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6 hours ago, lady-isobel-barnett said:

Fanboy. I see this word in print a fair amount these days but have never once have I heard it used in conversation. Could somebody please elucidate?

It appears to me to be used as a mild insult but I might not be on the right track. Also can anybody be a fanboy/fangirl?  And is there an opposite (antonym) or would you just be a non-fanboy/non-fangirl?

It seen to be used with that tone by snipers who don’t go to games from my experience. 

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5 hours ago, Dark Passenger said:

It's possible to be critical of the management team without calling for them to be sacked. That's the sentiment I've encountered most since Friday.

Our form during January/February last season played a huge part in keeping us up, but we appear to have gone backwards during the same period this year, despite the backing given to the manager.

It feels to me that McCall is being judged to a different standard than some previous Thistle managers, despite the circumstances being largely the same. 

I think we got very lucky last year after Xmas. Pulling a guy out of retirement was a huge (and expensive) gamble that thankfully paid off, which is a huge credit to the professionalism of Scott McDonald who having not played in 6 month was as fit if not fitter than most f the team. If we hadn’t came from behind against Alloa to win, I think that would have relegated us. If he’d got injured we would have went down.

This season I think we’ve used up all our luck, we have a team that is used to getting beat and has been near or at the bottom of the league for nearly 3 years, that’s a very difficult mentality to break.

Edited by Norgethistle
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1 hour ago, exiledjag said:

How many games have we won at home? 

Not many is the short answer however if you compare where we are at this point in the season with the same point last season it shows some interesting numbers.

After game 24 last season we had 25 points 17 at home and only 8 away. This season after 24 games we have 23 points only 8 at home and 15 away.

By the end of last season we had only gained further 7 points at home but picked up 11 away from home. In fact we only lost 1 away game (v Dufermline) from that point to the end of the season so clearly there was a marked improvement in our away form.

A win in either of our next 2 games would put us on 26 point which would be 1 point better than the same point last season as we lost at home to Ross County last season and then Dunfermline away . After the Dunfermline loss last season we went bottom of the league and it was starting to look really desperate at that stage.

Whilst we are 2 points worse off at this point, Morton are also 2 worse and Alloa 3 points better off. Every team in the league is within 3 points of their total at this point last season with the exception of Ayr (-8), Dundee united (+12) and QOS (-4). Obviously its not possible to get numbers for Arbroath and Dundee.

I suspose the question is what does that tell us?

I would suggest that last season shows it is possible to turn around the previous form as the difference in our away form last season was pretty stark and almost exactly the change we require in our home form this season.

I would also suggest that only 3 teams being within 3 points of their total last season shows no one has really massively improved or got massively worse. Exceptions are clearly Dundee United have improved and Ayr have fallen back. This will make it impossible to know who will finish in the relegation spots or in the top 4 placings. Last season at this point Ross County, Ayr and Dundee United had pretty much secured their playoff spot, this season nobody can feel comfortable that they will make the top 4 bar United winning the league.

Last comment would that QOS are the ones to watch. They are now 4 points worse off, have 5 games to play in 14 days and now have only 6 home games and 7 away games to play. From this point last season they only got 3 points away from home and 5 at home. As we play QOS twice and Alloa once our safety is stil in our own hands.

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While I am not confident we can stay up - I am hopeful.  I was saying 8th three weeks back - now I'd gladly take 9th and escape in the play-offs.

It's a tough division - but we have better resources than most.   The manager did not become a bad manager overnight so I have confidence he can turn us around - I just hope it is this season.

We need stability in the team - I thought we might have that after the January transfer window - but once again it seems that despondency has set in.

 

 

 

 

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30 minutes ago, Norgethistle said:

I think we got very lucky last year after Xmas. Pulling a guy out of retirement was a huge (and expensive) gamble that thankfully paid off, which is a huge credit to the professionalism of Scott McDonald who having not played in 6 month was as fit if not fitter than most f the team. If we hadn’t came from behind against Alloa to win, I think that would have relegated us. If he’d got injured we would have went down.

This season I think we’ve used up all our luck, we have a team that is used to getting beat and has been near or at the bottom of the league for nearly 3 years, that’s a very difficult mentality to break.

Except how many of the current starting eleven have played in all three seasons? Not one that I can think of. The problem is that confidence is low and fragile and the huge turnover of players and staff has made it difficult to build any sort of momentum 

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6 minutes ago, laukat said:

Not many is the short answer however if you compare where we are at this point in the season with the same point last season it shows some interesting numbers.

After game 24 last season we had 25 points 17 at home and only 8 away. This season after 24 games we have 23 points only 8 at home and 15 away.

By the end of last season we had only gained further 7 points at home but picked up 11 away from home. In fact we only lost 1 away game (v Dufermline) from that point to the end of the season so clearly there was a marked improvement in our away form.

A win in either of our next 2 games would put us on 26 point which would be 1 point better than the same point last season as we lost at home to Ross County last season and then Dunfermline away . After the Dunfermline loss last season we went bottom of the league and it was starting to look really desperate at that stage.

Whilst we are 2 points worse off at this point, Morton are also 2 worse and Alloa 3 points better off. Every team in the league is within 3 points of their total at this point last season with the exception of Ayr (-8), Dundee united (+12) and QOS (-4). Obviously its not possible to get numbers for Arbroath and Dundee.

I suspose the question is what does that tell us?

I would suggest that last season shows it is possible to turn around the previous form as the difference in our away form last season was pretty stark and almost exactly the change we require in our home form this season.

I would also suggest that only 3 teams being within 3 points of their total last season shows no one has really massively improved or got massively worse. Exceptions are clearly Dundee United have improved and Ayr have fallen back. This will make it impossible to know who will finish in the relegation spots or in the top 4 placings. Last season at this point Ross County, Ayr and Dundee United had pretty much secured their playoff spot, this season nobody can feel comfortable that they will make the top 4 bar United winning the league.

Last comment would that QOS are the ones to watch. They are now 4 points worse off, have 5 games to play in 14 days and now have only 6 home games and 7 away games to play. From this point last season they only got 3 points away from home and 5 at home. As we play QOS twice and Alloa once our safety is stil in our own hands.

 I appreciate the perspective of the analysis in this post - also the concluding note of optimism!  Thank you 

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8 hours ago, lady-isobel-barnett said:

Fanboy. I see this word in print a fair amount these days but have never once have I heard it used in conversation. Could somebody please elucidate?

It appears to me to be used as a mild insult but I might not be on the right track. Also can anybody be a fanboy/fangirl?  And is there an opposite (antonym) or would you just be a non-fanboy/non-fangirl?

I know LBT, not sure what it means/ refers to either but coming from the ever positive GRE I presume it is an insult.!!

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18 minutes ago, Cfirejkl said:

While I am not confident we can stay up - I am hopeful.  I was saying 8th three weeks back - now I'd gladly take 9th and escape in the play-offs.

It's a tough division - but we have better resources than most.   The manager did not become a bad manager overnight so I have confidence he can turn us around - I just hope it is this season.

We need stability in the team - I thought we might have that after the January transfer window - but once again it seems that despondency has set in.

 

 

 

 

After Friday night's performance Against a league 1 team I would not be hopeful of beating anyone ..

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6 hours ago, Dark Passenger said:

It's possible to be critical of the management team without calling for them to be sacked. That's the sentiment I've encountered most since Friday.

Our form during January/February last season played a huge part in keeping us up, but we appear to have gone backwards during the same period this year, despite the backing given to the manager.

It feels to me that McCall is being judged to a different standard than some previous Thistle managers, despite the circumstances being largely the same. 

Of course it is possible and totally justifiable to be critical of the management. Nobody can argue with where we are in the league,  results or performances and ultimately the Manager has to take full responsibility.

As Lauket says, however,  At some stage we need to back a manager to take us forward and allow him to form a team.

 

 

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16 minutes ago, ironfist said:

Except how many of the current starting eleven have played in all three seasons? Not one that I can think of. The problem is that confidence is low and fragile and the huge turnover of players and staff has made it difficult to build any sort of momentum 

Playing wise. Penrice and Banzo

Coaching wise. Archibald, Arthur,

Running the club, Gerry Britton & (maybe) Jaquie Lowe and (maybe) Michael Robertson

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39 minutes ago, laukat said:

Not many is the short answer however if you compare where we are at this point in the season with the same point last season it shows some interesting numbers.

After game 24 last season we had 25 points 17 at home and only 8 away. This season after 24 games we have 23 points only 8 at home and 15 away.

By the end of last season we had only gained further 7 points at home but picked up 11 away from home. In fact we only lost 1 away game (v Dufermline) from that point to the end of the season so clearly there was a marked improvement in our away form.

A win in either of our next 2 games would put us on 26 point which would be 1 point better than the same point last season as we lost at home to Ross County last season and then Dunfermline away . After the Dunfermline loss last season we went bottom of the league and it was starting to look really desperate at that stage.

Whilst we are 2 points worse off at this point, Morton are also 2 worse and Alloa 3 points better off. Every team in the league is within 3 points of their total at this point last season with the exception of Ayr (-8), Dundee united (+12) and QOS (-4). Obviously its not possible to get numbers for Arbroath and Dundee.

I suspose the question is what does that tell us?

I would suggest that last season shows it is possible to turn around the previous form as the difference in our away form last season was pretty stark and almost exactly the change we require in our home form this season.

I would also suggest that only 3 teams being within 3 points of their total last season shows no one has really massively improved or got massively worse. Exceptions are clearly Dundee United have improved and Ayr have fallen back. This will make it impossible to know who will finish in the relegation spots or in the top 4 placings. Last season at this point Ross County, Ayr and Dundee United had pretty much secured their playoff spot, this season nobody can feel comfortable that they will make the top 4 bar United winning the league.

Last comment would that QOS are the ones to watch. They are now 4 points worse off, have 5 games to play in 14 days and now have only 6 home games and 7 away games to play. From this point last season they only got 3 points away from home and 5 at home. As we play QOS twice and Alloa once our safety is stil in our own hands.

Probably agree about QOS , if Alloa continue with their current run of form  they’ll escape relegation easily ,think Alloa and Arbroath are top of the form League over the past 6 games , think we’re bottom!!

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27 minutes ago, Norgethistle said:

Playing wise. Penrice and Banzo

Coaching wise. Archibald, Arthur,

Running the club, Gerry Britton & (maybe) Jaquie Lowe and (maybe) Michael Robertson

Penrice and banzo played next to no part in our relegation season. Archie is back in a different role, Gerry has been chief exec only since we were in the championship.

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1 hour ago, laukat said:

Not many is the short answer however if you compare where we are at this point in the season with the same point last season it shows some interesting numbers.

After game 24 last season we had 25 points 17 at home and only 8 away. This season after 24 games we have 23 points only 8 at home and 15 away.

By the end of last season we had only gained further 7 points at home but picked up 11 away from home. In fact we only lost 1 away game (v Dufermline) from that point to the end of the season so clearly there was a marked improvement in our away form.

A win in either of our next 2 games would put us on 26 point which would be 1 point better than the same point last season as we lost at home to Ross County last season and then Dunfermline away . After the Dunfermline loss last season we went bottom of the league and it was starting to look really desperate at that stage.

Whilst we are 2 points worse off at this point, Morton are also 2 worse and Alloa 3 points better off. Every team in the league is within 3 points of their total at this point last season with the exception of Ayr (-8), Dundee united (+12) and QOS (-4). Obviously its not possible to get numbers for Arbroath and Dundee.

I suspose the question is what does that tell us?

I would suggest that last season shows it is possible to turn around the previous form as the difference in our away form last season was pretty stark and almost exactly the change we require in our home form this season.

I would also suggest that only 3 teams being within 3 points of their total last season shows no one has really massively improved or got massively worse. Exceptions are clearly Dundee United have improved and Ayr have fallen back. This will make it impossible to know who will finish in the relegation spots or in the top 4 placings. Last season at this point Ross County, Ayr and Dundee United had pretty much secured their playoff spot, this season nobody can feel comfortable that they will make the top 4 bar United winning the league.

Last comment would that QOS are the ones to watch. They are now 4 points worse off, have 5 games to play in 14 days and now have only 6 home games and 7 away games to play. From this point last season they only got 3 points away from home and 5 at home. As we play QOS twice and Alloa once our safety is stil in our own hands.

Agree - its all still to play for and the gap between 4th and 9th shall probably be the narrowest ever this season.

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13 hours ago, jlsarmy said:

Probably agree about QOS , if Alloa continue with their current run of form  they’ll escape relegation easily ,think Alloa and Arbroath are top of the form League over the past 6 games , think we’re bottom!!

I'm not so sure that Alloa will escape this year. Last season they won 4 games back to back to just avoid the playoff spot. They'll have to win about the 5 games to do that and I'm not sure they have they same ability to get goals as they did last season. We'll have to win about 6 but we have within the squad more potential to do that.

Leaving stats aside, my personal feeling is that we'll finish above Morton, Alloa and QOS. From what I've seen we have a better squad since the January signings than all of those teams.

Morton will I think struggle at some point as they haven't addressed their issues in defence and up front are still very reliant on Sutton to cause chaos and he can't last 90 minutes. Alloa are a well organised team but lack the attacking options they had last season. QOS look to be again reliant on Dobbie who's another year older but are struggling to find a partner for him to feed off and a settled defence since they let Brownlie go to us.

In our case I think McCall knows what first 11 he wants to play and if he can play it regularly it should be strong enough. He also has I think got enough game changing options for the bench if he can get them fit and performing. Of the bottom 4 we have potentially the best front two and from now on in the bottom teams need goals to survive, clean sheets are no longer enough.

Right now I would tip QOS for automatic relegation and Alloa for the playoff spot. However it is genuinely impossible to have any degree of certainty and its not impossible that anyone up to ICT end up in the bottom 2 positions.

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4 hours ago, laukat said:

I'm not so sure that Alloa will escape this year. Last season they won 4 games back to back to just avoid the playoff spot. They'll have to win about the 5 games to do that and I'm not sure they have they same ability to get goals as they did last season. We'll have to win about 6 but we have within the squad more potential to do that.

Leaving stats aside, my personal feeling is that we'll finish above Morton, Alloa and QOS. From what I've seen we have a better squad since the January signings than all of those teams.

Morton will I think struggle at some point as they haven't addressed their issues in defence and up front are still very reliant on Sutton to cause chaos and he can't last 90 minutes. Alloa are a well organised team but lack the attacking options they had last season. QOS look to be again reliant on Dobbie who's another year older but are struggling to find a partner for him to feed off and a settled defence since they let Brownlie go to us.

In our case I think McCall knows what first 11 he wants to play and if he can play it regularly it should be strong enough. He also has I think got enough game changing options for the bench if he can get them fit and performing. Of the bottom 4 we have potentially the best front two and from now on in the bottom teams need goals to survive, clean sheets are no longer enough.

Right now I would tip QOS for automatic relegation and Alloa for the playoff spot. However it is genuinely impossible to have any degree of certainty and its not impossible that anyone up to ICT end up in the bottom 2 positions.

I cant, and don't want to, disagree with any of the above. The problem with the team I saw of Friday night is they don't know how to play football to the benefit of the whole team. As an example ….. I think in Graham we have a good centre forward who will score goals if you tee him up with enough ammunition. Of course if the team don't play to the guys strengths [particularly the second ball] around the opposition goal, he will be an extremely frustrated player … as you can see in the video coverage at the end of Fridays game.

 

Edited by ARu-Strathbungo
grammar
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17 hours ago, laukat said:

Not many is the short answer however if you compare where we are at this point in the season with the same point last season it shows some interesting numbers.

After game 24 last season we had 25 points 17 at home and only 8 away. This season after 24 games we have 23 points only 8 at home and 15 away.

By the end of last season we had only gained further 7 points at home but picked up 11 away from home. In fact we only lost 1 away game (v Dufermline) from that point to the end of the season so clearly there was a marked improvement in our away form.

A win in either of our next 2 games would put us on 26 point which would be 1 point better than the same point last season as we lost at home to Ross County last season and then Dunfermline away . After the Dunfermline loss last season we went bottom of the league and it was starting to look really desperate at that stage.

Whilst we are 2 points worse off at this point, Morton are also 2 worse and Alloa 3 points better off. Every team in the league is within 3 points of their total at this point last season with the exception of Ayr (-8), Dundee united (+12) and QOS (-4). Obviously its not possible to get numbers for Arbroath and Dundee.

I suspose the question is what does that tell us?

I would suggest that last season shows it is possible to turn around the previous form as the difference in our away form last season was pretty stark and almost exactly the change we require in our home form this season.

I would also suggest that only 3 teams being within 3 points of their total last season shows no one has really massively improved or got massively worse. Exceptions are clearly Dundee United have improved and Ayr have fallen back. This will make it impossible to know who will finish in the relegation spots or in the top 4 placings. Last season at this point Ross County, Ayr and Dundee United had pretty much secured their playoff spot, this season nobody can feel comfortable that they will make the top 4 bar United winning the league.

Last comment would that QOS are the ones to watch. They are now 4 points worse off, have 5 games to play in 14 days and now have only 6 home games and 7 away games to play. From this point last season they only got 3 points away from home and 5 at home. As we play QOS twice and Alloa once our safety is stil in our own hands.

I'm hopeful that you will be right. Win against dunfermline ( a bit of a bogey team ) and things may look better. If I'm honest if we get beat ( very possible given our home form ) and that would almost certainly doom us. Let's not forget we are far from alone in being a very poor team. Lucky to a degree in that respect. 

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1 minute ago, Dark Passenger said:

Are we writing off Doolan, then?

In terms of the Morton style of play I don't think Doolan fits. Hopkin likes his big target men and Sutton is the only one they have.

Morton's other striker is McHugh. At a push Muirhead and Orsi can be deployed as strikers but both are really wingers.

Doolan will I think be in competition with McHugh but both will struggle in a playing style that is largely hoofball. Hoofball needs a target man so if anything happens to Sutton I think they have a problem. Add to that both McHugh and Doolan have been injured for a lot of the season so far and their options look limited.

Doolan as a player still has value as a backup striker at a championship level and possibly has more value at Thistle due to the feel good factor he would bring with some. If the wages were right I would rather see him coming off our bench if we needed a goal than I would Alex Jones.

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Laukat's positive posting above has given me a glint of optimism in an otherwise gloomy outlook.  

So, this Saturday I'll be digging out my old battle scarred scarf from the wardrobe, vacating the NS,

and heading back to my old season ticket seat in the JH.  The season starts here!

It's all to play for and the team better be up for it.   

 

 

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23 minutes ago, Harrybriscoe said:

Laukat's positive posting above has given me a glint of optimism in an otherwise gloomy outlook.  

So, this Saturday I'll be digging out my old battle scarred scarf from the wardrobe, vacating the NS,

and heading back to my old season ticket seat in the JH.  The season starts here!

It's all to play for and the team better be up for it.   

Just don't blame me if we Thistle it!

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15 minutes ago, Kingleo said:

Met one of the board from another championship club at my work today. In a nutshell all the negative feelings many have on here towards the club and the way it’s run are spot on. From top to bottom our club really is rotten

What information did the board member have that led you to this conclusion?

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