The Partick Thistle thread

[Meatwad]

A cut and paste from what I just put down in the group thread in the cup forum:

Our fans overreacting to a penalty defeat is hardly a shock given c***s actually booed at half time on Tuesday when we were trailing to Dumbarton.

 

Felt we had the chances to kill the game off in the first half, disallowed goal aside. Great goal from Squiddy.

 

That second half performance, however, was absolute torture - Livi were growing into the game towards the end of the first half, forcing Cerny into a good save before Jacobs scored right at the start of what the PA announcer called "the brand new half" ()

 

Livi look a decent side though, and I fancy them to have a good season off the back of that. Not much for us to be concerned about, we strolled the group stage of this last season and were pish until about December, it's not that much of a barometer for how things go.

[Cerberus]

Meh, Archie will sort it out before the league starts. The LC is a pile of shite.

[Klamgers]

No doubts we'll get players in but...

We were told that top 6 finish would enable to get contracts sorted/players in earlier. Disappointed hasn't happened. & don't point out Cerny extension (good) or Edwards (wtf?).

injuries again during pre season. I know it's a legacy, for some, of end of last season. Again, these guys should've been in after Hearts game as 6th was going to be our finish position & eyes should've been on 17/18.

Fitness? Why is it that Livi looked fitter than us as game went on? Erskine still blowing & hooked after 70? Not good. Livi at sane stage as is pre season as well. Doesn't bode well for not losing so many goals in last 5 mins again.

Finally, Barton in a back 4? Could see vs Dumbarton wasn't going to work. Why not start with a 3? Portsmouth fans told us when he signed he couldn't play as out & out CH. Spare man in a 3, yes but in a 4 beside bombscare Devine, no.

[SetPieceSpecialist]

There were a number of problems from yesterday that meant we weren't up to it and to be honest I'm pretty excited sure they'll all be sorted by the league's beginning.

Firstly, we were being beaten for every high ball that fell in the midfield. Even though I'm sure he tried his best, Edwards wasn't winning the headers and Bannigan won a few but not many. That meant that a lot of the times Cerny kicked clear, it came right back at the defence. That's not to worrying as usually we'Il have Barton and Osman in there which is a physically strong midfield pairing.

Secondly, the centre midfield seemed to just dissolve. Ryan Edwards ran after every single ball as if he was playing the position he was playing last season which left gaps and I presume Bannigan was told to man-Mark a Livi player because he kept following his man into the defence which left a gaping hole between the attacking midfield and defence which was probably Livi most effective area. This will also hopefully be fixed with Abdul back as his positional awareness is probably his best asset in my opinion.

Also, we had no cover when James Penrice and Christie Elliott went forward which again exposed our backline. Bannigan dropped in slightly but never really moved away from his man and the communication should have been much better so that cover was in place. Once again, Abdul's return should help this as he's the prime communicator and also tends to fill in the gaps in defence when needed.

Unfortunately, another issue was Erskine. We can probably put it down to him just having a bad day but he was a bit off it after his goal went in. Before it he looked dangerous but after, he slowed our breaks down. His touch was poor, his passing was slack. The prime example of that was when Blair Spittal made an excellent run in behind his marker and Erskine played it in front of the defender.

Finally, we had nothing in the bench. This is no one's fault and will probably be fixed through signings but to have five subs and not counting Scully, I doubt they had ten appearances between them. To ask any of those lads to come on and change the game would be ridiculous. Ideally, we'd get a striker or two in before the league starts.

 

So, to summarise, Abdul Osman for Ballon D'Or.

[dundeeunited83]

Curious, how was spittal??

[Nightmare]

First game, so I'm not too worried about some of the issues mentioned in the previous couple of posts. As has been acknowledged, the squad is currently lacking in depth, but that's been obvious to most of us for a while, and I'd expect to see a minimum of two more quality players in, hopefully three. A striker is an absolute must, as Nisbet just doesn't have it; he offers nothing as an impact sub and would offer even less given the whole game if Doolan picked up any kind of injury.

Fitness was another issue yesterday, but we'd only played a couple of bounce games and then Dumbarton, whereas Livingston had played Sunderland the other night - I'm probably making excuses here, but it's possible the fact they'd played a much better standard of opponent had brought them up to match speed more quickly in preseason than us. Not a great sign to see some of our players completely blowing out their arse after an hour while Championship players sprint past them, though.

Spittal and Lawless were pretty good for us, or at least were active in trying to make things happen. Struggling for positives besides the pair of them (apart from Cerny, but that's a given, really).

[Nightmare]

5 minutes ago, dundeeunited83 said:

Curious, how was spittal??

Just mentioned it in my last post there, but he had a decent game. Beat his man down the wing a few times, final ball was a bit hit & miss, but a generally solid performance.

There was more effort in this one performance from him than David Amoo put in the whole of last season, so pretty happy with the upgrade we've made right now.

Edited July 16, 2017 by Nightmare

[dundeeunited83]

Hope he does go and do well at your lot! But he's one player I just never ever liked

[SetPieceSpecialist]

I thought Spittal did pretty well. Actually tried to make incisive runs and beat his man. Did plenty of running especially when asked to play in an unfamiliar wing back role.

At the end of the day, he's essentially replaced Amoo in the squad and did just about as much in 90 minutes as Amoo did in the second half of last season.

 

[Nightmare]

Just now, SetPieceSpecialist said:

At the end of the day, he's essentially replaced Amoo in the squad and did just about as much in 90 minutes as Amoo did in the season half of last season.

Great minds and all that. 

Will be interesting to see how he fares up against a higher quality of opposition, as United fans seem to think he hides a bit, but definitely didn't look like that sort of player yesterday.

[jagfox]

Pretty pleased with Spittal's showing too. Best on show for me. Did more than Amoo managed the whole of last season, imo 

Apparently Miles Storey should be signing soon. Is Maxy still on holiday? 

[Fuctifano]

Wasn't there yesterday, saw the Livi TV highlights, which don't clarify much other than our home kit is an abomination which deserves relegation to the lowland league, and maybe it's best that we've hardly had any penalties in the last 3 seasons if that's how we take them. 

The league cup restructuring I think is overall a decent thing but whereas for the championship / league one clubs it's a bit of a free hit, as the premiership team you're expected to qualify. Given that we've got 17 senior pros signed up at this moment in time and 2 of them are Scully and Nisbet and another 5 injured then yesterday's result wasn't a massive surprise (Livingston win or draw double chance yesterday was 10/11). 

It's been a bit odd that this season we had more players under contract than ever but we've ended up shorter in numbers than previous seasons. 

Also the quote from archie in the herald suggests Fraser is fucked again, I'd imagine that'll be the end of his career at firhill if not everywhere. It could be a misquote in that Fraser has been long term injured rather than is, but doubt it. 

[Jagsman411971]

We played as though this was our first run-out of the new season. We definitely need at least 1 more CB, urgently. Barton is not a CB, and we all know Devine will be suspended at least 3 times this season. I thought Penrice played OK in the 1st half, but Lawless, Spittal and Cerny were the only one's who looked like they wanted to play.

Was sat in front of fucking Statler and Waldorf most of the game. f**k me, life's too short to be that depressed about a game of football.

2 queries about yesterday, why did the P.A guy not tell everyone that the game would go to penalties if it ended as a draw? When the final whistle went, at least half the crowd got up to leave. And why the f**k did they take the penalties to the empty end of the ground?

[SetPieceSpecialist]

Was surprised that Lawless didn't take a penalty considering he scored two against Dunfermline.

[Fuctifano]

Would guess lawless was on 5th penalty. 

[stillresigned]

Thought he had a decent enough game, particularly on his debut: did enough to suggest that he certainly has the ability and obviously only time will tell if he has the correct mental attitude

[stillresigned]

Anybody else think our penalties summed up our attitude and performance yesterday afternoon, i.e. flat, lacklustre and totally lacking in self-belief or conviction?

[jaggyness]

And why the f**k did they take the penalties to the empty end of the ground?

Would have been a choice by whichever captain won the coin toss for ends

[Ad Lib]

2 hours ago, jaggyness said:

 

Would have been a choice by whichever captain won the coin toss for ends

 

Pretty sure the referee chooses which end penalties are taken from and the toss determines who goes first.

[RandomGuy.]

Pretty sure the referee chooses which end penalties are taken from and the toss determines who goes first.

The winner either chooses the end or who goes first, and the loser chooses the other. Same rules as choosing ends and who kicks off at the start of the match.