The Partick Thistle thread

[Thartick Pistle]

That was a hard one to take yesterday, As many have said. Over the course of the last few weeks we have put a lot in to these games and had some stunning performances and to lose on pens felt really cruel. 

Even for the majority of the 90 yesterday I thought we looked comfortable, but with the type of football County play it was inevitable that some of these balls flung into our box were going to fall to their men at some point. But hey ho, thats the joys of following thistle, and we go again. In the words of a footballing great.

"Listen nobody died"
- John McGlynn

[Plastic Whistle]

3 hours ago, Diamond. Dave said:

There's every chance many of our key players will stay.

Muirhead and Bannigan are the only out-of-contract players we're likely to keep.

I wouldn't offer the latter a new deal, but I doubt Doolan wants to go into the new season with an entirely new central midfield.

[Fuctifano]

So is this the list of out of contract (excluding younger guys like Lyon / Ocholi etc)?

Sneddon
Holt
Brownlie
Muirhead
Turner
Tiffoney
Bannigan
Docherty
Mullen
Smith

Plus McKinnon and Hodson going back to their clubs, highly doubt either will be a target for a return.

On one of the facebook pages (I know) that Muirhead has triggered an extension, I'd be fine with him being here next year, he's solid enough for this level even if you allow for his red mist moments. Can't see Bannigan being freed mid testimonial year given what happened to Doolan but I think everyone else could easily go.

Doolan seems to rate Mullen higher than Dowds but he might want to be first choice somewhere.

[forameus]

I think Bannigan's been a net positive this year, although that may just be rose-tinted given what he's been through.  I think having one of him and Docherty in there is probably the best option, and I'd be inclined to pick Bannigan.  However, having him involved at all after his injury has proved to be a terrible decision.  He didn't look at it at all when he came on in the home leg, and the team definitely fell away in general at that point.  Maybe he's not fully fit, maybe he just didn't fit in with how we started to play after he got injured, or maybe it's both.  Or neither.  But in any case, I can't see them releasing him, nor can I see him really wanting out (can't imagine there'll be clubs in a better position queueing up).  Docherty I'd be more inclined to let go.  I've never really seen him do anything that sets him apart from your standard comfortable, "safe" midfielder.

[oneteaminglasgow]

Despite the fact that he’s been largely poor for us, I could conceivably see Mullen managing to get himself a Premiership gig next season. Not as a first choice, but as a squad player at Killie or St Johnstone or something. 

I’m fine with Muirhead staying on the understanding that we’re looking to bring in a few centre halves and he’s here to provide competition/cover. Brownlie should be away, hopefully. No harm to him, I just don’t think he’s up to it and he has a tendency to forget that he’s a plodding centre half and cost goals by trying to play a bit. 

Was it Kilmarnock that were rumoured to have Docherty on a pre-contract? Good luck to him if so, but I’d say bottom end of the Premiership is probably stretching his abilities to their absolute limit. I’d keep Bannigan and hopefully get someone a bit more combative to play beside him. And obviously we’ll need to replace Turner’s creativity - I think he’ll get a move up to a bottom six side as well.

[jagsfan57]

Muirhead was meant to be just cover this season too, but all the others were disappointing or got injured. What happened to Mayo. No sure if he would be worth looking at again.

[Highlandmagar]

3 minutes ago, jagsfan57 said:

Muirhead was meant to be just cover this season too, but all the others were disappointing or got injured. What happened to Mayo. No sure if he would be worth looking at again.

Mayo was at Kilmarnock last season. Back at Rangers.

[vikingTON]

7 hours ago, Diamond. Dave said:

All Imrie had to do was not squander leads against Inverness, Arbroath and Ayr and Morton would have been in the play-offs. No sense of security or control over numerous games that they only needed to see out and a failure of management.

I'm sure that wild attempt at deflection seemed legit in your head. 

[Duke Gekantawa]

1 hour ago, jagsfan57 said:

Muirhead was meant to be just cover this season too, but all the others were disappointing or got injured. What happened to Mayo. No sure if he would be worth looking at again.

Ideally we would have had a centre back partnership of McAvoy and Holt, with Milne and McMillan as fullbacks. Ultimately the makeshift defence couldn’t hold firm when the pressure was really on. 

[EwanMubs25]

3 hours ago, Fuctifano said:

So is this the list of out of contract (excluding younger guys like Lyon / Ocholi etc)?

Sneddon
Holt
Brownlie
Muirhead
Turner
Tiffoney
Bannigan
Docherty
Mullen
Smith

Would love to keep Turner and Tiff. 
Would like to keep Bannigan, Docherty (at least one of them, anyway), and Holt. 
Would be happy to keep Sneddon, Muirhead, and Mullen. 
Want Smith and Brownlie binned. 
 

Even if a couple of those top five stayed, I think that would leave us with a very decent starting point. Just depends on recruitment from there, and, as others have said, we don’t know how Doolan will be at that.

[Duke Gekantawa]

1 minute ago, EwanMubs25 said:

Would love to keep Turner and Tiff. 
Would like to keep Bannigan, Docherty (at least one of them, anyway), and Holt. 
Would be happy to keep Sneddon, Muirhead, and Mullen. 
Want Smith and Brownlie binned. 
 

Even if a couple of those top five stayed, I think that would leave us with a very decent starting point. Just depends on recruitment from there, and, as others have said, we don’t know how Doolan will be at that.

Based on longstanding rumours and likely reduced budget, I’m resigned to losing Tiff, Turner, Docherty and Holt unfortunately 

[JagsCG]

Bannigan had a howler yesterday, but he’s been largely fine since Doolan had come in, I always feel when we’re on a good run (such as earlier in the season under McCall) he’s a key player. He won’t be released mid-testimonial season, could leave if he has another offer and feels a change could be good. 
 

Muirhead has did enough over the season to convince me that he has another year at this level left in him. I believe we will lose Tiffoney, Turner, Docherty and Holt (the first 3, perhaps all to Premiership clubs). All 4 will be difficult to replace. 

[flood]

2 hours ago, jagsfan57 said:

What happened to Mayo. No sure if he would be worth looking at again.

Played 34 games for Killie last season. Would have probably played 37, barring fact he could not play against rangers. Started nervious but came onto a game as season progressed...played 33 games last year for you.

I would probably have him 50/50 to sign for us on a basis that rangers keep a % of future sales like McRorie at Aberdeen or Kelly at Livingston. Dont think he is good enough for rangers and now aged 23 So he will move on i think..

PS sorry you guys lost yesterday. Would much prefer you in league, than ross county..

[vikingTON]

1 hour ago, Diamond. Dave said:

I'm sure that wild attempt at trying to blame management for a VAR handball and Kevin Holt picking up a knock which allows them to score seemed legit in yours as well even though to the casual observer it appears to be the hogwash of a bitter Morton supporter. 

A VAR handball took place when Partick were 3-0 up in the tie. The management failed to respond effectively.

A 'knock' contributed to a second goal (not sure why the rest of the  shocking defending gets a free pass) - the management still failed to respond effectively.

Then a player was given the freedom of Victoria Park to thump in a last minute equaliser. That's on the manager. 

None of the above facts change from the impact that Doolan has made since taking charge. The play-off result was however unquestionably caused by a failure of in-game management - that's inherent in any Hibs-level bottle job. 

[Thistle4eva]

38 minutes ago, virginton said:

A VAR handball took place when Partick were 3-0 up in the tie. The management failed to respond effectively.

A 'knock' contributed to a second goal (not sure why the rest of the  shocking defending gets a free pass) - the management still failed to respond effectively.

Then a player was given the freedom of Victoria Park to thump in a last minute equaliser. That's on the manager. 

None of the above facts change from the impact that Doolan has made since taking charge. The play-off result was however unquestionably caused by a failure of in-game management - that's inherent in any Hibs-level bottle job. 

It’s a shame this is the high point of your tin pot clubs season  

[Thistle4eva]

2 hours ago, JagsCG said:

Bannigan had a howler yesterday, but he’s been largely fine since Doolan had come in, I always feel when we’re on a good run (such as earlier in the season under McCall) he’s a key player. He won’t be released mid-testimonial season, could leave if he has another offer and feels a change could be good. 
 

Muirhead has did enough over the season to convince me that he has another year at this level left in him. I believe we will lose Tiffoney, Turner, Docherty and Holt (the first 3, perhaps all to Premiership clubs). All 4 will be difficult to replace. 

Bannigan can go, I never want to see his sideway, back passing negative football again. He was the reason we lost that game.

[Rudolph Hucker]

10 hours ago, Thistle4eva said:

It’s a shame this is the high point of your tin pot clubs season  

Don't kid yerself, you're nowhere near that significant. 

However, there's always something hilarious about a collective arse collapse on such a  glorious and unexpected scale. 

And I have to admit to laughing at the look on Brian Graham's wee nippy coupon when he realised he won't be finding out how little elbow room he'd get in the big league. 

Priceless. 

[GrahamJags]

13 hours ago, Thistle4eva said:

Bannigan can go, I never want to see his sideway, back passing negative football again. He was the reason we lost that game.

An absolutely horrendous take, on many levels. 

[milhouse]

On 05/06/2023 at 11:10, JagsCG said:

Think its harsh on Doolan to say he ‘blew it’. Perhaps he could be questioned over not making more subs for fresh legs, but equally understand why he didn’t. The subs he did make made sense to me, Bannigan unfortunately had a shocker and was well off pace. Mullen looked lively for a bit but was well dealt with, Lawless and Fitzpatrick were probably correct to be subbed off, maybe surprised Graham lasted the 120 however, but Doolan didn’t have to make changes MacKay did. MacKay won the battle in the end yesterday for sure, but not really because of subs. In fact, he was quite idiotic for not starting Murray in the first place imo - but he’s not as suited as much as White to the style of play. The momentum and confidence had swung in the favour of RC and they capitalised on it, whilst we looked tired and drained by the end of even normal time. The frustrating thing is I expected Extra Time for more of the same with us having run out of stream but we went and created chances, and just didn’t take them. 

Agree with a lot of this. On the face of it, it seems like The Greatest Bottle Job Ever/Highland Fairytale Comback Against All Odds, but it's more complicated than that.

To have expected those 2 ties against Ross County to have panned out as a stroll in the sun would have been unrealistic. I certainly didn't expect that, although there was a quite a lot of over-excitement in the Thistle support. After 10 mins on Sunday it was evident (if you were sober) that we were not at the level of going to an away game in Dingwall and controlling it for 90 mins. To take the game in isolation, a second-tier Thistle losing 3-1 away in Dingwall to a top-tier RC, even if leading at 70 mins, is not some wild outcome. We were fortunate to have scored another goal in the first half, which only increased the over-excitement. 10 mins of injury time were played at the end of the game, and we could have even lost 4-3 before extra time. We actually did well to rally for ET and create more chances. 

We were probably fortunate to be playing against 10 men for so long of the first leg, which then I thought gave us a false reflection of how the second leg would be played. I also don't think we missed countless sitters necessarily in the first leg, more effective defending from Ross County. I think Kris Doolan achieved pretty much the maximum he could have with his available squad, for which he deserves praise. I get that Thistle had a 3 goal aggregate lead, but I think this makes it seem more shocking/outrageous than it actually is.

Edited June 6, 2023 by milhouse

[Braesoyetts]

On 04/06/2023 at 17:47, Fuctifano said:

I don't think there's really any way to spin being in the championship for another year rather than being in the premiership as good.

Even if we'd gone up and come straight down with a Gretnaeqsue points total we'd have made more cash and Doolan would probably (hopefully) have been given a bit of leeway if it did go tits up whereas now I doubt we'll see Tiffoney Turner or Holt again and we're still in a brutally tough league to get out of. 

Doolan has done really well though his lack of subs maybe hindered us a bit today, even though he scored his attempt, I didn't really see the logic in keeping Graham on for pens when he's got a terrible record at them and he was totally burst for all of extra time. 

I have to disagree on the toughness of the league.  Competitive is not the same as tough.  Consider this:  we were pretty crap for decent chunks of the season, and when Doolan came in we improved and narrowly missed automatic promotion despite wasting points most of the first part of the season.  If you can sit on your arse half the season and almost get promoted, it’s not that tough a league….  If Doolan is in charge from the start, I think we would have gone up in first place (though hypotheticals are pointless).  
 

Note that I’m not saying we will go up easily next season - we won’t have the same squad, and who knows what kind of budget QP and Dundee United will have.