Jump to content

jagfaelivi

Members
  • Posts

    350
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by jagfaelivi

  1. What a change around Firhill in recent seasons. I have to commend the thorough professionalism of both Archie and Shaggy - excellent. My memory is pretty vague on this but I can just remember going to see a pre season match at, I think, Bellshill Juniors something like thirty years ago and finding out it was closed door. We managed to get in through the club's kitchen and were pretty shocked to see a collection of fat men running on to the pitch in Thistle colours. The first half was so dire we crept away (again through the kitchen) just after half time. Is there anybody who could place this and put it in context?
  2. Just in and it WAS a bit low key - thought we were very poor in the first half but, having said that, the manpower on the field did not seem to gel. Big Frans was immense unlike, I feel, against Dumbarton last week. The trialist right back looked a bit short of the pace needed. McDaid was quite impressive throughout though still lacking a bit of physical presence. Thought Bannigan was missed in midfield and was pretty ordinary at left back.bdools hardly got a kick all game and the centre of the Falkirk defence strolled through the game (including big Aaron who looked good) Fraser is not back to his best yet and Welsh was a wee bit off the pace. In the second half Bannigan was good restored to midfield and Osman was solid, Booth looked good as did David Wilson ( very pacey) and Leyden wasn't out of place when he came on. Lawless was as good as ever. Our best spell was the last ten minutes when the youngsters were on but that could have been down to the many changes Falkirk made as well.
  3. Loads of things to like about Alabi ( it was him as everybody was calling him James) he is strong, quick and holds the ball up well - lot of wee clever lay offs as well + he took both goals well. Banzo DID stand out as did young Lindsay. It was Gary Miller at right back and he was a bit mixed, one good run. Seaborne looked good but Frans looked a bit ponderous, but, hey, it was the first game. Booth looked a bit less of a threat than he looked at the tail end of the season - but again it's early to comment. David Amoo looked a bit behind the pace of the game and wanted to dribble past every body, I thought. Young Leyden has filled out a bit and looks like we'll get something out of him. McDaid had a couple of runs and I thought Jack Hendry looked class when he came on. Osman, Stevenson , Welsh and Elliott were all there but not called on. I asked Sean how he was and he said he's fit. Didn't see Cerny, though. Quite enjoyed it as there were some meaty tackles. A good outing.
  4. How about accepting the eighteen team league but really going for extra points for scoring goals and defending? Example - you win 2-0 at home so you get your 3 points + 2 points for your two goals + one point for not conceding a goal at home. Away from home your 2-0 win would get an extra point for not conceding away from home. And maybe an extra point for an away win? Haven't a clue what this would have done in recent seasons but surely it would make for more attacking football? A 2-2 home draw would get three points for the home team and three + one extra for the away team. I'm sure somebody could go through a recent season and work out what differences there would have been in final positions. A big win would shoot you up the league - our 5-0 against the Accies last season would have gleaned eight points!, and, I'm sure the Saints of Perth would not have done really well at all with their failure to score goals. The excitement would be in the fact that you could really move up the table by being positive and fans would remain excited and keen to go to matches because their team could really move from week to week. Shoot me down but it is an idea and there would not be an incentive to sit in and go for a 0-0 because only one goal would get four points for the away team and maybe even one more for an away win. What do you think?
  5. Watched half a dozen Development matches last season and I can see how McDaid, Wilson and Hendry are now considered fringe material for the first team. Second half we were a lot better - there were some really alarming moments in the first half at the back though quite decent going forward. Second half was much better. Do like the young right back and the trialist number 10 reminded me of a young McDaid. Good start but some work needed in defence. Can't wait for the season to start!!
  6. Well with our new player saying in more than one interview that he likes to "run at" the opposition there must be a fair chance we'll get a penalty this season!? That would be nice. I often have felt that Higgy and his ilk should have been going hell for leather in the box rather than trying to play wee one twos which might work for Barca but at our level are much less successful. Or am I just old fashioned?
  7. I think if Thistle had played like Scotland did in the first half we would have booed them at half time. Given his reputation, for example, Naismith (of whom I'm a supporter) was awful - he couldn't pass it three yards to a team mate! Was it that many of them hadn't played competitively for weeks, the hype or did the occasion get to them? I think Strachan said that the referee had a good game?!? Wee Willie Column would have had three of the Irish off long before the end. They really are raw meat. Some of their tackling was allowed by a weak referee when many others would never have condoned it. Having said that I hope they kick the Polish and the Germans off the park and get away with it like they did against us!! Onwards and upwards.
  8. Will probably be Hearts at Tynecastle in match 1
  9. Have I missed this somewhere/ has it been talked about elsewhere? When are they announced?
  10. Glad to hear we have filled the gap left by Scott Fox and signed the experienced Tomas Cerny. Good signing as has been noted on speculation elsewhere here. Welcome Tomas and many clean sheets in the Jags colours. Good, too that Gall is staying on, Scully is back and that both Jack Hendry and David Wilson have signed on again. Archie is moving quietly about his business. Well done, Alan
  11. Words fail me! That was unbelievable. If you aren't watching the Spanish Cup Final try to catch the goals later. About as good as it gets. The best player who has ever lived, bar NONE
  12. Laughing at this! As Willie Shakespeare would have had it on the Ibrox hordes " full of sound and fury, signifying NOTHING!!'" Ho ho ho!!!
  13. That we are not at Castle Greyskull tonight. Don't think I could have coped with that. 49k baying for the teddies while we, in small numbers, cringed (maybe we never do that?) in the corner hoping for the best. If you are talking economics we should be hoping our city neighbours make it through. And..... listening to some of the comments on Sportsound there are "fantastic" players on show - Ainsworth for example and it sounds as if Skippy should really be featuring regularly at the Nou Camp. There is such a thing as building a game up, BUT....... Who do YOU want to win?
  14. I would agree with the comments on here - the guys DID try and I have no complaints about effort at all. BUT what was the change of formation all about? Archie did this in the first half of the cup tie at home against ICT and we were woeful at the back. So it was today when Frans and Balatoni had no protection and got bossed by a dumpling like Magennis. Everything seemed to come from them running at the back two and the referee letting them off with shirt pulling, fly digs et al. The third goal free kick was laugh out loud material from the ref I had a great view of it and Eremanky ( what a cheat in' bastridge) steeled himself and stepped into Christy and fell down. Would not have minded a fiver for every time they lay down at no provocation and Beaton fell for it every time. No wonder the Middle eastern guy put the head on him if he was as clueless as that. But the real fault lay at Archie's door for putting out that formation. Maybe it was an opportunity to try something different but it failed miserably. Just a word for wee Stevie - what a great wee player he is.
  15. Just been listening to Magennis on Sportsound and he put forward all the reasons why they will " be up for it" on Saturday. I really want to win and for our season NOT to peter out. Please, please, Jags gub them. I was disappointed at NDP , let's do it. Let's be professional. Mon the Jags and continue the improvement into '15 - '16. I love you!
  16. Another stat made yesterday. The second season in a row we score three second half goals against the bottom side to preserve our top league status! Well I tried!
  17. What a great season of consolidation it has turned out to be and - I've been giving it some serious consideration - how near it has been to a WONDERFUL one when you consider what the likes of St Johnstone(certainly last season and to some extent this) and ICT have done. We are as capable as the former ( if we had got our back division sorted out sooner probably better) and we've beaten the Inverness lot three times only to put up the most abysmal first half showing at Firhill in the cup tie. NOW look where they are, in the Final, manager of the year nominations, compliments and plaudits all round. I'm not saying we could have had the jam to beat the East End mob in the semi and "get away with it" like ICT. But it COULD HAVE BEEN US!!!!! So - the point of this missive - let's really do it tomorrow and move forward in the remaining games to a new level and a new threat and promise for next season. I still get miserable thinking about how I felt leaving Firhill a year ago tomorrow(equivalent) when our own Ryan and the young Hearts had just taken us apart. Yet again we felt let down. The contrast, of course, was the Tynecastle second half, later on, when I sat in among the home support to get a better view - one of my best ever Jags times ( yes, and I WAS there at Hampden on 23/10/71) and glowed and exulted when Gary scored that fantastic goal and Lyle and Higgy ran through their back line. The plea for tomorrow is for Archie and the lads to make it a day to remember, like Hampden and the match I've talked about at Tynie not all that disappointment again , that feeling when Ayr relegated us or Honved humped us or Celtic won the league last season. Forward - MON THE JAGS !!!!!!
  18. I've seen Finnie a couple of times and can't make up my mind. First time I thought he was a straight drop in for SOD but the next time he looked very vulnerable and when he lost the ball seemed to give up and not chase the guy who had taken the ball off him. Then I thought back and that had happened a couple of times first time round. Soooo! Maybe a bit to go. The guy I like is Jack Hendry who got mom today. Probably a couple of years away but he does look confident and accomplished. Going to be a big lad too when he fills out. Keenan never impresses me. Loses the ball far too often. Don't think he'll make it. But what do I know? Christie played centre today and reminded me why we thought we would be shot of him a couple of years back. But we know now he had value in other areas. Fraser was out today as well and didn't have a great match either, in keeping with the rest of the team. Looked lethargic. Maybe a wee bit pissed off because he's out of favour?
  19. I'm not even going to apologise for harping on this. Just listened to the start of the gruesome twosome show on BBC, Tam and Stewart, and the question was "why were the 'well so poor after their brilliant recent performances"? And last week Aberdeen, according to the unbiased W Miller, had their worst performance since McInnes has been manager. Just let me say that the common denominator is a wee team from Maryhill who go largely unsung, maybe just because we do not have a "celebrity" supporter or one like Dung, or Preston, or Miller, or Cosgrove or Cowan, or McLeod who people the media and promote their own teams. And yes we also have a manager who does nothing to blow his own trumpet or brag about his team. Just when are we going to get some credit for what we've done since that disastrous day at home against County? And I'm fairly certain we would have got a point up at Dingwall if we had remained with eleven men. We are good and getting better with continuity of selection and better organisation at the back. All we have to do now is to improve our corners and free kicks into the box...... Maybe next season? Or am I asking too much?
  20. I was at the game today but as I watched I listened to the game of the day commentary on Sportsound. Normally I think these two self confessed Dons fans do quite a job of avoiding seeing things through red tinged glasses; certainly NOT today!!! You would have thought there was only one team to comment on. The world according to Aberdeen. Miller "this is the worst Aberdeen performance I've seen since McInnes took over" Was he not present at Firhill when we ripped them one in February of last year? And didn't he see them being torn apart by Hamilton at NDP? Or, indeed the opening day of this season when the Arabs left them in tatters at Pittodrie? And of course no credit for our team - again Miller " it's not as if Thistle are playing all that well". I thought we were superb on a truly AWFUL pitch that made control a lottery. I laughed when Deila had the temerity to complain about St Mirren's pitch last night. It was a bowling green compared with what we got to play on today. And putting it into honest unbiased terms (I hope!) I thought after an initial period of finding our feet we closed them down, were after them like whippets and gave them no peace. And, as has been said elsewhere, we should have won. But if you cast your mind back to the game at Firhill when we whipped them last season Lyle should have scored at least four. As for McLeod, all he could do was look at the game from the Dons' point of view. We played very well! Comments please.
  21. Why has this not appeared on the forum? Have I done something wrong?
  22. There is a school of thought that you make your own luck! BUT how many agree with me that NOTHING seems to go right for us; we never seem to get a wee break at the right time? Maybe I am looking at the football world through red and yellow tinted specs. Consider Dundee - apart from the 45 minutes at Dens at the beginning of the season after Foxy had been dismissed for what seemed very little we have totally outplayed them and have two points to show for it against their five. They eliminated Aberdeen in the cup at Dens and were outplayed but scored a late goal. Quite often reports have suggested they have been poor and yet so often they get something. AND what about all the late goals we've lost? I know this has been done to death and that it hasn't happened for a few weeks but wasn't Dingwall last week when we pressed with ten men the right time for our luck to turn with a late goal? No chance. Consider the joke first goal(agreed as being so vital) that we lost against County at home, where bounces off our own players left the guy with a tap in. And how often lately I've turned to somebody sitting next to me and said that loose balls ALWAYS seem to fall for the opposition either in our box or their box. Nobody seems to disagree. Wouldn't it be great to play pretty ordinarily and get lucky with three points one week? Just one time would be a great start. After all I heard somebody on the radio bemoaning the fact about last season when NOTHING went right for Hibs. Well they did against luckless Thistle when they equalised twice in the last gasp at Easter Road and stole three points in the first Firhill encounter. Just one time!!? Let it be the Jags.
  23. I detest criticising a professional and Archie is a professional football manager. BUT.......!! He is pleased with how we played on Saturday - "played very, very well" and we were unlucky. I agree we were unlucky and we were better than Dundee in a lot of ways. The big but is our total lack of variety in the vital area of the field. I had another topic on here bemoaning all our corners and the fact that their goalie was able to collect virtually everything in the second half from free kicks and corners. I watched the highlights of the other games in the top division last night - Killie looked dangerous from their free kicks - the quality of the goals in the Dingwall encounter was outstanding!!! Us??? If we get a free kick or a corner we pass it back to the goalie. When did WE score goals like went in in the Highland match and when did we last look dangerous? We CANNOT be happy with what's going on (or not going on!!!) in our efforts to get the ball in the net. Please tell me I am watching something different from Archie.
  24. I'm sure we practise them but to what end? Never any hitting it short and somebody ready for the next pass; always, particularly from free kicks straight into the goalie's grasp (if he's any good at all, like today - see he got the man of the match) AND how often do we hit first man? If Dools had got past the first man at the end just before they scored we might have been on here celebrating a win. Is it management or perhaps a lack of passion? There are teams with worse squads doing better.
  25. I have felt this for sooooo long but when it goes on week after week after week I really have to try to put it in writing. We must be the LEAST creative team in the league when we get to the area of the field that means something, the last third. Just take today's efforts. It just peters out most of the time. We had six corners in a while here minute spell in the first half and never looked like scoring. In the second half I counted in a relatively short period us having 6 free kicks or corners and their goalie caught five of them and the other one just petered out as so many of our attacks do. This is NOT new - it's been going on to a lesser or greater extent since the promotion year. It shows up now as we struggle to score any kind of goal. I'm positive managers of other teams just say to their defences that they should just wait for Thistle to pass the ball to them or hit a defender or fail to do anything but let the ball run out of play. We just NEVER look dangerous. I'm willing to be corrected but I'm sure I'm right. We just never do anything CLEVER or thoughtful with a free kick or corner and when we get into dangerous positions we give the ball up meekly or it just peters out cos we sling it into the middle to nobody. Willing to be shot down in flames!!
×
×
  • Create New...