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🔴🟡Thistle vs Alloa Athletic🟠⚫️ Challenge Cup - 7th September 2024


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Alarming/inexcusable from us. Thats what happens when you try to half arse your way through a match.

Edit: not a panacea as Milne, assist aside, was arguably worse, but Chalmers in particular needs dropped. We're lacking imagination in attack and yet another profligate performance from him. Might be better with a spell on the bench as an impact sub option, or switch him and Fitzpatrick about.

Edited by Thistle_do_nicely
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23 minutes ago, vespa said:

Gotta be honest....didn't see that result coming.

You must not have heard of our record in this competition.

If you’re in League One and you draw Thistle in the Challenge Cup, it’s as good as a bye to the next round.

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Fair f**ks to Alloa. A very good second half performance. Even in the first half I was thinking they were better than Morton and QP were earlier in the season.

Can't be too sure what happened apart from trying to control the game second-half.

No excuses though, just a terrible, if not unexpected result.

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22 minutes ago, vespa said:

Gotta be honest....didn't see that result coming.

Indeed! We started poorly and Thistle were well on top and deserved the early goal. We settled though and knocked it about well the rest of the half, perhaps unlucky not to come in level with Donnelly hitting the bar. 

Second half we continued to play decent possession football without creating much, but then Buchanan, who had been up and down through the game, started to really tear Thistle up down his flank. He made the first for Cawley (great header from Kev) and was pulled down for the pen. In between that Kev scored with a great shot from edge of the box. 

Thistle were really bad there but very encouraging from us, defended well again but so much better on the ball and going forward, particularly as it went on. Hopefully the likes of Buchanan take a real boost from that, and Cammy who did well after coming on (LD effective in attack after that change). And Ogaya did 90 minutes without doing anything crazy - we just need Neily to teach him how to defend corners. 

Lots of positives. Take that and add Roberts, Kurtis and the imminent loans and there is loads of potential. 

And Kev Cawley, what a legend ❤️

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1 minute ago, Claudia Gentile said:

Fair f**ks to Alloa. A very good second half performance. Even in the first half I was thinking they were better than Morton and QP were earlier in the season.

Can't be too sure what happened apart from trying to control the game second-half.

No excuses though, just a terrible, if not unexpected result.

Thierry Henry Smile GIF by hamlet

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6 minutes ago, Waspie said:

Indeed! We started poorly and Thistle were well on top and deserved the early goal. We settled though and knocked it about well the rest of the half, perhaps unlucky not to come in level with Donnelly hitting the bar. 

Second half we continued to play decent possession football without creating much, but then Buchanan, who had been up and down through the game, started to really tear Thistle up down his flank. He made the first for Cawley (great header from Kev) and was pulled down for the pen. In between that Kev scored with a great shot from edge of the box. 

Thistle were really bad there but very encouraging from us, defended well again but so much better on the ball and going forward, particularly as it went on. Hopefully the likes of Buchanan take a real boost from that, and Cammy who did well after coming on (LD effective in attack after that change). And Ogaya did 90 minutes without doing anything crazy - we just need Neily to teach him how to defend corners. 

Lots of positives. Take that and add Roberts, Kurtis and the imminent loans and there is loads of potential. 

And Kev Cawley, what a legend ❤️

He's been playing well this year. Andy mentioned in his post match interview on Radio Scotland that Kev had a full pre-season this year (implying he struggled last year partly to changing jobs and having a new baby) and is back to the player we expect to see. If he can continue to get among the goals then that will be a major plus.

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Fair play to Alloa, they really went at it in the second half and deserved their victory. 
 

From a Thistle point of view this season is getting really tiring already. Pressure is already seriously mounting on Doolan. I am not calling for him to go as of now, but the next two games are monumental for him. 

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Thought we looked really comfortable for most of the first half, although we completely lacked a cutting edge, Graham's near-side goal aside. Teams have the measure of us and our overlapping full back / winger interplay. Although, it was Lawless and McMillan who were the masters of that, however it seems to be our way and when it doesnt work, we don't have a Plan B to go through the middle. Have said we adopt a Polo Mint formation in some games, which I thought had been addressed with Bannigan and Lyons coming into the centre of midfield. Lyon gets himself into good positions, but today 3 or 4 times he did nothing with it, perhaps another backwards pass.

Fair play to Alloa, even in the first half when we had the majority of the ball, when they did get it they knocked it around really well, but didn't do anything much in or around the box.

Second half Alloa stepped it up and we dropped off, too many passes going back or across and no threat from us at all in the box. Our defence had looked good in the first half, but Sayers had a disaster of a second half. Alloa had three shots on target and scored three goals, deserved to win on that basis alone.

I'd be inclined to start with Ablade and Diack in place of Graham and one of Chalmers, Lyons or even Fitzpatrick, in the next couple of games. Doolan has to learn to change tactics when it's not working. Teams are wise to our: down the wings and low cross into the six-yard box for a tap in tactics, which worked well in the last two seasons.

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We can be quite methodical and slow in the build up in general. Though that was a the case at Arbroath last week and it is the right way to play...

...but that second half was excellent and what we've not really managed to put together in the league as of yet despite being unbeaten. Zipping the ball out of tight areas at the back like it's nothing - releasing Buchanan who really made milne (who is generally a great left back) look average. Kevin's goals are top quality - even got LD involved some wonderful touches about the edge of the box. I like him as the striker in a two and I don't feel like I've seen him on his own up top too much but I think he grabbed that opportunity in a way that he hasn't playing in that pocket behind the striker.

By the end of the game Partick looked to me both tired and aimless while we were pushing for more goals. A word with the BBC technician at the end and it's a familiar Alloa story - you wouldn't know which of those sides was in the higher tier.

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In the first 20 minutes or so I thought that we were going to be in for a really difficult match, as we struggled to get any sort of foothold in the game. As the first half progressed, however, we started to make our passes, the defence got better at dealing with Graham, and we began to work our way into the game. 

Second half we improved again and we were beginning to work the ball into dangerous areas. Two brilliant finishes from Kev Cawley gave us the lead. Kev doesn't have the pace you might want for playing the wide left role but he more than makes up for it with his quality on the ball.

Once we took the lead there was a lot more space behind the Thistle backline, and Buchanan really took advantage of it, eventually winning the penalty which Taggart dispatched with his usual aplomb.

If I'm being really picky the one downside was with Conor Sammon who had one of those games where nothing came off for him. He struggled to hold the ball up or make a pass. Although these sorts of games are often where he pops up with a goal out of nowhere. 

Overall a really good performance and result.

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