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Arbroath vs Partick Thistle


jagfox
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I didn’t think it would be possible to feel more deflated leaving a game than I did against Dundee Utd two weeks ago but wow that was horrendous today. Iv got to admit until recently I hadn’t fully gave up on a late promotion play off push but after witnessing that this afternoon I am under no illusion we are in serious serious danger of going down and few could argue if we did. Yeah the wind was brutal today and turned it into a bit of a farce but what gets me is the fact we had THREE central defenders on the park first half and seldom have I seen such a shambles when crosses/corners etc were coming into our box. Iv now officially gave up on mcginty and Saunders. The sooner they go (along with Williamson and robson) the better. 

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46 minutes ago, lewcal said:

I didn’t think it would be possible to feel more deflated leaving a game than I did against Dundee Utd two weeks ago but wow that was horrendous today. Iv got to admit until recently I hadn’t fully gave up on a late promotion play off push but after witnessing that this afternoon I am under no illusion we are in serious serious danger of going down and few could argue if we did. Yeah the wind was brutal today and turned it into a bit of a farce but what gets me is the fact we had THREE central defenders on the park first half and seldom have I seen such a shambles when crosses/corners etc were coming into our box. Iv now officially gave up on mcginty and Saunders. The sooner they go (along with Williamson and robson) the better. 

Agree with everything said..

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Certainly no positives!!

However that was not a game of football. The game should have been called off. 


 Arbroath adapted to the wind far better though and we, especially Fox and Saunders, were absolutely clueless in possession.

In addition, all 3 cb’s couldn’t cope with any aimless ball into the box. 

McKinnon is fat, slow and unfit. He has had a good career for such a limited talent and I admire him for that but he has a huge challenge to get up to speed at 35. 
 

2 Excuses

1. it was the 1st game for 4 or 5 players and they may need time to knit(although we don’t have any time)

2. The wind made it impossible to play any football so the new players could not be fully assessed.

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7 minutes ago, Weebaw1 said:

Certainly no positives!!

However that was not a game of football. The game should have been called off. 


 Arbroath adapted to the wind far better though and we, especially Fox and Saunders, were absolutely clueless in possession.

In addition, all 3 cb’s couldn’t cope with any aimless ball into the box. 

McKinnon is fat, slow and unfit. He has had a good career for such a limited talent and I admire him for that but he has a huge challenge to get up to speed at 35. 
 

2 Excuses

1. it was the 1st game for 4 or 5 players and they may need time to knit(although we don’t have any time)

2. The wind made it impossible to play any football so the new players could not be fully assessed.

Not sure if McCall watched Darian McKinnon in Hamilton’s reserve games , if he had he would have known he wasn’t in the best shape to make a difference.

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5 hours ago, JAG1970 said:

Partick Thistle manager Ian McCall: 

"We didn't do the dirty side of the game well enough. We're in a dog fight now and we have to win games."

We didn't do anything well enough. That was an absolutely appalling performance from start to finish. McCall needs to chuck it with this sort of bullshit. We lost because we were total shite. Scoreline flattered us. We are in big trouble with this shower of imposters. 

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12 hours ago, lady-isobel-barnett said:

Gotta agree the BBC possession & shots stats make us look a lot better than we were. As mentioned earlier I suggest the corner stats (4-10) reflect a fairly accurate picture. With such a strong wind down the pitch it's near impossible if playing well to not force more than a handful of corners. They did and we didn't.

And for them a corner was almost as good as a penalty kick because of how they used the wind in corners in first half! 

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9 hours ago, Weebaw1 said:

2 Excuses

1. it was the 1st game for 4 or 5 players and they may need time to knit(although we don’t have any time)

2. The wind made it impossible to play any football so the new players could not be fully assessed.

Ricky little bossed Brian Graham in the air. That’s Ricky little by name little by standards of centre halves. I am sure the wind was blowing the same for both players. 

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36 minutes ago, jaf said:

Ricky little bossed Brian Graham in the air. That’s Ricky little by name little by standards of centre halves. I am sure the wind was blowing the same for both players. 

Yes he did.

He organised them the whole game.

Assume he was captain. It made me wonder if we hadn’t freed him all those years ago, would he be a jags legend by now?

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8 hours ago, javeajag said:

We seem to be missing a crucial ingredient as a team ... the desire to win by working hard, taking nothing for granted and never giving up .... we might have some good players but  they need to step up 

Winning ugly fuelled by good old fashioned nae frills blood and snotters is what we need along with a captain who can verbally marshal the team into some semblance of order and shape ...don’t see ant evidence of that happening at present .

McCall needs to invoke the spirit of Lambie in the dressing room sooner than later methinks .

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In all my years of following Thistle and Scotland there have been many depressing performances to cope with and I have to say that yesterday's was one of the worst for me. 

Partly because I was really looking forward to the game.  I'd never been to Gayfield and I was ridiculously excited to be going to an old fashioned ground.  Partly because we'd signed some impressive players by all accounts,  including football commentators and opposing fans and I genuinely thought that this was going to be a fresh start - the season begins here,  kind of thing. 

The reality was crushing.  Another appalling away performance up (or down) there with all the low lights of recent years. Every bit as bad as the worst displays under Archibald or Caldwell in fact,  and - and this is where the depression really kicks in - exactly the same. 

Why is it that, no matter who's playing for us or who's the manager, we allow ourselves to be bullied out of games, over and over, by teams with more limited resources than us and players who, if we signed,  we'd all rightly condemning the  club for a lack of ambition?

Yesterday's experience can be summed up for me by the sight of Fox taking bye kicks that flew off the right hand side of the pitch over and over again,  with the Thistle fans howling in outrage and the Arbroath fans pissing themselves laughing.  You'd think he was trying to solve some particularly tricky quadratic equation instead of working out that you kick the ball to the left to compensate for the wind taking it to the right.... It was embarrassing. 

It isn't any consolation at all, or any kind of excuse,  but for those folk who are saying that the wind was the same for both teams,  it wasn't.  It allowed Arbroath to play to their strengths in the first half and destroyed any chance we could play to ours.  It had reduced significantly by the second half. If we had won the toss, that would have been a completely different game yesterday. 

Where now? We're in a relegation dog fight.  Time to start playing like we are. 

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Haven't been at a wind-affected match as bad as this since I saw Bobby Geddes save one of his goal-kicks at Rugby Park! 

I've a sneaking suspicion Fox was taking his goal kicks from the right hand side of the goal (invariably seeing them sailing out of touch over the dug-outs) to see the 1st half out at 0-1 and as a way of making at least some progress out of their half.  Certainly don't remember any of the management team remonstrating with him for doing so.  The plan (if it existed) went out of the window when the 2nd goal went in.  I don't remember any goal-kick or clearance against the wind  by either keeper reaching half-way.  Many of them soared to a great height and doubled back on themselves.  Thistle (hardly ever over the half-way line) had no attempts on goal in the 1st half and  Arbroath (much the same)  had one shot (straight at Fox in the 2nd).  In the 2nd half Thistle didn't get the ball down and pass it well enough or quickly enough.  They over-shot the forwards when they went long.  Arbroath mastered the conditions, got stuck in and took their chances. Thistle didn't.  Simples!  

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Firhill I started said -  If we had won the toss, that would have been a completely different game yesterday. 

Arbroath kicked off in the first half, so did we in fact win the toss and choose to shoot into the wind? If so who’s stupid decision was it? It handed the initiative to the home team, which they took immediately. Surely in conditions like that it’s best to take them first in the event of the wind dying down a bit in the second half, which it seemed to do.

Worst part of the first half for me in the first half was the only time we actually got forward and Penrice made a complete mess of good position with a woeful cross that went out for a throw in. Clueless

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1 hour ago, Weebaw1 said:

Yes he did.

He organised them the whole game.

Assume he was captain. It made me wonder if we hadn’t freed him all those years ago, would he be a jags legend by now?

He isn’t captain. O brien is. 
he is clearly just a good pro a good communicator with a desire to win. Also a very friendly likeable guy based on his appearance in hospitality lounge. saunders got a scotland cap but looked about the fourth best central defender on the park! 

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24 minutes ago, jaggy said:

Arbroath kicked off in the first half, so did we in fact win the toss and choose to shoot into the wind

Absolutely right.  I hadn't clocked that. Unbelievable decision on our part. Did our captain decide this on his own? If so, I hope his team mates give him pelters at training tomorrow.  (And if the management team had any say in it then God help us....)

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That wis worse than junior stuff. The wind, a waen would learn quicker than to keep kicking the ball high. As a so called 'football' team we couldn't make a simple pass. There was no idea at all other than kick the ball high out the ground. It was shambolic and an embarrassment, certainly the worst I've seen since the 4 nil humping by the gypsies. McCall, Archie, Scally, all standing there watching as we kicked balls onto the roof time and again. We could have picked 11 from the terraces that could have done better and that's no even joking. If that was Caldwell in charge the forum would be in meltdown 

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20 minutes ago, jaf said:

He isn’t captain. O brien is. 
he is clearly just a good pro a good communicator with a desire to win. Also a very friendly likeable guy based on his appearance in hospitality lounge. saunders got a scotland cap but looked about the fourth best central defender on the park! 

Jesus, I never knew that Saunders has been capped by Scotland. That is actually quite scary. 

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3 hours ago, jaf said:

Ricky little bossed Brian Graham in the air. That’s Ricky little by name little by standards of centre halves. I am sure the wind was blowing the same for both players. 

The difference is that it is almost always blowing a gale at Arbroath. They are more used to playing in those conditions 

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23 minutes ago, Lenziejag said:

The difference is that it is almost always blowing a gale at Arbroath. They are more used to playing in those conditions 

That’s probably a factor no doubt, but the contradiction is when Arbroath came to Firhill in our bigger park and beat us as well when we should have had the advantage.

Sometimes a team has got to dig in and find a way to win regardless of conditions etc ,  we don’t seem to have the players to do that .

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