jagfaelivi

Sitting in a hotel in Aberdeen thinking we did well. I was high up in the Dick Donald stand, in among the sheep. They were pretty quiet and probably all to do with how hard Thistle worked for their third clean sheet in a row. Cerny was faultless without having to make a top class save; he just did everything well. And, as has already been said, the two central defenders were superb- I had on the radio commentary as I watched and Willie Miller was very complimentary to us and particularly to young Lindsay. Everybody worked hard without being brill - as a team we tend to be a wee bit lightweight, until, of course, Pogba came on and he certainly caused them a bit of bother. We could have stolen it at the end and it was great seeing Archie making a good tactical move by forcing them back because we went two up front. Ten games and only one loss. Mon the Jags! Another good performance on Saturday please.

Just heard on the news at 9am, too, that the Anderston slip road is closed off the M8 because of flooding. I'm in Livi and it's bad enough here. Any local point of view?

Sometimes it just does not work at a club. There are countless examples of people who do nothing at one team and yet are stars elsewhere. I honestly think there is "trying too hard". You do not need to tear about like a lunatic to be trying your best. He IS a good player for whom it has just not worked for whatever reason. Anytime I've heard him on the radio or tv he comes over really well. And at the Dumbarton closed door match pre season I was standing near enough the group of players who were not on the park at the time and it was patently obvious he was getting on with the rest of the squad. A lot of laughter and kidding about and he was central to it. Can't see how that has deteriorated to the point there is a rift n the relatively short time since. It has just not worked and Archie saw it the way most of us saw it. Both side cut their losses? Best of luck Ryan. And thanks for the effort you put in at the Jags.

January is nearly upon us and I've heard nothing other than Archie(maybe with a new fiscal confidence) making noises about a couple of early signings. Any guesses? Any hints? Who might be available and from where? And who will go? Stevo? Muirhead certainly. Gimme some clues you who are in the know!!

I sent the following text to 80295 tonight: " I hope there is room in Sportsound's schedule to give some credit to Partick Thistle and Alan Archibald given that only Aberdeen can match their recent form over the last nine matches. You gave scant coverage of Archie's winning of MOM last month and chose to go to Perth to cover O'Halloran's award and fit in an interview with Wright who was NOT manager of the month. Until Celtic did it, remember, Thistle were the side who last beat them, and in Perth too. Give the Jags SOME credit . You so, so rarely do!!" Result? NOTHING, FA !! Why did I expect nothing more? And there was not even a word that Burchill at Livingston has been sacked - covered by STV in their 6 pm news programme. A national broadcasting corporation? Don't make me laugh!!

Two unfashionable teams in the top league on both sides of the border, both playing in red, black and yellow winning their fourth game in a row this weekend to confound the pundits. Wouldn't it be wonderful to have Troy Deeney in the Jags' ranks?

Oh how I agree with every word you say LIB. I have texted the two "comics" on lots of occasions to pick them up on matters but ALL that matters, really, to them is the world according to the Saintees and the 'Well. I am SICK of listening to their self centred stuff week in week out. AND I laughed out loud when the manager in Perth said he felt his team didn't get any credit. WHAT? When you have Cosgrove talking non stop about, them, the love of his life, for several hours every week. And, of course, the frame of reference for every BBC news bulletin as well as Sportsound is the Ugly Sisters in all their warted glory. If somebody involved with them farts we get the full whiff on and on bulletin after bulletin. This stupid dick Stokes sends a tweet and half of every programme since has been taken up with it. The best Thistle can expect is jeering respect (when they deign to acknowledge our existence) or , at worst, to be ignored completely. Maybe we've not done either badly or well enough to merit any discussion or maybe we are seen as a fan base to be just too small. We do need some celebrity fan/articulate former player/ or media darling to be in our camp before we will be of any interest. But if this is a national broadcasting organisation to whom most of us are obliged to subscribe, Scotland is in a bad way.

My mind goes back to the Dunblane atrocity and how the world rallied round. It was truly awful but wonderful to think the world was with us. But, strangely, the thing about that time that stuck in my mind were two lines in the Herald that there had been a flood in China and, it was thought, 40,000 had perished. I don't recall hearing anything more about it. We DO relate much more to people we can identify with. This is neither good nor bad, just a fact. I am hating all the detail and ins and outs the media is hitting us with in connection with the French tragedy. We get the media we deserve it is said.

I thought we were okay in the first half but being a bit more clinical would have had the game done and dusted by half-time. Second half I did NOT think the problem was lying deep or Dundee improving. It was all down to absolutely NOT getting the ball and failing to pass it or hold on to it for a minute or two when it was crying out for us to break up the hold Dundee had of owning the ball and pushing us back. Every time we got the ball we tried the twenty yard pass and lost it and the pattern of Dundee having it and pinning us back was continued. Why do we give away the ball so easily? Why do we get to the edge of the opposition penalty box and fail to make anything remotely like a chance? Why do we float in balls from free kicks and corners? When was the last time you saw something creative from a set piece from the Jags? Why am I so pissed off watching same old, same old? Or are YOU seeing something more positive than me?

This "floaty crosses into the box thing" is hopeless and it goes on week in week out. Whoever said it about attacking through the middle has a point - we NEVER seem to do it. There is a reason we never get penalties - we rarely get anybody in the box who is going to try to move towards goal. All we have is one, maybe two waiting to compete with a whole defence for a cross ball that often doesn't come. Hearts have had ten penalties this season and got two in the second half last week - two more than we've had in 18 months. There is a front door to penalty area!

There has been the same voice in the dressing room and the training pitch now for longer than any other side... It is no longer making much sense. We just CANNOT play in a different way under Archie. It's being proved week in week out. Two full backs run forward and eventually a half hearted ball is lobbed into the box either by them or Amoo. The opposing defence laugh at how easy it is and head it away to a mid field/ attack who run like f--k and embarrass our defence by doing something creative in the last third. OR we faff around the edge of their box and try to do something (very slowly) that is easily cleared. OR we get a free kick/corner and lob it in gently to make sure that their defence is able to clear it OR put it so near their goalie that it's a kepper. Are we totally incapable of playing any differently? The last few weeks in the JH stand where I sit there have been opposition scouts/ spies scribbling away for the likes of Hamilton and Dundee. What a waste of a resource!!! We play the same EVERY week and every team in the league knows it. Archie has done a great job for us, getting us up and keeping us up twice but everything has it's lifespan.... I honestly think we have the players to stay up but that new voice is needed and it needs to be a voice with some experience. Just look at what Mixu and McGhee are threatening to do with no hopers. Cue Uncle Jimmy Calderwood - or his ilk. HELP!!!

Yup! DIRE!!!! Please will somebody explain to me why, with acres of room, time after time, we crossed into the box for the visitors to head it clear. Does nobody RUN into the box and force a defender to tackle? We haven't had a penalty for over a year and today was a classic example of WHY. Our opponents next week have had eight already this season, I think. We may never get another one again Opposition must really laugh when they play us. Just park a couple of big defenders in the middle of the penalty area and we will lob it in for them to clear. It is so, so, so predictable. And THEIR corners were so creative , dropping right on to the six yard box and inswinging. Miracle they didn't get a goal off it. Scully just seemed to stand and watch. Just why were we so poor today? Was it just because they are more combative than us? They certainly don't have better players. I fear the worst on THAT performance

Best league in the world struggling again in Belgium tonight. Could it possibly be that it might NOT be the best league in the world? What sort of league would it be without the millions it can access? Wonder if Sky will ever get fed up with them? Watched Swansea v Stoke earlier in the week - money for old rope springs to mind. Just HOW did all of this come about?

I see the representatives of the self styled "best league in the world" luckily saw off Sevilla in tonight's Champions League encounter in Manchester. de Bruyne got the goal and they paid 55 million for him. That would see us living decently as a league team for the next half century. The Spanish team SHOULD have won but I'm biased. I just think the fitba' is now daft. When you consider spending like that it makes a complete nonsense of the game. Where will we be in another 50 years? Makes us pygmies in leagues with two much bigger teams seem almost reasonable.

Not a lot really though some twat who insisted on trying to be funny told a pal of mine to shut up as people wanted to hear Archie.. Kettle calling the pot black!!!

Archie and Maxi said at the east of Scotland meet the manager night in Edinburghyesterday that this was nonsense - Archie laughed when it was mentioned- all tied in with some suggestion of training facilities being requested. So forget this whole thread - crap!

Can agree entirely on the free kicks/corners/ last third scenario. Dundee looked VERY professional - we looked like happy amateurs. We did not gel as a team and that, hopefully , will come. The wee right back was sensational, Abdul played well and Booth wasn't bad at all. Doolan worked his socks off but got little help. The rest were pretty ordinary with the central defence giving me the creeps several times. How susceptible are we to through balls? Is naive the word that sums up the whole?

Amoo, for what little I know and only going purely on observation, gets into decent positions and then turns it back!!? When will a Thistle player just run at a defence - he might get pulled down, you never know. But it is this ***** footing around and "passing to somebody in a better position" that is killing us. We do it ad infinitum. How often do things peter out for us in the last third? How often do we get into good positions and never get a ball in the box? And then you get back to my other gripe, corners and free kicks. But I've said enough on THAT elsewhere No wonder we've had no penalties though!!!

Hard to tell. If he was the big lad at the back, can' t say he stood out. Our defence always looked(like the big team??!) like it was vulnerable to balls through the channels with any sort of pace coming at it. I didn't get a team sheet and when I got home there were no numbers on the team on the commentary so it was not easy to keep up. It's murder this getting old when things pass you by........

I thought for the first few minutes that we were going to get over run ad Hibs looked bigger, stronger and older than our lot. But then it became apparent that all Hibs could do was hit long balls. They were lost when we started passing the ball, quickly and accurately (most of the time). Really great to see that they've been encouraged to continue to play football even in the tightest of spaces. Liked the wee number 7, was he Lamont? And all in all a good night which left the Edinburgh punters shaking their heads. I hope the first team is more competent in the fight for promotion. Ainslie Park was a pleasant place to be.

Has there EVER been a Thistle team that has done anything off corners and free kicks. I hope Archie does an analysis of today's match to see just how awful we were when given an opportunity from a corner or a free kick. We would have been as well to give Hearts bye kicks or let them take our free kicks. I have heard it said often that teams who don't do much from open play are nevertheless dangerous from set pieces. Well we are NOT making chances from open play but we are even WORSE from our corners etc. And while I'm at it - how timid were we today? Amoo has the ability to just run and get a free kick but what does he do? Turn the ball back every time. Maybe on the latter I am doing Hearts an injustice and they closed us down so we couldn't make a forward pass. But look what young McDaid did when he came on. It might be a long season......

Liked the comment by Gary Peeble's Tackle regarding a young team against the Ugly Sisters. Yes, Scottish football is really absurd with the financial discrepancy between Celtic (and their twin when they can get things done legally) and the rest. Was it Gordon Strachan yesterday who said that it was like a team of twelve year olds playing an under eighteen team? He WAS right. I just fail to understand what pleasure or sense of success Celtic can feel playing the likes of us who operate on a completely different planet. It has been proved in the past that fans WILL turn out if there is some competition involved and if their team has a reasonable chance of success. Imagine what Scottish football would be like without the Bigot Brothers. We, for a start, wouldn't be going along feeling that it was the equivalent of a fourth tier English team facing a Premier League outfit in any game. And it DOES feel like that three or four times every season. As for success /lack of success against Celtic, it can be traced back to Stein's time. Things improved big time for them from then on. Look back before that time and we beat them as often as we lost(or nearly). Their crowds were not impressive and quite often they finished a bit down the league. There is a bit of a rewrite of history to suggest they were always the giant they view themselves as now. Even after that when the other arse cheek had nine fat years they were less than wonderful until the wee man wi' the bunnet came in to put them on the right track. I have a season ticket and and BT Sports as well. I got up in the morning and thought why should I go to home game where we are outnumbered and you have almost got to creep around to avoid antagonising their loonies. Yes, they've got good fans too but I can't imagine what fun they get going along week in week out and winning easily. I for one would welcome a cleansing of Scottish football and that would mean getting rid of both of them. That won't happen and all I can see is a slow death for Scottish football, our great wee club with it.

First chorus of "Ramona she sits among the beans and peas....." But I'm in the J Husband stand and leave the singing to the Northies!!!

Yeah! They did but they continue to "get lucky" a lot more than we ever seem to. Where would we have been last season with a bit of luck against them and Hamilton , just these two for starters?

Just saw that they beat Wigan 1-0 tonight and Wigan had dominated the game. How do Dundee do it!? Last term they got away with murder against us We hammered them twice at Dens (apart from the second half in the first game when Foxy got red carded) and we got a solitary point and they stole another one at Firhill. Why can't WE do that? Are they ALWAYS that lucky? When do we get some of that? Luck must spread about or are we doing something wrong? Answers below please.