Ayr at home

[Chachi]

Started with 7 outfield players from last season.

Same manager and support staff.

Same slow ponderous style and tactics.

Same pattern of play.

Same defensive frailties.

Same lack of cutting edge.

Same strange substitutions.

Same lack of spirit.

Same result.

[Hankey]

We are utter rubbish.

The worst thing is, the fans are going to allow this to continue to go on. They are as much blame as allowing Archie to build another spineless team of weans on loan deals and diddies from the pits of English football.

[Yellow & Redneck]

Were do you even start? Soundly beaten by a team containing 65 year old Mark Kerr, and Jamie Adams! 

Just a quick note before the rant. Archie. If this job isn't for you, just f**king chuck it. But don't sit in the dugout at 2-0 down with your arms folded, sulking like a little child. It is pitiful you weren't out there trying to drive that team on. 

Obviously there is a wee preamble. Ross County were humped by Arbroath, and Dundee United have had an abysmal BetFred Cup, yet we all expect them to be up there at the end of the season. The problem for us however is the sense of deja-vu in how we play. At least use these games to experiment in your style, or perhaps even do something crazy and play two strikers at the same time. But we just continue playing the same way that got us relegated last season, and hope that it will somehow work. 

Maybe some lessons from today will sink into Archibald's skull:

#1 Erskine is done. Done. Finito. The end. Finished. Impact player, maybe. Occasional starter, perhaps. But he is not the centrepiece of that midfield anymore. Really lacking in sharpness and pace. 

#2 Doolan is done as a lone-striker. Done. Finito. Finished. If we insist on playing him, he needs someone up there with him. But he just hasn't the pace or the sharpness at the moment to play up there on his own, with our current tactics. Invariably he ends up with the ball at his feet, but with his back to goal, and nobody trying to get beyond him. 

#3 That team is still 4 or 5 short. Ian McCall should be proud that his two master-strokes as a manager were playing today for Thistle. It is testament to his ability to identify a good player that they were both playing 10 years on. For the rest of us, and our manager, it should be mortifying we are still relying on McCall signings to dig us out of trouble. 

I know people will be pissed with some of the things I've said. But being in that North Stand today, I'm certainly not alone. The penny really dropped today for a lot of people that this is a stagnant team, with stagnant ideas. Last September Ian Maxwell promised to yield the knife if results didn't improved. Ultimately he takes some responsibility in that he did not follow through. Then again in the summer, we had a chance for a fresh start. That was a chance not taken. Now we have a boardroom and backroom that is chocked with Archie's best pals, and people who I think will be too cowardly to swing the axe if it comes down to it. He only has 1 year left on his contact, and I'm really 50:50 about the state the club could be in a year down the line. 

So c'mon Archibald. Prove me wrong. Stop whinging in the papers about it being "oh so difficult" to sign players, and just go out and do it. Teach those guys how to use the ball, and hit the target, and perhaps this could be a decent season. But that 2nd half vs an injury decimated  Morton, and today's game is a real indication of where we are at. 

Revenge next weekend. 

[scotty]

4 minutes ago, Hankey said:

We are utter rubbish.

The worst thing is, the fans are going to allow this to continue to go on. They are as much blame as allowing Archie to build another spineless team of weans on loan deals and diddies from the pits of English football.

And just what is it the fans are doing?

[Hankey]

Just now, scotty said:

And just what is it the fans are doing?

They are happy to let him continue despite continuous poor results for over a year followed by relegation. Archie would have been hunted anywhere else. Hamilton Accies fans have wanted Martin Canning out the door for less whilst working with less.

[jlsarmy]

11 minutes ago, stuart_adam said:

That was really dreadful. Possibly the worst mistake I’ve ever seen lead to the first goal. Then the team ran out ideas and chucked it.

Nice to see our management team have a plan b...

Don't even think our management team has a Plan A , do we really need 2 holding  midfielders at home to Ayr United ?, can't remember their keeper having a save to make the whole game . Archie has been given a chance to revitalise the Club but has still stuck by his tactics from last year which got us relegated. 

I was looking for a team that pressed the opposition to make things happen especially in their half of the pitch but everything we do is laboured and slow, is that due to a lack of fitness ?

Totally short of players with just a week to go before the start of the season which is a  nonsense and from what I've been told we've got 4 players signed up for the Reserve League.

Would take Jackie Mac back in a heartbeat  than watch that crap every week 

[scotty]

2 minutes ago, Hankey said:

They are happy to let him continue despite continuous poor results for over a year followed by relegation. Archie would have been hunted anywhere else. Hamilton Accies fans have wanted Martin Canning out the door for less whilst working with less.

Many fans had Archiebald sacked last season but he's still there. So, funnily enough, is Canning.

[Duke Gekantawa]

3 minutes ago, jlsarmy said:

 

Would take Jackie Mac back in a heartbeat  than watch that crap every week 

That, quite franky, is the silliest thing I’ve read here for a while, and there’s been plenty of competition 

[Duke Gekantawa]

7 minutes ago, Hankey said:

They are happy to let him continue despite continuous poor results for over a year followed by relegation. Archie would have been hunted anywhere else. Hamilton Accies fans have wanted Martin Canning out the door for less whilst working with less.

I think Canning is doing an excellent job at Accies. It shows that all clubs have their whoppers.

Ayr retaining the services of McCall after a miserable relegation, finishing bottom in a league with at least one part time team, shows that it’s not always best to get rid. We’ve decided to stick, so we should give it a round of games at the very least before revisiting this issue. 

[Hankey]

5 minutes ago, scotty said:

Many fans had Archiebald sacked last season but he's still there. So, funnily enough, is Canning.

Have a look on here, twitter, other forums, post Livingston game and throughout the summer, people have been resoundingly behind Archibald, despite the mince we've endured for over a year. Never have I seen a team with such consistently poor form have a manager who has received such a groundswell of support. If there was enough of a strong feeling from the support to get rid of Archibald, he'd be gone by now, but hes been allowed to continue on as a result, and we are seeing the end product, a rag tag squad well beaten at home to a newly promoted club. 

 

[Hankey]

1 minute ago, Duke Gekantawa said:

I think Canning is doing an excellent job at Accies. It shows that all clubs have their whoppers.

Ayr retaining the services of McCall after a miserable relegation, finishing bottom in a league with at least one part time team, shows that it’s not always best to get rid. We’ve decided to stick, so we should give it a round of games at the very least before revisiting this issue. 

Ayr are full-time now, thats the difference, No longer will they be mugs like part-time teams often are at this level. 

[Duke Gekantawa]

1 minute ago, Hankey said:

Ayr are full-time now, thats the difference, No longer will they be mugs like part-time teams often are at this level. 

I’m pretty sure they were full time when they went down

[Hankey]

2 minutes ago, Duke Gekantawa said:

I’m pretty sure they were full time when they went down

Went full time after their last relegation. 

[elevenone]

Awful fare today, 2nd half was Livi re-visited.  After 2nd goal went in you just knew we could have played until the end of time without getting back into it.  Agree with poster above, Erskine looks past it, Doolan is not a lone striker.  I think it is time the sentimentality that surrounds some personnel at club is looked at.

[kennymac29]

3 minutes ago, Hankey said:

Have a look on here, twitter, other forums, post Livingston game and throughout the summer, people have been resoundingly behind Archibald, despite the mince we've endured for over a year. Never have I seen a team with such consistently poor form have a manager who has received such a groundswell of support. If there was enough of a strong feeling from the support to get rid of Archibald, he'd be gone by now, but hes been allowed to continue on as a result, and we are seeing the end product, a rag tag squad well beaten at home to a newly promoted club. 

 

Have they? The majority of posts ive read have asked for Archie to go and that includes all the social media platforms u mention. The problem is the board don't care what the fans think and that's been the case over several issues. Other than protesting outside firhill after games the only other option is not attending which would put the club even more in the shitter.  I get your angry as we all are but blaming the people that keep the club afloat is pretty ridiculous. 

[Yellow & Redneck]

The Q&A Session with Archie at the Open Day tomorrow could be...interesting... 

[Winter of '63]

My first look at the team this season was a real shock to the system.  I thought we had the core of a side which would at least make the play-off position which is the minimum acceptable for a Thistle Side and with a fit Bannigan and some more depth to the squad, would be genuine promotion prospects. However today's performance showed the same faults as last season but worse.  Lots of possession, ponderous build-up , few clear chances, easy to defend against - in his post-match interview Archie correctly identified that we moved the ball too slowly - when is he going to do something about it?

Craig Slater looked a good player - strange substitution; Erskine tried very hard and showed a few flashes;  young Fitzpatrick wanted to go forward...that was about all the positives.  I never expected I would see Elliot dribble along the bye-line and lay on a goal - a catastrophic error;  Keown was rusty/not very good; McGinty was a really bad version of Dan Seaborne;  Penrice was awful and lacking  confidence;  Gordon's sole contribution was one good tackle - McCarthy did far more in his short spell - why are we playing an inferior loan player?;  Spittal has ability but didn't show it; Storer can make an incisive pass but is an atrocity waiting to happen.

I was baffled at the almost universal acclaim for re-signing Storey on this Forum and Pie & Bovril.  He was desperately poor last season - he can run quickly but can't pick out a pass or cross and is a dreadful finisher...a sclaffed shot and heading wide with the goal gaping today with repeated failures  to look up and find a team-mate from good positions.

Last season I kept posting that although we hadn't  played well the opposition didn't look a better team - that wasn't the case today.

Fantastic Strike from Shankland  - I almost applauded.

 

[erty13]

Lets take some positives out of today's game.

We are really good at passing the ball sideways.

[laukat]

Today was like watching pretty much every performance from last season. We go out in the first half try like mad to score, fail and then have no plan B in the second half.

Our one attacking ploy is to keep pushing the ball wide to overlapping fullbacks who then cross into the middle. Its so predictable, so boring and so easy to defend against.

We have player's that could hurt teams through the middle such as Erskine, Storey and Slater but we started with Erskine wide left, Storey wide right and Slater the deepest lying midfielder . That's nobody's fault other than the manager's.

Gordon, Doolan and Spital were anonymous, Elliot had a howler, and despite his wonder goal against Morton I'm beginning to think Storer is not a player.

I wasn't a fan of giving Archie another go and thought it had the potential to lead to back to back relegation's so far I've not seen anything to suggest that this season won't be a struggle. Either we get some season changing signings in within the next few weeks or we have to seriously look at a new manager to provide new tactics.

Today wouldn't have been so bad if we had been trying something new (i.e. tried Melbourne at left back and Penrice in midfield ) but that was pretty much our starting eleven and the same formation as we played against Morton and Albion Rovers.

[javeajag]

It might just be me but watching Archie’s reaction on jagzone to today’s game fills me with no confidence whatsoever 

[Hankey]

1 minute ago, javeajag said:

It might just be me but watching Archie’s reaction on jagzone to today’s game fills me with no confidence whatsoever 

What was our achilles heel today?

[stuart_adam]

Have to say as bad as we were I really do question this competition format. We won 3 / 4 and yet St Mirren who win 1/4 are guaranteed to go through?  Just seems a bit daft. Don’t get me wrong they won 3 penalty shootouts but surely it should come down to games won before goal difference?

[Alan Murray]

Not sure where to start on that! The first goal we lost was simply unbelievable! Don’t think Elliot will ever do that again. Not saw a goal like that in my many years watching football.

The two centre-backs were very poor. A know they have not played together before but they were taken apart at times with simple movement. Shankland does look like a cut above this level but we need to cope with him better than we did.

I normally say most fans totally overplay the value of the subs but this time is different. The substitution of Slater really was a huge negative. We simply had far too many inexperienced players on the pitch at the end of the match and it really showed.  Doolan was poor but Storey was good till he was moved up front.

Storer has a lot of technical ability but his attitude on the park really looked questionable today.

Some of the fans reaction was really poor – we had a very young side out in the second half but that never stopped them shouting abuse at them.

We really need more experience in the side and getting the right defensive midfielder is going to be key.

[javeajag]

19 minutes ago, Hankey said:

What was our achilles heel today?

We are too slow playing too many square passes.....need 4 /5 new players 

[Auld Jag]

Due to me still recovering from a hernia op I had just over a week ago I was not in my usual spot in the jls.So I had to depend on the interweb to keep up with the game.Going by what has been said on here it certainly was like watching an old movie which we had hoped had been binned.But we did not sack the manager at any point last season and have chosen to stick by him to get us promotion,imo we have to give him up to Christmas now and hope that he has like he has said learned from his mistakes. He said in interviews today we need 4 more players in and he hopes to have somebody in before next weeks game against Ayr in the league.On a personal note I would like to thank Partickthedog who offered to pick me up from my house,take me to Firhill,then drive me home again today but I had to turn his very kind offer down.I hope to back at Firhill for the Falkirk game in a few weeks time,lets hope we have a good result at Ayr next week to build on.