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Realistically the Firhill surface isn’t good enough and doesn’t receive the level of investment required for upkeep to cover two teams in the same season. I could only see the women moving to Firhill otherwise than for occasional games if we were to switch to an artificial surface. Something that would require multiple millions of pounds up front investment to do right.

There was a discount at the start of the season for a Women’s ST if you already hold a Men’s one. At Petershill you can usually get a seat if you want one but standing provision also very much available. Over and above the excellent football and family (and dog) friendly atmosphere can also say the catering is way better than Firhill’s.

Greenock Morton. Vom.

I would say he is arguably the second best full back/wing back I've ever seen play for Thistle, and probably the most well-rounded. O'Donnell was better going forward and offered more pace but they're much of a muchness defensively and O'Donnell was less reliable. More than capable of making the step up. Has goals in his locker, and will work very well in any system where he is well supported by attacking wingers.

Banzo should have conceded a penalty and there were at least two other incidents where Sneddon made an error or was very lucky.

So he did. Too late to make an impact mind. Think it would have been better using him on one of the wings.

If they’d left Firhill with a 4-1 victory I don’t think we could have had many complaints. Totally fell out the game second half. No off-ball runs, poor use of wings, fundamentally not at the races. Would have liked to see Zander brought on to inject a bit of pace and urgency into the game. Harry Milne had a poor game and yet probably single handedly salvaged us a point with his defensive efforts. We need an imposing defensive midfielder, should probably give David Mitchell a run of games, and Muirhead needs competition for the experienced centre half spot. No point having Neilson running out with the ball from the back if there’s no midfield out ball for him to pass to. In the circumstances, a point salvaged, probably undeservedly.

“When I write something I sign my name. You’re fired. S. Seaborn”

There’s nothing wrong with the Firhill windows.

No. The dispute between AC and the other Club Board directors was completely unrelated to the investment deal. It is unfortunate that the two issues reached their completion at almost exactly the same time, because this has confused them in the eyes of some outside observers. But I can absolutely 100% guarantee that the new investor was not involved either in the original dispute, or the efforts to resolve it. Indeed, Alistair Creevy himself doesn’t imply this in any of his statements. Alistair Creevy was removed because it was plain as day to the majority shareholder, and its trustees, that there was zero prospect of either (a) him continuing to work with the other four directors or (b) reaching a voluntary agreed departure from the Club Board. His continued presence on the board was not tenable so he was removed. There is nothing more or less to it than that. Whatever folk think of the content and veracity of recent public statements made by Alistair Creevy, he has rather proved the point in making the public statements he has.

When you consider that Brian Graham and Zac Rudden were brought in that January transfer window to replace Kenny Miller and Gary Harkins, it's safe to say that Ian McCall was, very emphatically, being backed at the time!

Bye bye Robbie.

This was a very enjoyable afternoon. Robbie Muirhead. Boing Boing.

Hello@The Thistle Archive I love the website, but I have a question. We're often looking to get stats on former players (particularly things like "how many red cards did they get") or a complete list of matches they've played for Thistle. There's an easily accessible "all goals scored" tab for each player on the website but I can't find the equivalent for matches or things like bookings/red cards. Am I missing something really obvious? Cheers in advance.

The year you are talking about (for St Mirren at least) was the 2021-22 season, which was still Covid-affected. If you read their accounts you will see that exceptional factors significantly influenced the quantum of their losses, including a failed-deadline day player sale (which was supposed to fund the signing of two players) and a substantial overspend on the Ralston Training complex. The auditors indicated that these were exceptional circumstances, were unlikely to recur, and were satisfied that St Mirren could continue trading as a going concern (which it did). The accounts still show strong cash reserves and net current assets. Of course, in the same period, several privately-owned football clubs sustained substantial losses too.

Regardless of the ownership situation it is unsustainable for any football club to run at operating losses. This would be no less true for Thistle if it were fan owned as if it were in private ownership. If a private owner was unwilling to (find a way to) underwrite the overspend, you'd be in exactly the same position. There is a specific issue around the PTFC Trust and its shareholding, which means that a tax charge potentially could apply if the Club does not break even by the tenth anniversary of its creation (ie in 2025). However that's a slightly separate matter.

You will recall that TJF pointed out back in June that, even with our pledge of additional funds to the Club for this season, it would be necessary to generate at least £500k of completely new investment to fully address the cashflow and issues while maintaining a competitive team on the park. Whilst the Club is working on that stream of activity, that new investment has not (yet) been delivered. Fans should not be under the impression that our financial situation has been solved. It hasn't. It has been only partially ameliorated.

And the existence of 7 implies that head-to-head record excludes the penalty shootout.

Absolute fucking roasters. Was pleasing when The Woody decided to stop serving them.

I had heard that he's due or recently had surgery again, so if there's a loan deal to be done, it won't be until January.

The good news is this should hopefully mean that GoogleMaps finally updates it so it's no longer referred to as the Energy Check Stadium at Firhill.

They have already done so. For first, they haven't refused offers of direct financial support. For second, they have facilitated full financial disclosure to two of our directors. For third, they have gone onto bring about substantial financial disclosure to the fans. For fourth, they have been extremely keen to get TJF representation on the interim Club Board. For fifth, their budgeting assumptions for this season are far more realistic than those they inherited. For sixth, we are literally the wet signature on a trust deed variation away from an actual fans group taking a controlling interest in the majority shareholding. Only in the sense that the legal relationship between Club Board and the fan ownership vehicle has not been finalised. But there is a clear roadmap via which this will happen. I am reasonably confident that we will be there or thereabouts ahead of the Club's next Annual General Meeting. But the sequencing of the reforms has to be done right.

Not true. There were those of us who were extremely sceptical from the outset. Another group that, it turns out, had been given certain assurances about the Club’s financial prudence that turned out to be at variance with the actualité. Well the parcel of rogues aren’t on the Club Board anymore, for starters. And for second, we now have proper Jags folk at the table, like Dougie McCrea, and a TJF representative, to oversee phase two of the corporate trustee model. A model whose legal changes, giving TJF a seat at the fan ownership table, will be happening imminently. Has it occurred to you to ask why TJF didn’t simply give this money in February, when the scale of the challenge became apparent to the new Club Board? This hasn’t been done flippantly. It is the fruit of about six months of joint working and an extensive financial exercise to provide a more realistic and deliverable baseline budget for the football club. It has also been timed, very deliberately, to coincide with other progress in the model. Because it’s a completely different set of people in charge of the Club now.

No, I never thought the same about Jacqui Low. Happy to clarify.