of the risk and retains the profits/assumes the losses on any particular line. Obviously, it’s in the Club’s interests to encourage fans to buy the merch, so that there’s clear value to merchandise distributors/suppliers in teaming-up with us. But under the current deal the Club doesn’t lose out if shirt sales are sluggish and it doesn’t really see any up-side if they sell like hot-cakes. What it could influence are the discussions on commercial partnerships in future seasons. I believe the existing Greaves deal expires at the end of season 2025-26.

You could put him absolutely anywhere, bar perhaps centre-half, and he'd be solid (in the top flight!) Honestly don't think we've had as versatile a player before or since. Hugely underrated.

Whitley Bay. You know... he's not that old. Can we convince Christie to come out of retirement to cover for Stevie Lawless?

Go on. Do a cartoon.

They’re just jealous because Aaron Muirhead has played more Premier League football than Ayr United in my lifetime.

The working assumption as of January 2024 (as detailed in the AGM) was still for there to be a six-figure loss, even if we finished 3rd. They suggested it would be in the range of £150k at the time. I expect it will be a bit higher, because there were unbudgeted costs that accrued after that period (stadium works on the Colin Weir stand and floodlights were brought forward, and extra costs were incurred around medical treatment for a number of players). My understanding is that the Club is looking to "de-risk" some of these costs in future seasons (for example by getting better medical cover for the squad).

A lot to be proud of tonight. It hurt but after last year we were innoculated. Best of luck to Raith Rovers in the final. But next year we defeat the virus. Outright.

No, I think it's been exaggerated by exactly the right amount.

Completely as expected FWIW. For context last season QP (Tuesday) crowd of under 4k. Ayr on the other hand (a Friday) over 7k.

As for Friday, I think O'Reilly in for Muirhead, Banzo in for Neilson and Ngwenya in for McInroy. Keep McInroy and Alston for second half sub options, Neilson as cover in case of any further injury in CM/CD.

It was a familiar scene at half-time and Rovers looked both comfortable and threatening on the break. Defending diabolical for both goals, with ball-watching instead of proper marking. But second half a much improved performance, and conceding the goal really seemed to shake Raith a bit. They were not comfortable from that point on at all. Tie far from over. Get in their faces up at San Starko and things get very interesting. Special mention for Scott Robinson, whose assist was genuinely class. If you swap the keepers in those two teams (with no disrespect intended to David Mitchell as he's "fine") then Thistle probably win that 3-2 or 4-2 tonight.