The Partick Thistle thread

[Glenmavis Diamond]

3 minutes ago, oneteaminglasgow said:

it’ll be well before Airdrie’s gets near it, that we can be sure of. 

Maybe so. But for now, lets enjoy the fact that your bottle job means we have 4 wonderful games against each other to look forward to.

Let the fun begin. 

[Nightmare]

Yesterday seemed a fitting end to a topsy-turvy year - from the early parts of the season where McCall's teams could look scintillating one week and then utter dogshit the next, through the tremendous effort by the fans to get that evil charlatan out of our club before she could do any more damage, and on to the later stage positivity since Doolan took over before ultimately falling short.

It's been chaotic, but I think when everything settles down a bit we'll look back on this season positively. We've made a progressive change at the manager position, and an even more important change in the boardroom.

That said, I do have worries about the short-term future of the team given the (apparent) financial mess the aforementioned disgrace Low has left behind. We're almost certainly going to lose key players, and if the chat about budget cuts is to be believed, Doolan is going to have to do some remarkably good work in the transfer window to replace them. He obviously knows what he's doing tactically, but whether he can replicate that in the personnel side of the club remains to be seen. I certainly have faith in him, but whilst those on the outside looking in may think that Thistle are in a good position to challenge for the league next season, I could actually see us take a step back given the likelihood of losing Tiffoney, Turner, Docherty and Holt, in addition to the potential sale of Milne, McMillan or Fitzpatrick to try and balance the books.

An interesting few weeks ahead.

[AUcal]

1 hour ago, Nightmare said:

You say you won't hear it, but here you are (yet again) talking about it.

We have numerous songs mentioning a variety of clubs. The Old Firm, Hearts, Airdrie, Bolton ffs. For some reason Killie fans are the only ones we get in our thread mewling about how much we supposedly care about them. You're not that special, mate.

They're an odd lot. They seem to be quite obsessed with what other fans think of them. Eagerly listening out for mentions of their club at any opportunity.

I remember when they won the league last season with a dramatic last minute winner and within 10 minutes of the full time whistle there was several of them filling the Ayr thread instead of celebrating, like normal folk. Again, a very strange bunch.

[oneteaminglasgow]

Yesterday was obviously massively disappointing, but it has to be said that overall the last few weeks supporting Thistle have been sensational - arguably the most enjoyable time supporting the club in years. The season as a whole has been good, as @Nightmare says above we’ve made massive progress off the pitch in getting rid of a toxic chairman, and with The Jags Foundation, Jags for Good etc, and the team being managed by universally loved Kris Doolan there’s a real togetherness in the support that I haven’t felt in a long time.

I do share the concerns about next season. We’re going to need a brand new centre back pairing, a couple of midfielders, and forward options at the very least, and we’re going to need to do it on, presumably, a reduced budget. I’d be surprised if any of Tiffoney, Turner, Holt and Docherty stayed, and all of them are really important players. Tiffoney in particular will be a huge loss - his pace alone absolutely terrifies defences at this level. I’m hopeful that we’re not in the position, financially, of having to sell anyone but that’s based on blind optimism rather than anything else. 

I’d probably be happy with a solid mid table, maybe troubling the playoffs, effort next season - another year of Doolan learning as a manager, and hopefully a year of guys like Stanway and MacKenzie becoming established first team players. 

[BillyAnchor]

42 minutes ago, Nightmare said:

 McCall's teams could look scintillating one week and then utter dogshit the next,

I was thinking that too, only about Raith away where we could have made our play offs much easier then yesterday when we really were rank.

[vikingTON]

1 hour ago, craigkillie said:

 

Mackay had to make changes because his team were playing badly, Doolan didn't have to make changes because his team were playing relatively well. It's easy to say this stuff in the aftermath, but ultimately Thistle did enough to win the tie 95% of the time. Unfortunately for them, yesterday was the other 5%, where everything that could go wrong did from about the 70th minute onwards.

The manager is also responsible for the last 20 minutes of the game though. All they had to do was not concede *three fucking goals* in that time - they failed. 

And it's not as if it was some worldy that undid them: it was a spare man at the back post in about 10 yards of free space inside their penalty box. There was no sense of security or control over a game that they only needed to see out - that's a failure of management. 

[deadasdillinger]

1 hour ago, Nightmare said:

You say you won't hear it, but here you are (yet again) talking about it.

We have numerous songs mentioning a variety of clubs. The Old Firm, Hearts, Airdrie, Bolton ffs. For some reason Killie fans are the only ones we get in our thread mewling about how much we supposedly care about them. You're not that special, mate.

Decent comeback but nowhere near as good as County's

[craigkillie]

9 minutes ago, virginton said:

The manager is also responsible for the last 20 minutes of the game though. All they had to do was not concede *three fucking goals* in that time - they failed. 

And it's not as if it was some worldy that undid them: it was a spare man at the back post in about 10 yards of free space inside their penalty box. There was no sense of security or control over a game that they only needed to see out - that's a failure of management. 

I'm not saying he's not responsible, but just that Mackay making changes wasn't some masterstroke, it was a desperate guy chucking on as many subs as he could because his team was playing badly. Doolan did stick Bannigan on, which seemed sensible at the time, but he ended up having a shocker, which I don't think is really the manager's fault. He should have gone to the bench more after that, but at the same time they missed three or four really good chances to win it, and if they had taken any of them I don't think this conversation would be happening.

[jagsfan57]

6 minutes ago, Nightmare said:

Yesterday seemed a fitting end to a topsy-turvy year - from the early parts of the season where McCall's teams could look scintillating one week and then utter dogshit the next, through the tremendous effort by the fans to get that evil charlatan out of our club before she could do any more damage, and on to the later stage positivity since Doolan took over before ultimately falling short.

It's been chaotic, but I think when everything settles down a bit we'll look back on this season positively. We've made a progressive change at the manager position, and an even more important change in the boardroom.

That said, I do have worries about the short-term future of the team given the (apparent) financial mess the aforementioned disgrace Low has left behind. We're almost certainly going to lose key players, and if the chat about budget cuts is to be believed, Doolan is going to have to do some remarkably good work in the transfer window to replace them. He obviously knows what he's doing tactically, but whether he can replicate that in the personnel side of the club remains to be seen. I certainly have faith in him, but whilst those on the outside looking in may think that Thistle are in a good position to challenge for the league next season, I could actually see us take a step back given the likelihood of losing Tiffoney, Turner, Docherty and Holt, in addition to the potential sale of Milne, McMillan or Fitzpatrick to try and balance the books.

An interesting few weeks ahead.

Agree with you here. Can’t see us challenging next season. Just hope we are not battling the playoff at the bottom end of the table.

[CountryBumpkin]

23 minutes ago, BillyAnchor said:

I was thinking that too, only about Raith away where we could have made our play offs much easier then yesterday when we really were rank.

I was definitely surprised at how well you handled the play offs given the last game of the season at Starks. Maybe it was the complacency killing boot up the arse needed to get through to the final. Its the makings of a really good Championship next season though so far. 

[Arch Stanton]

https://twitter.com/The_Big_Jim/status/1665426886388862976?t=YC7y_2gQAliq6_yJQMAZHQ&s=19

[Kempes]

Doolan was able to select the same players, in a system that was working, for several consecutive games. For various reasons, he didn't really have many options in terms of substitutions. The strategy worked whilst they were scoring first, playing with confidence and keeping clean sheets. The test was always going to be when they conceded. Doolan really had to rely on the same, tired players, giving everything they had whilst remaining calm in the heat of battle. County had decent options to refresh their team, whilst Doolan's lads just ran out of steam. I'm sure most folk were amazed that Malky left Simon Murray on the bench for so long, so don't be too harsh on Doolan.

[John Lambies Doos]

Tough day today.  Yesterday was probably my lowest point in football since the United play off back in mid 90's.

It's a real hard one to take but we dust ourselves off and go again. Will take the players along time to get over this. There have been massive collapses in football,  Hearts in 86, Hibs a few times (Hamilton springs to mind) Milan in 2005 and Peterborough couple weeks back.

Unfortunately this is the only one that really effects me and its tough.

But heh, the world's still spinning.  Fair play to county, u could easily have thrown the towel in. Great character  

[Thistle_do_nicely]

yeah, there's been plenty of bottle crashes/bed shitting stories across Scottish football. Great when its happening to someone else, even better when its in your favour (Falkirk falling away to let us beat them to promotion) but utter shite when you're on the wrong end of it.

Warning signs were there with the Queens Park playoff game where they pulled it back to 3-3 (but ultimately got away with it with a last minute winner and scudding them in the 2nd leg) and the Cove game was piss poor letting them back to 2-2 from two up. There was always that nagging wee doubt that we were overdue for a high profile banter result.

on the face of it its better than getting comfortably papped out by Inverness last time out, but it doesn't feel like it.

Doolan comes away with a fair amount of credit, as do most of the players.

[Rudolph Hucker]

3 hours ago, oneteaminglasgow said:

We lost because  we panicked after the first goal   and   immediately gave away a second.   If we   just kept the ball for a few minutes and killed the game,  we’re a Premiership club right now.  Then we missed two really, really good chances in extra time.   Not to mention that   it really should’ve been more than two at Firhill.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah - but APART from all that, what have the Romans ever done for us?”

 

 

[Rudolph Hucker]

3 hours ago, deadasdillinger said:

Nice wee song about Killie getting an airing yesterday.

Keep singing it down in the Championship even though we won't hear it, you guys really seem to enjoy that one.

Quite literally, nobody cares but you.

 

 

[Thartick Pistle]

That was a hard one to take yesterday, As many have said. Over the course of the last few weeks we have put a lot in to these games and had some stunning performances and to lose on pens felt really cruel. 

Even for the majority of the 90 yesterday I thought we looked comfortable, but with the type of football County play it was inevitable that some of these balls flung into our box were going to fall to their men at some point. But hey ho, thats the joys of following thistle, and we go again. In the words of a footballing great.

"Listen nobody died"
- John McGlynn

[Plastic Whistle]

3 hours ago, Diamond. Dave said:

There's every chance many of our key players will stay.

Muirhead and Bannigan are the only out-of-contract players we're likely to keep.

I wouldn't offer the latter a new deal, but I doubt Doolan wants to go into the new season with an entirely new central midfield.

[Fuctifano]

So is this the list of out of contract (excluding younger guys like Lyon / Ocholi etc)?

Sneddon
Holt
Brownlie
Muirhead
Turner
Tiffoney
Bannigan
Docherty
Mullen
Smith

Plus McKinnon and Hodson going back to their clubs, highly doubt either will be a target for a return.

On one of the facebook pages (I know) that Muirhead has triggered an extension, I'd be fine with him being here next year, he's solid enough for this level even if you allow for his red mist moments. Can't see Bannigan being freed mid testimonial year given what happened to Doolan but I think everyone else could easily go.

Doolan seems to rate Mullen higher than Dowds but he might want to be first choice somewhere.

[forameus]

I think Bannigan's been a net positive this year, although that may just be rose-tinted given what he's been through.  I think having one of him and Docherty in there is probably the best option, and I'd be inclined to pick Bannigan.  However, having him involved at all after his injury has proved to be a terrible decision.  He didn't look at it at all when he came on in the home leg, and the team definitely fell away in general at that point.  Maybe he's not fully fit, maybe he just didn't fit in with how we started to play after he got injured, or maybe it's both.  Or neither.  But in any case, I can't see them releasing him, nor can I see him really wanting out (can't imagine there'll be clubs in a better position queueing up).  Docherty I'd be more inclined to let go.  I've never really seen him do anything that sets him apart from your standard comfortable, "safe" midfielder.