jagfaelivi

I must admit the way we defended too deep after the second goal gave me the creeps. From the other end it looked as if they missed several sitters. The green team won't let us off with that on Friday. Why do we back off and back off and then just boot it up the park to nobody most of the time. Having said all of that there were several excellent performances tonight. Jordan Turnbull was awful impressive for a debut and with new people around him. Thought Callum had a great game as did Christy - how his actual football has improved; great to see. Wee Stevie was more like himself and Edwards was nearer the form of last season. BUT Squiddy was just immense. What a game he had!! Agree that young Nisbet was much better than Saturday and maybe he just needs a couple of goals to get his confidence up. Pleased to be through but, as always with the Saintees, if they had got that first goal we would have been much less happy on the way home. C'mon Jags give us something to be proud of on Friday. I was nearly vomiting at the level of grovel there was to all things Celtic on the radio on the way home. Just awful to listen to..

Huge amount of vitriol from the Coventry forum against Jordan. Best that is said is a grudging "there might be a player in there somewhere". But somebody else said that he has" the upper body strength of a 4 year old". And there were a couple of pretty bad videos of awful episodes...... Time will tell but my guess is that he'll NOT be thrown in against the Hibees. I''m sure Archie knows what he's doing.

Jaggy Bunnet - head past the Playhouse and right on to London Road. Probably more than half a mile to a main junction and left down the road there - I think THAT might be Easter Road. Keep going for another half mile and by that time it should be getting pretty busy and self evident where the crowd is going. The ground is off to your right. Hope that helps a bit.

Let's give a bit of credit to Stranraer. They were well organised and when you are in mid field and faced by at least eight opposition shirts in front of you what do you do?!? Others have struggled too. Motherwell 1-0 against Berwick and 2-1 at Edinburgh City. Both teams a lot further down the pecking order than our opposition today. How often have we EVER been effective at breaking down a packed defence? Certainly not recently. We are always much better. when teams come "and make a game of it". If you were the Stranraer management and had watched the footage of the match against the Paisley crew would you have said to your team "let's go and get at them!"? Some of the best teams in the world have had problems with packed defences. Even Barca don't break the opposition down every week. Give the guys a break and a bit of time. Remember there are people coming in and we still have injuries

I think we have to consider the part the pitch played in that game. It is a leveller, there is no doubt. On Saturday we played some lovely one touch stuff with great accuracy. That was just not possible on that dry rug. The half second more it took to control the ball suited Airdrie perfectly. AND when the ball bounced it would have cleared a house. Anyway there are things to address 1) Barton is getting caught too often on the ball, 2) we still lack that leader mentioned already who will push us on, 3) and the defence still gets caught square too much. Better teams will expose all of this. Having said all of this we are still capable of playing some stuff as good as I have ever seen from a Thistle team.

Think he has been outstanding in the two games so far. Great lad and if we could get him to stay a bit longer what a legend he could become.

I think all the punnery just shows how starved we are of information and how desperately we need news of some sort to discuss. The Jagzone has an interview with Devine and this is the first of any footballing info since last weekend. Not that he says much but it's better than nothing. Roll on Saturday.

It was not a comment necessarily about new players rather it was on impatience and frustration and to see how many folk shared that feeling. Even the official site seems to give away information on anything reluctantly. I can remember the old Jagsline where you phoned up for interviews or for information and I was never off it. I fully realise that Archie lost certain targets earlier in his managerial career because of leaks and, having been burned thus, he is not prone to let any felines out of the poke. I'm just a frustrated old Jags fan!!

I am soooo impatient and it gets worse when Archie says something will happen soon -"maybe before the Livingston game!" then " a couple coming in" and then all the talk of McDonald and Storey and all our apprehension after the evidence we have of not a lot up front. Is everybody feeling like me?

How much have we needed the real LEADER on the park for quite a long time? When things get really tough we seem to be vulnerable, lacking ideas and, if you think of last season, somebody who controls the whole thing when we are trying to hold on to three points near the end of matches. Dare I say that it's a Scott Brown type of player? But somebody like Geggan from the Ayr side of last night. Eyes sticking out like dog's balls and desperate to win. I thought that Spittal will do something for us if he just keeps going if things are not going his way. That seems to have been the criticism at United. He has loads of ability. I thought Banzo was amazing for most of the game given how knackered he looked latterly and no surprise after missing fifteen months' football. Long way to go and players to come back.

If you come off the M8 at the second exit for Livingston you come on to dual carriageway and it is marked for the stadium a bit down the road. If you come in on the A71 side i.e. From the more southern approach the stadium route is marked as well. If all else fails you can't go wrong following either the St John's Hospital signs or ones for the Almondvale Centre as the stadium is sandwiched between the two. Hope to see loads of you there?

Were poor the first half against a Dumbarton side who were very well organised. They moved quickly from defence to attack en masse. Nade gave Barton a torrid time and Barton didn't help our cause by repeatedly getting caught on the ball. We could have been four down at HT!! If they had had anybody to finish. Nade took his goal very well. Second half with Erskine and Doolan on we looked miles better and played some good stuff, equalising with a great goal in which Elliot was sensational laying it on for Nisbet to score cleverly. Then it was all change and we had youngsters all on by the end . Their winning goal I couldn't comment on as I was in the process of leaving. Lots of promise though. Banzo looked not far away and Spittal sprayed the ball about well. Young Penrice was promising and McLaughlin good. Lamont played well when he came on too. Lawless was better in the second half and Elliot had his moments running at their defence. Hard to tell at this stage

Just watched Archie's interview after the Hampton game and he seemed very down in his tone and body language. Talked a couple of times about injuries without saying who they are and if they are serious. Dumbuya and Osman were both missing and don't think Tomas has been much in evidence. Anybody notice other absentees? Not good thus early.

In keeping with other Scottish teams the new Glasgow lot seem to be able to do nothing in Europe, even against minnows. Despite their resources! What a state Scottish football is in. Discuss!

Kids is definitely the way to go! Ideas 1) a card to be stamped every time they attend and they get rewards for five , ten and twenty-five games in a season - something like a red, black and yellow wrist band, a cap for ten and something more creative for the twenty-five one. 2) bring along two adults who have to be non Thistle supporters and one gets in free For the students, and remember there are three universities in the city as well as colleges 1) give them both league cup matches at home free entry on production of their matric card (remember they will be on holiday at that time but not beyond the wit of somebody at the club to get as much Thistle related advertising on to the various campuses for the season after this one) 2) there should be ongoing incentives for students to bring along a mate - two for the price of one at certain matches it would be. 3) we REALLY need a relationship with one of the academic institutions e.g. The Strathclyde team 4) a girl supporter bringing her boyfriend or vice versa would get a discount on production of matric card Would it be non PC to set up , for example , the Polish Jags Club or the Asian Red 'n' Yellas? We really have to look at "sections"/"groups" in society and see if we can think outside the box to attract them - have a teachers' club or an accountants' group.

And these hammering are the reason we support the team we do. Well maybe not the REASON but the fact we don't win or expect to win every time out. Wins, when they occur, are much sweeter for us. I spoke to a Celtic supporter I know yesterday morning and asked him just what he got from supporting them because most of the time it's wealthy giants playing impecunious pygmies. He said he just liked watching good football being played. I suppose that makes sense and is part of the reason Archie has been so successful with the Faithful. But surely WE like to do well and win now and again? So it's more than just good football.

I just loved the Michael Max interview with our manager today. AA was raging inwardly but was holding it together. Archie has what it takes to go very high in this game and I think that today the players will get the proverbial "flea in their ear". Deservedly so. We have beaten the Perth side regularly recently but that only means that today it was going to be twice as difficult. Hope Archie is with us next year. Onwards and upwards and more grinding next season. Just the way the Perth lot do.

I feel that , all season, and maybe in seasons past we lack a player like Scott Brown and , dare I say, Martin Hardie to harass and harangue the rest of the boys through till the end. We don't have somebody to take the game by the scruff of the neck and bully his own team when push comes to shove. We STILL back up and back up when it gets tight at the end and inevitably concede. Is there anybody around at our budget? Not necessarily a great player but somebody who would run through a brick wall for us? Comments/ideas?

Listened to the Jagzone commentary and it was apparent that Cerny saved us but then I listened to Willie Miller on the BBC - his take made the Perth side sound like world beaters. And he said it was Keown who gave away the pen. Is it just that we are not liked? Or was it so one sided?

I thought our boy was outstanding tonight. Funny, informed, respectful, thoughtful and intelligent. I was an English teacher once and one of the things I had to do was to assess students orally (no funny comments please!!!) and I would have given Dools top marks for how he came across. AND a bonus, not a grammatical error in sound and how often have we been able to say that about Scottish footballers? The boy could go a lot further than just scoring a few goals for the Jags! Well done my man!

Thought we were not very strong in midfield - Barton gave the ball away in a couple of awkward positions that could have led to more for the opposition and young McCarthy did likewise though he had a good game. Cerny was excellent. How lucky are we to have him? Funny feeling coming away from Tynecastle feeling a bit disappointed we didn't win!! We ARE getting better!!

Agree with everything m'lady has said. Yup! I just don't/ never have associate(d) our team with doing very much when nothing/ very little is at stake. We just seem to have been in survival mode forever and it is a REAL novelty to, for once, have breathing space. Great to see we have sold out our allocation of tickets (how many is that?) and it would be great to see the team come out and really show what we are capable of. I just hope the Tynecastle pitch had been heavily watered because everything in the east is as dry as dust and the ball would bounce over a house if there has not been watering. Mon the Jags!

George Smith

Excellent! I saw every minute of every game in the Championship season but have slipped considerably since then. But I was still proud to have achieved that one.

A miserable 3-0 defeat at Broomfield about 1958 and the second game was, I think, the same season at Firhill against Airdrie again AND another 3-0 reverse - think it was Grand National day. This latter match George Smith's dad took me - I lived in West Lothian and George was my hero. Things have been better since though I've seen some awful hammerings and the guys I sit near in the JH stand accuse me of being negative. I always say "it's Thistle we support!!!"