Partick Thistle vs Hibernian - Saturday 2 December

[cilitbang]

2 hours ago, Fuctifano said:

Nah, not really, from open play  Erskine hit one straight at him in the first half, and  with our best chance of the match in the second half Doolan would have left him with no chance more often than not but he made a good save with a trailing leg.

We need pace in the team in January. Storey is quick, but he's a headless chicken. We've no speed at all down the flanks, compare that to Hibs today where Boyle and the sub Barker were busting past our defenders.

Fair enough, the commentary did agood job of convincing me it wasn't THAT dire

I agree about the lack of pace out wide but I dont expect Archie to buck his trend of signing random tall black guys in January that we see about 3 times then release..

[gastropod]

Long way to go but its not looking good for the Jags... Hamilton keep picking up points in tough games , Killie and Ross co  with new managers seem to be doing just enough to keep  off bottom place ..Any team that can put together 2 wins on the bounce would drag Hearts and St J into the shit ..Never heard it said but scottish football needs a strong Partick Thistle..

[third lanark]

4 hours ago, cilitbang said:

Didn't make the game today but it sounded like we were making chances in the game, just not putting them away. The hibs keeper was doing what Cerny does for us it seemed.

In regards to injuries, esp when Osman and Bannigan are back I think our attackers will be more comfy going forward without having to worry about Barton and Edwards being overrun + then we can put Barton back as a sweeper

Not even sure what we need most come January as Penrice + the injured crop should be back

The main annoyance for me today was that we lost ground on everyone

And you don’t think it will be too late by then? We could be 7 points below anyone by that stage.

too many people thinking we will be fine when osman is back but when is that and how many games before he is Match fit 

[Hammer Jag]

Osman was gash prior to his injury which a lot of people are conveniently forgetting.

[Cerberus]

2 hours ago, Snakebite said:

We are DREADFUL. Going down unless we add 3 or 4 good players in January. No jobbers to boost the numbers, GOOD players.

Bannigan will be like a new signing...

[jagfox]

5 hours ago, cilitbang said:

Fair enough, the commentary did agood job of convincing me it wasn't THAT dire

I agree about the lack of pace out wide but I dont expect Archie to buck his trend of signing random tall black guys in January that we see about 3 times then release..

We weren’t that bad overall, obviously not good enough on a day when Hibs were well below par and without McGinn. Defence were solid enough but we lacked creativity (a common thread throughout the season, IMO) and didn’t carry much threat up top until Doolan came on alongside Storey. This threat was removed when Sammon came on and didn’t do anything of note. Personally, I’m disappointed in the result but not the overall performance.

[jagfox]

8 hours ago, Paul Cicero said:

Choo choo all aboard the relegation express peeps . . 

St Mirren 

[third lanark]

5 hours ago, Hammer Jag said:

Osman was gash prior to his injury which a lot of people are conveniently forgetting.

When we played Hibs at Easter road in first game of season I thought he was the worst player on the park - he also seem to be unable to go more than 10 games without then picking up an injury and missing a couple of games- I think some people truly believe that as soon as he is back he will save our season- sadly I think they are clutching at straws

[throbber]

The toilets at Firhill are an absolute disgrace. What an absolute shit hole.

[mackenzie43]

Don't worry thistle, hearts will finish below you lot 

[GrahamJags]

Thought Devine was our best player today, but didn’t think he was that great. We were pretty abysmal yesterday, and I’m not sure if Archie is at the bam up when he said we played “ever so well”. Yes, we had chances. Erskine and Doolan’s were both sitters (though I think a fully fit Dools puts that away), and Spittal’s free kick was close, but we had a fair amount of the ball yesterday, and did nothing with it. Miles Storey must be the most unintelligent centre forward I’ve seen in a while (including Azeez). Unless he has to run straight at goal, then he doesn’t have a clue what to do. Didn’t think he was anywhere near our worst yesterday, but Archie taking him off when he did was smart as the 10ish minutes prior, he was starting to get frustrated. Just a shame Sammon was utter dogshit when he came on.

I’m actually quite alarmed at how much Keown has regressed compared to last season, moreso than anyone else. He has been absolutely shocking every week, and could probably do with a spell out the team once we get a midfielder back to drop Barton back in there (Woods?).

The Gary Fraser brigade is hilarious. Everyone can see he’s miles off the pace. Yes, he’s desperate to play, he’s not got it in him to play anything more than 20 minutes at this stage. Although apparently according to some, this is the man who’s going to #SaveOurSeason.

Hibs absolutely bossed it yesterday without looking too threatening. Bartley and McGeouch (who I don’t usually rate) were excellent. Barton and Edwards could learn a thing or two from them.

The worst part about watching us this season that I’m now starting to not even care when we get beat, just a total feeling of meh when leaving the ground. Killie next week is absolutely massive though.

By the way, the mouth breathers who are talking about our game in hand like it’s a given three points - it’s Celtic away.

[Snakebite]

I'd happily have a barely fit Fraser in there ahead of Barton just now, I'm not even a great fan of Fraser ability wise but you know he will scrap  and get stuck in when necessary. We need people who want to battle and scrap, I honestly don't think players like Barton have the fight in them. Lawless made me question his guts yesterday as well with the amount of loose balls he shat out of. 

[Arnold Layne]

13 hours ago, cilitbang said:

Didn't make the game today but it sounded like we were making chances in the game, just not putting them away. The hibs keeper was doing what Cerny does for us it seemed.

In regards to injuries, esp when Osman and Bannigan are back I think our attackers will be more comfy going forward without having to worry about Barton and Edwards being overrun + then we can put Barton back as a sweeper

Not even sure what we need most come January as Penrice + the injured crop should be back

The main annoyance for me today was that we lost ground on everyone

For those players to be match fit after the break and, hopefully, back to their best (I'm thinking Osman, Bannigan & Booth), they need to be on the verge of a return soon. I'm not sure that's the case.

I have been one of those thinking that we just need to hang on until our injury problems are behind us. I'm beginning to think that time may be running out on that plan.

[AMMjag]

You're not going to win many games at this level without a recognised left back or any recognised central midfielders. There isn't really a workable formation available to us with these players, and we won't get the best out of our attacking players until we can address that.  I have sympathy for Archibald in that respect, but then we did have a whole summer to consider whether depending on the fitness of Bannigan, Osman, Fraser, Dumbuya was really a great idea.

 

Watching us just now is like watching me getting used to the new Pro Evo after years of Fifa. I can string a few passes about, switch the ball and even sclaff the odd shot at goal which gives the impression of me knowing what I'm doing. In truth I'm winging it and have no idea how to attack or defend, and a comedy blunder or two is guaranteed. The best that I/we can hope for for the time being is staying competitive.

[Cumdog35]

Thought Partick were piss poor.

[Armand 2]

After 5 minutes, if you can't tell who the clown in the room is, it's you.

That's unfortunately what I increasingly think when I look at the league table.

A lot of folk, myself included, had Hamilton as our fail-safe but ignoring the fact that they are playing quite well at the moment, they have something in abundance that I don't see in us - fight. 

I didn't think we played particularly badly yesterday and despite Lennon's post match insistance that Hibs dominated the game, thought it was relatively even. Hibs were dangerous on the break but didn't engineer many clear cut chances. They are half the team without McGinn.

Yet, they won. We sleptwalked to defeat. I struggled to see what plan we had to get back into the game other than hope a chance might come. To be fair, that chance did come within minutes of giving Storey a striker partner in Dools - but we'd allowed the former to run himself into the ground and had to replace him with an ineffectual Sammon. After that, we created little and accepted defeat with a whimper.

We're reaping what we've sown in many respects with recruitment failings coming home to roost. We possess little of the threat from full back that we have in recent seasons. Edwards' contributes nothing tangible at all other than running about with no positional discipline. Barton's demeanour makes him an easy target but whilst unquestionably a talented player, he sets the tone for the team in midfield - and right now, and for most of the season, it's been off key. The refusal to put him back at sweeper will be fatal to our survival - and I don't see any indication that Archie is about to move him.

The squad needs major surgery in January; Archie has to be ruthless in the way he was during the 13/14 season. But by that time given our schedule this month, it might be too late.

[Boostin' Kev]

Great 3 points/clean sheet before the next 3 games. 

[ClydebankJag]

16 hours ago, Armand 2 said:

The refusal to put him back at sweeper will be fatal to our survival - and I don't see any indication that Archie is about to move him.

I think he would be better used as sweeper in a back 3 but if he removes him from the midfield who goes in there? I tend to think Archie wants him in midfield because of his height, in some way to make up for losing the physicality of Osman.

[Poet of the Macabre]

On 02/12/2017 at 21:44, Fuctifano said:

Devine and Turnbull just passed it amongst themselves  before punting it in the general direction of the ghost of Conor Sammon.

[thistledo]

I don't think we were that bad in the first half, Marciano had a cracking save fairly early on and it's the old cliche if it had gone in... That we'd have collapsed later on and maybe got a draw. 
The second half was pretty bad though, lacked energy/fight, a plan, any real attacking capability. The lack of movement off the ball and sideways passing is quickly becoming as infuriating as our corner kick taking ability this season. 

It seems as though a combination of injuries and players in to replace them not capable of stepping up. We got lucky against Dundee and I think we'll continue to require that in order to win games. December and January pretty big months now, hopefully we don't lose too much ground in December and maybe we can do something about personnel in January. 

I think Barton in midfield is the biggest problem. Far too slow, gives the ball away too easily. His backheel to no one on Saturday was one of the highlights. This needs to change soon, either dropped into to defence or just dropped altogether.