Patrick Thistle 🔴🟡 vs Raith Rovers 🔵⚪️

[Raith Against The Machine]

26 minutes ago, CALDERON said:

Well, there you go

Eugh, every man back for set pieces.  I hate that tactic more than @Against The Machine hates centre halves playing at right back.

I've never been to a Manager's Q&A, the very idea makes me cringe. You know it's going to be full of clowns asking why we're much worse at throw-ins than everyone else (we're not, nobody is, throw-ins are just rubbish), but if I did go to one, I'd love to hear Murray (or McGlynn) explain why they choose to do that. 

There's obviously a good reason for it, you see it at all levels, there was a European game I saw this week where a team did it (maybe PSV at Ibrox?) but to my uneducated eyes, the risk of penning yourself in seems so high when you could just stick your most defensively inept player up on the halfway line and at least give the opposition something to worry about. 

[Nightmare]

3 minutes ago, Fuctifano said:

FWIW, Raith scored 26 seconds after kicking off following our second goal. Saw some tweets blaming Mitchell but that is all on Bannigan. 

I saw some of those tweets as well. Anyone blaming Mitchell for that goal has no clue about football.

[Reid]

Mitchell is the current whipping boy of choice though.

[The_Kincardine]

3 hours ago, Fuctifano said:

I think McCall fucked it a little in the second half, he made two like for like changes then changed to a back 3 which left Fitzpatrick up front rather than Mullen or Weston, it seemed tailor made for the latter.

Doing my weekly Thistle check-in.  How's wee Tony doing?  I watched the game vs ICT and, when he came on, he didn't really look like he had a role.

[Ebanda's Handyman Services]

If Partick Thistle are one of the benchmarks in this league we aren't far away. 

[Fuctifano]

44 minutes ago, The_Kincardine said:

Doing my weekly Thistle check-in.  How's wee Tony doing?  I watched the game vs ICT and, when he came on, he didn't really look like he had a role.

He was an unfortunate victim today of McCall deciding to swap 2 players like for like in our 4231 then 5 minutes later making 2 more subs and changing the shape to 352 which left a sub winger up front. I think the only role he can have is up front in a 2 but the last 20 minutes today was the first time all season we've played that shape and we couldn't double change 

I'm fairly sure Raith made 6 subs but assume Macdonald counted as concussion? 

Edited August 27, 2022 by Fuctifano

[Raith Against The Machine]

4 minutes ago, Fuctifano said:

I'm fairly sure Raith made 6 subs but assume Macdonald counted as concussion? 

We only listed six subs, and Mahady didn't come on. 

We did, however, make subs in four separate stoppages, which we wouldn't have been able to do without MacDonald being counted as a concussion. 

[Nightmare]

7 minutes ago, Fuctifano said:

I'm fairly sure Raith made 6 subs but assume Macdonald counted as concussion? 

Flashscore only has them down as making 5 substitutions, but with 4 stoppages in play - which I think is against the rules? But I’m assuming this is fine because as you suggested, a concussion counts as an exception.

Eta - confirmed above.

Edited August 27, 2022 by Nightmare

[Zen Archer (Raconteur)]

40 minutes ago, Fuctifano said:

He was an unfortunate victim today of McCall deciding to swap 2 players like for like in our 4231 then 5 minutes later making 2 more subs and changing the shape to 352 which left a sub winger up front. I think the only role he can have is up front in a 2 but the last 20 minutes today was the first time all season we've played that shape and we couldn't double change 

I'm fairly sure Raith made 6 subs but assume Macdonald counted as concussion? 

5

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[Mr November]

1 hour ago, Against The Machine said:

I've never been to a Manager's Q&A, the very idea makes me cringe. You know it's going to be full of clowns asking why we're much worse at throw-ins than everyone else (we're not, nobody is, throw-ins are just rubbish), but if I did go to one, I'd love to hear Murray (or McGlynn) explain why they choose to do that. 

There's obviously a good reason for it, you see it at all levels, there was a European game I saw this week where a team did it (maybe PSV at Ibrox?) but to my uneducated eyes, the risk of penning yourself in seems so high when you could just stick your most defensively inept player up on the halfway line and at least give the opposition something to worry about. 

That’s one of the biggest differences I’ve noticed with Rhys McCabe in charge at Airdrie this season. As you say, Murray is a big proponent of keeping everyone back and it can leave you stuck if the first clearance isn’t perfect, which it rarely is. This season we’ve been leaving two quick players up when defending set-pieces and it does seem to stop us being penned in as much. 

This is only based on substitutions but I guess Murrayball is still in full flow with just taking off defenders for attackers in the hope something happens?

[Fuctifano]

Yeah, pretty much, Raith ended up with something like a 1-5-4 but all our clearances ended up with Fitzpatrick who either ran it to the corner or fannied about and lost it. 

[Raith Against The Machine]

6 minutes ago, Mr November said:

This is only based on substitutions but I guess Murrayball is still in full flow with just taking off defenders for attackers in the hope something happens?

Yup. We've only got two natural central defenders available at the moment, and Murray took one of them off for a striker with more than half an hour still to play. 

I don't necessarily have an issue with that, and his next change was to send a winger on for his right back, but I do think that we need a proper strategy if he's going to do it regularly (which he clearly is). 

He put all these forward players on but there's not one of them who'd look out of place in Snow White's front room, and we spent the last fifteen minutes launching long balls at them which Thistle, predictably, won and then took to the corner. 

[Thistle_do_nicely]

1 hour ago, Nightmare said:

I saw some of those tweets as well. Anyone blaming Mitchell for that goal has no clue about football.

Yeah, posted at halftime that mitchell looked a bit flat footed but i) bannigan inexplicably decided to pass back when there were better, more positive options on was the main issue and ii) it was underhit so badly it left the keeper scrambling. Havent seen the goal back in highlights but looked clear cut in real time that bannigan was culpable for it.

The offside goal i didnt fuss much over at the time as i didnt have a great angle, more curious to get another look at the 2nd half handball shout from our blocked shot. Shot was going at a fair pace which maybe spared the pen being given, hard to tell exactly where it hit.

1 hour ago, The_Kincardine said:

Doing my weekly Thistle check-in.  How's wee Tony doing?  I watched the game vs ICT and, when he came on, he didn't really look like he had a role.

Not featured all that much tbh, would guess he'll get match time if Graham takes a knock (almost inevitable) or needs a rest generally, and Lawless, Fitzpatrick and Tiffoney are pretty much the go-to's out wide for us right now so dont think we'll play him there all that often. Come to think of it i dont think we've seen much of Danny Mullen yet either, dunno what the pecking order is yet.

Mckinnon is a starter for us at least, didnt think it was his best game the day but still had some nice wee touches/flicks.

[Ad Lib]

3 hours ago, Fuctifano said:

I assumed at the time that Macdonald had come out far enough to play Milne offside but it doesn't look like it from this photo 

But that’s not at the point the ball was played. That’s at the point Milne reaches the ball. He was running backwards when the ball was played.

[JagsCG]

We were undeniably far better first half than second but I reckon if we don't gift RR that goal just before half time (which was Bannigan's mistake not Mitchell's contrary to some opinion) we'd have seen the game out comfortably possibly adding a few more in the 45 to follow. However, we allowed pressure on ourselves with the soft goal and failure to add a third allowed the nervy end. I think we just about deserved the 3 points but Rovers should've equalised and if they sign a competent striker before the window closes could well be around the Top 4 this season. I thought they actually dealt with the threat of Tiffoney fairly well (after his goal) and it was clear their defensive plan was to nullify the wide-men who'd got us so much joy in the Inverness match. McCall was spot on to bring Muirhead onto the field late on and he was crucial to us keeping it tight and seeing out the win, could well get himself into the Starting XI soon enough again. Overall, we played some nice football at times and could've scored a few more but probably didn't really get to the levels which we've shown we can reach whilst still winning the match, conceding the soft goal and giving the opposition a route back into the game was the real disappointment. Ref had a bit of a shocker though, missed a stonewall penalty for handball and various other incidents for both teams - thought Milne was onside when I seen it live but on reflection seems like a good spot from the linesman.

Edited August 28, 2022 by JagsCG

[Thistle_do_nicely]

4 minutes ago, JagsCG said:

We were undeniably far better first half than second but I reckon if we don't gift RR that goal just before half time (which was Bannigan's mistake not Mitchell's contrary to some opinion) we'd have seen the game out comfortably possibly adding a few more in the 45 to follow. However, we allowed pressure on ourselves with the soft goal and failure to add a third allowed the nervy end. I think we just about deserved the 3 points but Rovers should've equalised and if they sign a competent striker before the window closes could well be around the Top 4 this season. I thought they actually dealt with the threat of Tiffoney fairly well (after his goal) and it was clear their defensive plan was to nullify the wide-men who'd got us so much joy in the Inverness match. McCall was spot on to bring Muirhead onto the field late on and he was crucial to us keeping it tight and seeing out the win, could well get himself into the Starting XI soon enough again. Overall, we played some nice football at times and could've scored a few more but probably didn't really get to the levels which we've shown we can reach whilst still winning the match, conceding the soft goal and giving the opposition a route back into the game was the real disappointment. Ref had a bit of a shocker though, missed a stonewall penalty for handball and various other incidents for both teams - thought Milne was onside when I seen it live but on reflection seems like a good spot from the linesman.

Yeah, looked like Dowds in particular should have at at least a couple of free kicks awarded in his favour. Some would have been a bit soft but the ref gave lots of soft free kicks the whole game.

Akinola getting pushed then getting a foul given against him stood out as one of the worse ones, but at least it didnt cost us in the end.

[roverthemoon]

Thistle on balance deserved the win but we weren’t far off. If we had someone who could finish then we’d have left with a point, perhaps all three. But we don’t which will be our problem all season I suspect. Good to be back in the Jackie Husband stand. Far better experience and atmosphere watching the game from there. 

[Slacker]

Thought McCall got it spot on changing the shape with Muirhead coming on, he was winning everything in the air which gave us plenty of counter attacking opportunities. Of course they missed a sitter but we had chances too - thought Milne should’ve done better with the one he put over the bar.

[Jag71]

6 hours ago, JagsCG said:

We were undeniably far better first half than second but I reckon if we don't gift RR that goal just before half time (which was Bannigan's mistake not Mitchell's contrary to some opinion) we'd have seen the game out comfortably possibly adding a few more in the 45 to follow. However, we allowed pressure on ourselves with the soft goal and failure to add a third allowed the nervy end. I think we just about deserved the 3 points but Rovers should've equalised and if they sign a competent striker before the window closes could well be around the Top 4 this season. I thought they actually dealt with the threat of Tiffoney fairly well (after his goal) and it was clear their defensive plan was to nullify the wide-men who'd got us so much joy in the Inverness match. McCall was spot on to bring Muirhead onto the field late on and he was crucial to us keeping it tight and seeing out the win, could well get himself into the Starting XI soon enough again. Overall, we played some nice football at times and could've scored a few more but probably didn't really get to the levels which we've shown we can reach whilst still winning the match, conceding the soft goal and giving the opposition a route back into the game was the real disappointment. Ref had a bit of a shocker though, missed a stonewall penalty for handball and various other incidents for both teams - thought Milne was onside when I seen it live but on reflection seems like a good spot from the linesman.

Agree with all of this. Great to see Muirhead back. I'd like to see a central defensive two of him and Holt. 

[Jag71]

As others have said, Thistle should have had the game won but, had Rovers equalised in 2nd half, they wouldn't exactly have stolen a point. Both teams had chances after the break though and both teams' finishing could have been better.

Thistle managed to hold on though, as they did at Dens when under pressure towards the end of the game. A good sign, as we would have previously buckled.

Don't know why it took so long for Raith Rovers to get going. They can clearly play and look as if they're a good striker away from doing well.

Scrappy from The Jags but a great 3 points.