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Oh dear. At least the weather was nice...

 

When teams press us and out muscle us, hoofing the ball up to Baird is not the solution. He had a shocker but this was amplified by the fact that the rest of the team was pretending he was Jan Koller. If this is our 'plan B' in such circumstances we should never have released Craig.

 

Second, our defence was all over the shop. Gabriel thinks he's David Luiz, which he really isn't. He's more catalogue model than central defender at the moment. Conrad was sorely missed. Even SOD and AST looked lost.

 

Third. This will be unpopular but I'm sorry, Craigen isn't ready yet IMO. He has buckets of potential but goes missing far too often.

 

But let's finish on a positive. Higgy was incredible. Skill, balance, composure, fight - he has it all. What a player.

 

He and Osbourne are the only ones that could get into that Aberdeen team on today's showing.

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That was the sound of the buffers being hit. I think it was a St Mirren fan who posted on Pie & Bovril that while we were a good footballing side, the bigger SPPL teams would simply grind us down - that's what happened today. I didn't think that Aberdeen were anything more than strong and functional but their plan to stop us playing our usual passing game definitely worked. Although we kept going until the end and actually came close to scoring, they won pretty comfortably.

 

The defending for all three goals was very slack - I've never been 100% convinced about Balatoni but he was badly missed today. Piccolo looked at fault for two of the goals and struggled throughout. I found it difficult to see evidence that he had played at any sort of level in Spain - although I can see the attraction of an exotic sounding player, one of the reasons often given for the decline in Scottish talent is that clubs prefer to bring in unexceptional foreigners. It was his first game...maybe he will improve.

 

Fox made two outstanding saves and everyone else had some good moments but it just didn't happen for us today - I think Stephen O'Donnell has real talent but I counted 4 occasions in the first half where he got into great positions but failed to put in a telling cross. Baird tries hard but he doesn't look right for the way we want to play.

 

We have had a fantastic run of form at Firhill - we were due a disappointing day...and we weren't that bad.

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Although 3-0 maybe flattered Aberdeen a bit, ultimately we got what we deserved today - nothing. Aberdeen are no great side. They are a streetwise, workmanlike team who were missing most of their best players. Undoubtedly, they out-muscled us. At times our players looked scared to go near Calvin Zola - a limited footballer but a very developed human being. But the goals came from basic bad defending. We cannot defend like that in this division because seasoned if unspectacular sides like Aberdeen will capitalise. After the first two goals they just made it hard for us to break them down and ended up scoring a third on the break. It was archetypal Scottish football - big strong guys bumping into the opposition and grinding out a win - and it was effective.

 

Higgy was the only Thistle player who really impressed me today. He never stopped trying and on a better day his shot that hit the post goes in. I think we missed Conrad at the back today and not just because Gabby struggled - the communication between the centre-halves and the 'keeper seemed non-existent. John Baird, bless him, works hard but he looked even less likely of scoring today than he usually does, and that is saying something. Sinclair was very quiet in an attacking sense today, and I suspect McInnes had done his homework on him.

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Big Zola is one of the worst players I've seen in a long time. Says everything about the way we defended that he managed to score.

 

I've liked big Gabriel every time I've seen him up till today but he was an absolute car crash today, the way Magennis brushed him aside for their 3rd was very poor stuff.

 

Baird was hopeless (was still better than Zola right enough) and it was the wrong decision by Archie to start him instead of Doolan. Higginbothan, on the other hand was outstanding and so unlucky not to score when he hit the post.

 

I thought the was Aberdeen played was a massive compliment to us and shows how far as a club we have come. They pressed us all over the park and their work rate was fantastic.

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I agree with everything said so far, outmuscled, men against boys etc. We're too lightweight in the middle with Bannigan, Craigen, Lawless, all wee boys that weigh about 10 stone between them!bullied off the ball too easily, why Ozzy didn't start I don't know, Welshy didn't look fit.

I was confident of a win after hearing of all their injuries to McGinn, Robson, Anderson and Flood! brought right back down to Earth with a boot in the baws!

Big Zola upfront bossed it, that big boy Magennis is huge, he's like the Hulk, we had 3 players tackling him at one point and he muscled them all out of it!

ach well bad day at the office, at least St Midden and the Watery Farts lost aswell.

 

Bring on Killie!

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So how did we actually play today?Did we stay with the passing game and if so what was missing? Given the size ,both physically and numerically,of our squad what options do we have?

 

If it could guarantee our safety would we be prepared to abandon our style and go for something more,ahem,robust ?

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All credit to aberdeen they done there homework they imposed themselves on the game early and won there battles all over the pitch hopefully its a lesson learned by the team and archie.

 

I know he is the captain but it looked to early for welsh to be back and osbourne had done well against st mirren I ve also seen osbourne play at centre half for aberdeen before and with piccolo getting a beasting from audley harrison i would have stuck him in there at half time. Lawless wasn't his usual self it looked as if reynolds was man marking him same as hammill at motherwell and i think when baird is playing he takes alot of the space up that we see lawless use when dools is in the team.

 

I also thought craigen had a really poor game today his shoulders were down and he was pointing the finger all over the park from about ten mins in, forbes has looked decent when coming on and probably deserves a start in front of him now. Last year we saw lawless and erskine switch wings or drop in behind the striker and i personaly thought that worked a treat if it wasn't happening at one end try and have a go on the other, higginbottom is no doubt a good player who can cause problems but i do think he looks a bit greedy at times and could release the ball a bit quicker when others have maybe lost there man rather than take extra touches.

 

On the day the better team won and the boys will need to step up next week for kilmarnock i would maek a few changes for that and freshen the team up a bit, my team for next week would be

 

 

Fox

 

O'donnell

Muirhead

Balatoni ( if fit ) if not Osbourne

Sinclair

 

Bannigan

Welsh

Forbes

 

Lawless

Higginbottom

 

Doolan

 

I would also give Elliot a shout as a sub before Baird cause i think there's more chance he would score.

 

P.S. Piccolo wouldn't get near the under 20's after his showing today.

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We had most of the possession but Aberdeen did their homework on us.

 

The things that worried me were Osborne....first time I've saw him admittedly....he stops the ball looks around and plays a short ball...no penetration no zip and cant see him going past anyone. He didnt have a stinker...but I dont get the feeling anything is goin to happen when he gets the ball. Would rather have Fraser or Forbes.

 

Most of the posts agree that we will be beaten by more streetwise teams this season so we need to have a plan B as we dont have big men to rumble defences up.

On that performance I dont know how Aberdeen got beaten by Hearts. They looked able to stifle and hit on the break and have they have muscle at the back and up front. They looked like they could score when they wanted to.

 

Sorry, but Baird...wont do as a striker. May not have had stinkers of games but at this level I cant see him getting even 3 goals this season. Higgs was great as was Fox..the rest tried and no real failures...it just didnt work today.

 

Stevie you didnt have a bad game but......again 6 or 7 crosses and not one to Jags man...same as the Hearts game....and if he is bursting up the right wing...somebody in the box make a run towards him because if you wait at the back post or even on the penalty spot, the baw isnae goni reach you.

 

Sorry.. a wee bit depressed....it'll pass.....mon the Jags!!!

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So how did we actually play today?Did we stay with the passing game and if so what was missing? Given the size ,both physically and numerically,of our squad what options do we have?

 

If it could guarantee our safety would we be prepared to abandon our style and go for something more,ahem,robust ?

 

Kind of hard to say - we didn't hav that much of the ball. When we did, we tried to play it out from the back - but there was no outlet to SOD and ATS as they were marked out the game. Played ball into mid who were pressed hard. On a few occasions resorted to long ball, which didn't work either. We were well snuffed out, I am afraid.

 

I think our guys need to get into the gym to muscle up

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Summed up by my 8 year old son and non-football literate wife. Son says "that's the worst game I've seen" wife says "why is no one in a good position when the crosses come in?".

 

My take on it? We were shaky at the back, toothless upfront and the dons were on to us from the first whistle. We left with 25 minutes to play (due to health reasons, not the Thistle performance) but was pleasing to see us persevere with the passing game even at 2-0 down. Piccolo had a stinker! Lessons learned today hopefully. Bring on the tractor drivers!

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I'd like to add that people have their minds made up about Baird before the game started. Anything other than a goal from him, would lead to him getting abuse. He did every bit as much as Doolan could or would have done in this game.

Don't agree with that at all. My frustration with him is the stuff he's done in EVERY game so far. He goes to ground too easily, gets up and doesn't give a **** where the ball is, he's only interested in where the referee is so that he can have a moan. The difference between Baird and our other wee guy Lawless is remarkable, the latter when he loses the ball chases everything and gets really stuck in (although I think he was rotten today).

 

We were rotten all round today, though. Higginbotham good, Fox made some good stops, thought Muirhead was alright but then again he was next to the hopeless Gabriel (and I mean hopeless today - hopefully he can turn it around, I'm not writing him off but a major improvement's needed). The rest were poor. Except Osbourne and Forbes when they came on.

 

A number of changes next week (4) to reinforce to the guys that today wasn't good enough. I'm not expecting us to go undefeated all season, but we were so far behind Aberdeen today it was depressing. A little bit of fight please.

 

Fox

O'Donnell - Muirhead - Balatoni/McMillan - Taylor-Sinclair

Osbourne/Fraser - Bannigan

Lawless - Forbes - Higginbotham

Doolan

Edited by ThickAsThieves
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Most of it has been said, but I disagree with the couple of people having a downer on Craigen. It is his first poor game and he was not alone in that today. Far too many off the pace. I would cut Baird more slack if he either stood up to challenges more or stopped girning to the ref when he's been muscled out of the ball. Fox had some excellent saves which kept the score down. Irony was that the saves came from Aberdeen's good passages of play whereas the goals came from defensive failings. Langfield barely had a challenging save to make, though Higginbotham came close with the one that hit the post late on.

 

Poor, poor display, but at least they kept going and the fans, though effectively silenced by the way we were struggling certainly didn't turn against the players.

 

Hope for better against Killie next week. Still 16 points ahead of Hearts and 7 ahead of St. Mirren....

Edited by David Stevenson
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Similarly, as I'm in Dublin at the moment, I was unable to make the game. It seems I picked a good game to miss. That said, I'm not about to throw my toys out of the pram. In addition, I'm not about to start slating players I've been praising to the heavens, of late. I noticed one poster suggesting we drop O'Donnell! Leave that type of nonsense to Chick Dung and his beloved Sevco and their adherents! We've nowhere near the resources of Aberdeen, so be cool and trust in Archiestown.

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That was really bad :(

 

Not sure how much of it was down to us being very poor or Aberdeen getting their tactics spot on and making us play badly. Either way, full credit to Aberdeen, they didn't give us a minute on the ball and closed us down at every opportunity. They weren't that great, but sadly, they didn't need to be and could have won by more.

 

Only players to get pass marks were Higginbotham and Fox. The rest were pretty anonymous, and continually out-muscled and pushed off the ball. Lawless and Baird looked soooo lightweight today.

 

Got to bounce back with a far better display against Killie next week.

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The reality check required is for the fans on here that constantly stated that we didnt need another striker before the window closed. If we go through the season with Baird and Doolan

as our main strikers we are gonna be struggling at the bottom end of the table. We were rotten and were lucky not to be on the end of a real humping, still I would have taken 8 points from these games at the start of the season however it was shown today how young a side we had out there. Aberdeen looked monstrous compared to our team. Big big game next week especially in the knowledge of how well Johnston negated our style in the Ramsdens final. These games against the likes of Killie St Mirren etc are the ones we have got to win, especially at Firhill

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Would say we were more outmuscled than outplayed today. Aberdeen got their tactics spot on and played to them very effectively. All 3 goals were caused by slackness at the back some of it you would expect to see in a schools match. Too may players off form today Craigen Lawless Sinclair (was he ever over the half way line?) ad piccolo all had stinkers. Some plonker in front of me in the jhs slaughtered Sinclair all 2nd half this season will be hard enough without idiots like him berating the players. There was some booing at the end of the game but that was soon drowned out by applause. Looks like we got Aberdeen on a good day and there are more than likely gonna be more days like this. Games against Killie are gonna be more important. Monajags

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Deflated here. Didn't expect that. But, i do think Mckinnes is probably going to be the best thing to have happened to the dons for a while.

 

Had Balatoni been available, Doolan, and maybe Osbourne both started the game, I think we would have faired better.

 

Muirhead and Gabriel looked like they'd just met and didn't share the same language. This affected the whole team apart from Baird, who to me just does not look like a team player. Fox was f**kin brilliant, and we'd have been at least another 3 down at the end without his razor sharp reflexes.

 

Don't think the midfield were that bad, maybe subdued/intimidated by the uncertainty of the centre-back partnership and the selfish nature of our striker. Certainly i didn't see the ease of movement off the ball or great link up play we were getting used to. Perhaps some credit to Ayberdein for that, but they weren't a brilliant team to watch. Higginbotham was top of the class.

 

A game that dulled a bright day.

 

C'mon Thistle. We are better than that.

 

:fan:

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No booing at all. We were horsed today by a team that were more powerful and knew how to get the victory. Won't be the last time we get well beaten this season, I think some people have gotten a bit carried away so far - top six, top three, etc, etc.

 

At least we didn't give up and tried to play our style of football, as unsuccessful as it was today.

 

There was booing of Baird at the back of the Jackie Husband stand - quite a lot of abuse aimed towards him as well.

 

Can't understand what it's supposed to do myself.

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There was booing of Baird at the back of the Jackie Husband stand - quite a lot of abuse aimed towards him as well.

 

Can't understand what it's supposed to do myself.

 

Fans paying their money are allowed to have a go when they feel a player doesn't deserve to wear the red and yellow and in this case that's John Baird.

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I can understand why people might think we where outmuscled but I am not convinced this was the case. I felt Aberdeen started faster and got in our faces quickly and our usual passing game never got started and any time we did get on the ball we were limited for options and often resorted to either diagonals that weren't on or long straight balls that Baird simply isn't going to hold onto if they did reach him. 20 mins in and the games over.

 

Our fate won't be decided by these games Aberdeen look like a top six team we have played two of them so far and lost both without even troubling them, thankfully though the bottom six teams we have played so far have found it difficult to cope with us and long may that continue we'll have another chance to test this point next week against the Killie.

 

Don't like to have a go at Jags players but to date Piccollo and Baird have done nothing to convince me they are good enough. Gabriel is a complete liability and has reckless tendencies that where exposed in the cup games and similarly Baird looked far from a lone striker capable of bringing in team mates. The lack of central defensive cover is more of a worry than our striking options because let's face it not many teams in the league will recover from 2 down. Let's hope Conrad and Aaron can stay fit.

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Fans paying their money are allowed to have a go when they feel a player doesn't deserve to wear the red and yellow and in this case that's John Baird.

 

Perhaps I'm just getting old, but is it his fault that we gave him a contract and a start? Was he supposed to refuse? How's booing going to help?

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Beaten by a better organised and hungrier team on the park today.

 

Beaten in the stands too by a vocal away support and a subdued Jags support (even before Aberdeen scored...).

 

Back to earth with a bump. But, we're still good enough for this league and can give everyone a game on our day. Lessons to be learned all round.

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Well he could start by putting in a worthy performance. Humour me, name a match that Baird has played well in?

 

I can't - first time I've seen him start was today.

 

Was he the only player in the team today that didn't put in a performance? Even if he was, is booing going to make him play better?

 

Don't get me wrong - I used to boo some of our players when I was younger - then I realised that it was a waste of vocal cords.

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