Against The Machine

Just the thought gives me the fear. What's he speaking on this time, the merits of apartheid?

There's a line in there somewhere about not being on the board in case of a conflict of interest. Why should the board of a football club, and the fans of a football club, have conflicting interests? I see also now that the Jags Foundation have been told they're not welcome (as an organisation) at Firhill. Really healthy, engaging fan ownership in effect there. I feel for the Thistle fans here. It's bad enough for fans of a lot of clubs with dysfunctional and despotic owners, but to have that scenario play out under the banner of "fan ownership" is galling, to say the least. Hopefully there is a route for those with the sprit of the Jags Foundation to usurp the leadership at the Trust and take places on the club board, but I wouldn't put a penny on that being a painless process.

"We're too inept to be board members" is an incredible opening gambit

I'm stunned.

In one of the early games, I'm guessing probably against Stirling Albion, Easton lost the ball twice in fairly quick succession trying to be too cute, too close to his own goal. I don't think he's done it again since, but it's still colouring some people's perception. To be fair, I do think it's a part of his game that you've just got to live with, he takes those chances and the majority of the time they come off, but I also imagine it's why Murray left him out against Aberdeen and Dundee.

While we're talking about styles and approaches, I thought the Rovers were noticably more direct today. Not that they reverted to just aimless long balls, but the ball was moving quicker. First half especially it didn't come to anything, but there was much less of the pointless passes into a backwards facing midfielder. Easton dropping in definitely helped in that regard, and it freed up Sam Stanton a little more. There was a piece in the Courier that suggested something like (and I'm paraphrasing, so apologies for any misrepresentation) "Keeping the ball isn't a problem for the Rovers, because Nolan, Brown and O'Riordan are at the top of the league for passes and passing accuracy" and while those stats are obviously correct, it's the three guys who've played centre half for us knocking the ball to one other. Spencer will make the biggest difference to that dynamic because he excels at taking the ball from the defence, but the key now is going to be moving it out of the midfield and into the forward(s). McGlynn built the first half of last season on goals from everyone except his striker, but I don't fancy watching that play out again. I don't think Murray will change the personnel going to Hamilton next week after today's result, but I wonder if he'll fiddle with the approach. Personally, I'd be inclined to take Ethan Ross off the left and give him a free role to roam about wherever he likes, with Gullan on strict instructions to stay within the width of the box.

I hope Liam Dick takes some confidence from his goal today. He had a decent wee run after scoring at Rugby Park last season, and hopefully he can do the same now. I don't think he's a bad player, but I do feel like he does almost nothing on instinct. He plays like he's always having to think about where he is, where he should be, what pass he should be making. It's those split-second delays that seem to limit him a lot of the time.

Trivia question: which is bigger, Alan Lithgow or all of Linlithgow?

We needed that. You can't come up against a team that poor and not win.

I cannot believe it's taken until the 89th minute for Jai Quitongo to be booked

I can't believe a game with this little quality has had three goals in it. Absolutely no chance we reach full time without a red card for someone, too.

Was Jaze Kabia not highly rated at Falkirk last season? I know the Falkirk frame of reference is badly skewed, but he's done nothing beyond repeatedly clipping Liam Dick's heels all afternoon.

Nolan in particular looks more assured than he did last week, which was itself a step up from the week before at Cove. Still not a world beater, by any means, but doesn't look out of his depth either.

You know those small sided training games where you need to complete a certain number of passes before you can shoot? It feels like our wide players are locked into a version of that which involves three players feigning a cross before anyone is actually permitted to deliver one.

Agreed. It's been more reminiscent of a dodgems rink than a game of football up til this point. Very little discernible intent, a huge amount of c***s bumping into each other.