Partick Thistle: 100% Football, 100% Passion, it proclaims.
Really? Because today we were playing at barely 50%. And perhaps if the board spent more time finding investment and giving McCall a playing squad deeper than just 17 names, and less thinking up ever-more ridiculously stupid ways to promote the club, we'd not be in the mess we're in.
]]> Are there any positives from today's game? Well, other than the fact that at least our number six isn't a convicted sex offender, and that with any luck Gypsie Army's finances are in an even worse state than ours.. no, not really.All credit to Clyde, and to John Brown's men. They absolutely deserved their win today, let's make that clear right off the bat.
After their last visit to Firhill, where they played the sort of football that you'd think would lead to prosecution, they've sorted things out on the pitch. Yes they may be in the drop zone at present, but they displayed good touches, a will to win and a hunger for the result which Thistle not only lacked, but came nowhere near approaching.
We were rank rotten today. Right through the team. Jonny Tuffy had such a mare the Clyde fans were singing his name with gusto. Paton's normally reliable crossing was shocking and he couldn't hit a dead ball to save his live. Archie and Sid looked like spent forces, while Storey and Maxy just looked dead on their feet. Rowson was bobbins in midfield, while McKeown continues to leave fans wondering what the hell Scotty Chaplain has to do to get a run in the team.
As for our player of the month winner, Gary Harkins... where to start? My feelings on that hapless dummy are well documented in these pages, and if Row Z's about to wind down then let's bow out with a re-iteration of his failings.
He's a show pony, who can't tackle - indeed, bottles out of tackles far too often - and can't head to save his life. He meanders about midfield and unless he's on the ball contributes the square root of sod all to the Jags team. Going forward, turning players and showing his skills off he's a nice luxury to have. When he's out of sorts, or not in possession he shows about as much energy as a broken dynamo.
Actually, I take it back - there was one bright spark today. Kris Doolan. He's been a revelation since arriving at Firhill in the window, and probably represents McCall's best investment in the transfer window. Full of running, full of drive, he shows the spirit, grit and determination you'd expect of someone from the Juniors, and looks determined to win every ball within a 30-yard radius of him. He's not afraid to try something different and today deserved a goal - if only for his ambitious overhead kick attempt in the second half.
Too often without Bucky we've looked powderpuff up front, and neither Sonic nor Spock offered much more than pace. Kris is different - he's fast, yes, but he's determined and spirited alongside his talent. How he didn't put his back out carrying the team today is a miracle.
But then he got hooked, and that's where things really fell apart. With no Bucky on the bench , we needed another outlet up front to support Sid, and since Clyde were taking the mickey out of us all day we also needed something different. On the bench is loan signing Lucas Akins - a big, strong, energetic looking guy with SPL experience determined to break his scoring duck and ready to make an impact during his spell at Firhill.
So McCall throws on Kev McKinlay up front.
Yes, second-choice left-back Kev McKinlay. Now, had he been bringing McKinlay in for Twaddle - so ineffectual today he might not have bothered showing up - that'd have been different. Or bringing him into midfield to offer some bite and a bit of width. Fine.
But up front? Now, McKinlay's a lot of things. He's energetic. He's determined. He's gutsy.
What he isn't is a natural striker.
By then we'd clearly lost the plot. And the fans' reaction to the substitution spoke volumes. This wasn't a reshuffle, it was a surrender, pure and simple.
Akins eventually came on and indeed offered something different - for the ten minutes or so he got a chance to shine. But in front of a packed Jags support, on derby day, in a game we desperately needed to win, Thistle once again absolutely bottled it.
In the match programme McCall talks about these matches determining whether or not we're in with a shot of promotion. But until there's change - real change, not just the shuffling of the deckchairs and rebranding exercises the board are so fond of at the moment, Thistle are doomed to exist in a state of torpor.
Ian, it's been a valiant effort this season, with no resources and a board happy to punt players at the drop of a hat, but unless there's a miracle of biblical proportions, we're going nowhere.
And I don't just mean in terms of moving up a league.
]]>Latest to be told he can leave is veteran hitman Mark Roberts.
Now, Marko's never been the most prolific of forwards, but he's been a reliable and faithful servant to the Jags since being signed during the reign of the Great Satan himself a few years back.
He's weighed in with more than a few crucial goals here and there during his spell at Firhill. And god knows what we need at the moment is goals.
]]> Saturday's display against St Johnstone once again underlined the desperate need for a potent strike force at Firhill. Donnelly's reverting back to type, sadly - after a phenomenal opening to the season, he's struggled for form with the fall of winter - while new boy Doolan still needs time to settle and Bucky can't carry the whole forward line on his own.Damon Gray has been shipped back to Hibs - which is no huge loss in terms of workrate, since the Vulcan lookalike's not really had a good game since that cup match at Ibrox - but leaves us perilously short of numbers.
I start to really fear for the club when we're shipping out guys just to get the wage bill down. If it was dead wood we were clearing out, that's one thing. But when we're cutting guys who can still do a job, even a small one, for us in the title race, that's a different, and worrying, situation entirely.
]]>In case you missed it, Ian McCall revealed the club's financial position is far more precarious than was previously thought, even by the doomsayers around these parts.
"It is a blow at the best of times but especially when you are challenging for the title and your nearest competitors are strengthening. You would ideally want to add four players at that time."
Four players? Four? Now, given we've shed Turner and McStay's likely to follow, but have brought in Doolan, that means we've got to get rid of three. Presuming we're not replacing or extending Lennon or Grey's contracts - and god knows we need extra firepower, even if we don't keep that pair - that still leaves another one to disappear off the books.
As McCall points out, this is a time when our SFL rivals are strengthening their numbers, recruiting extra squad players or refreshing key positions to make sure they've got the bodies and the experience for the title run in. Given how competitive the first division is this season, it's entirely understandable that they do so.
Thistle, I fear, stand at a crossroads. We face the nightmare prospect of part-time football as the current economic climate bites hard at Firhill. We face the prospect of undermining the good work McCall has done in bringing a talented squad together by punting a sizeable proportion of it at a time when we desperately need all hands on deck.
And we face the prospect of throwing away a credible title and promotion challenge.
So it's time the people running this club put their money where their mouths are. A couple of board members have paid up to join the management at Firhill - and sizeable sums too. Similar demands were made of the Jags Trust in a disappointingly petty way earlier this year, which showed how far down fatcat alley the former Save the Jags campaigners now entrusted with Thistle's future had gone.
Ian's most telling words in the interview with the Herald are these:
"When I arrived, the chairman, Tom Hughes, said there was a three-to-five-year plan. I think that is now a seven-to-10-year plan."
Make all the excuses you like for the guys in charge, but they've let the club down. There's been rumblings and rumours of stadium moves and the farce that was the redevelopment of the City end. There's been the fiasco of the rebranding and the ignorant behaviour that saw the new JH stand crest put over the Buy A Brick display of people who'd put their hard-earned cash into the club.
We've seen the downright malicious and pathetic way the club management have treated the former operator of PTFC.net, someone who gave time, energy and commitment way above the call of duty and got shafted royally for her efforts.
And in that time we've seen, in this year alone, the club take part in TWO televised cup ties, plus a supposedly lucrative groundshare deal with Glasgow Warriors. We've seen us make headlines around the world for our pink kit, which has supposedly sold like a monster.
Yet we're now sitting on more debt, having members of the squad let go to balance the books and McCall having his legs cut out from under him.
It's becoming embarrassing supporting Thistle. Not because of the players, or the management, or the fans. But because of the chimps and chumps running the club at the top.
Something needs to be done to stop this fiasco. Otherwise whoever is in the dugout - be it McCall or, god forbid, someone else - they may as well be rearranging deckchairs on the Titanic.
]]>In front of a pathetically small crowd - and one largely populated by the right kind of Jag, too - we succumbed, as we always did, to a side with a lethal edge in front of goal.
]]>Fair play to Caley Thistle, and especially to new boy Morais, who looked slick and full of tricks. But once again, our powderpuff attack found it impossible to get past any defence with more than a papier mache approach to football.
It's been the curse of the Jags under McCall, and something I've complained long and hard about within these pages. No matter what we do, we seem forever cursed to demonstrate a lack of cutting edge and physical strength up front.
Bucky and Donnelly aren't the answer, and I suspect new boy Doolan isn't either, even though he looked bright enough coming on for the final 15 minutes or so.
But our cup run ends early, and no big moneyspinning ties for Thistle this time round. Which, from what emerged over the weekend, could be a big, big problem...
]]>
Juniors hitman Kris Doolan's joined us on an 18-month deal. Chris Turner and Ryan McStay have been told they can go - and indeed, Turner's been released on a free after displaying nothing during his spell at Firhill (and far less than he displayed on his mobile phone...)
Despite coming in at 5'10", Doolan's reportedly decent in the air, which is a godsend at the moment given the diminutive nature of the Firhill strike force. But with both Gray and Lennon's loan deals set to expire this month - and hopefully neither being kept on - someone who can compliment Bucky Buchananananan and provide a bit of a threat in the box is more than welcome.
But there's other strengthening work required - and that could prove more problematic.
]]> Maxy's out with a broken foot for as much as eight weeks - a huge hole at the back of the Thistle defence, given how reliable he's been this season. It means either a big rejig of the back line, and more games for Bombscare Kinniburgh - or McCall's going to have to find a reliable central defender to bring in for a couple of months.And there's the question of who do we keep hold of. Lennon and Gray will likely be off - and won't be missed, unlike much of Damon's attempts on goal - while Turner has been punted and McStay'll likely be next out the door.
Tuffey's being increasingly linked with moves elsewhere, while Harkins has been attracting SPL interest too. At least if they go it'll bring in a bit of cash, although Jonny especially will be a hard one to replace. We could probably survive on Hinchcliffe for the rest of the season, but it'll put paid to any promotion hopes, one suspects. Harkins I wouldn't necessarily miss, but again he offers something that'd be hard to replace.
]]>My track record with the derby matches has been pretty shonky since I moved back up north - unlike Thistle's, which has been pretty damn spectacular.
We've now avoided defeat, or enjoyed a comfortable gubbing of the Broadwood Big Issue sellers, for seven games on the spin - two whole years of lording it over them.
But I've not seen us win at Broadwood. Never. I've either not been able to make it (which is invariably when we win) or we've been spanked like Max Mosley after a particularly enjoyable evening of grown up entertainment.
]]> It's actually becoming a source of amusement now. Like most football fans, deep down I'm quite superstitious about match-related things. Not quite to the chocolate-mouse-under-a-tire extremes, admittedly, but there's certain things I've always got to do before a game.But the result, from 1-0 down to an impressive 4-2 win, speaks volumes about Thistle's season so far. We're sitting third, looking comfortable, yet still liable to suffer moments of utter madness and perform like relegation candidates against sides we should be tucking away comfortably.
The question is, where do we go from here? Do the Jags have what it takes to go up this year? And if we do, can we afford not to?
So I can only apologise. Although, after the last few weeks, I'm sure you can guess the general tone of the posts that got away.
Painfully, my old man was up for the holidays and came to see his first game since the summer, the diabolically bad performance against Ross County on the 27th.
Merry Christmas, eh?
Not good enough, McCall. Sort it out.
]]>But I read this piece on the Times' website today and my blood boiled hot enough to melt permafrost.
]]> Now, there's a few on there that I can't disagree with. Tim Lovejoy for example - a man who represents all that's wrong with football in the modern age, not least his truly horrific excuse for a football book and his general demeanour of being a man you'd never tire of whalloping in the face with a shovel.But there's a few on there where it just sounds like petty sneering and smart-arsing by someone who clearly hasn't watched a game of football in their life.
Elton John for example. Now, whatever you think of Elton John - and all the documentary evidence suggests he's a preening, queeny prima donna - he's a genuine Watford fan who really did put his money where his mouth is as chairman of the club for many years.
Ricky Hatton. Not only one of the finest boxers of his generation, but such a die hard City fan that he used to turn out in shorts made from a replica shirt, and to this day still wears sky blue in the ring. A man who wears his support on his sleeve (and round his waist).
Hugh Grant. Worked as a sodding groundsman at Fulham when he was younger. Now that's commitment for you. Still goes regularly to the Cottage. Sat during last season's final day relegation battle with the haunted look of a man knowing his side are seconds from going down. You don't get that if you're a Johnny Come Lately.
Sean Bean. Again - wears his love of Sheffield Utd on his sleeve, or on his upper arm, to be precise, having had it tattooed on there. Apparently fell out with Neil Warnock over wanting the club to get shot of it's mascot. Since everyone's fallen out with Neil Warnock at some point, that's not a surprise. Hating the mascot though - Sean, I salute you.
Now, I know the article's trying to be funny (albeit not trying very hard) but my problem is this - who the hell is the Times, or anyone in fact, to call someone a bad football fan. Especially if it's somebody who pays their money every week, follows the club either from the stands or afar, and is proud of their support.
We're obviously a selling club, as everyone is in these economically challenged days, but Jonny's an international class keeper, has performed heroics at Firhill and is under contract until the end of next season. So I would hope for at least a six figure sum if we're even considering flogging him off.
Likewise Liam Buchananananan, who Dundee United and Hibs are both regularly linked with. Paul Hegarty was apparently scouting Liam recently, so I'd not be surprised to see United move in for him. Again, I'd hope to see a decent sum recouped for him, and the board to spend well - ideally on another striker, with a bit of physical presence, Damon Gray is nowhere near the answer, while Lennon's pace is unfortunately not matched by his ability.
Sid's best sitting behind the frontman and providing that killer ball through, so someone he can feed with those nice touches and flicks would be key to Thistle continuing their good form.
Of course, in an ideal world we'd not sell either, and they'd go on to have even greater success at Firhill. But if we must start selling in January, then please Ian McCall, and please Coco the Clown, do not waste this chance to strengthen the side.
]]>Harkins, who for so long this season has provoked much muttering and grumbling from your hapless blogger, also produced a sublime, gorgeous run which was almost Maradona-esque in execution, although ending in a shot that curled just past the post rather than with the goal it richly deserved.
Indeed, Harkins was on song - and about bloody time too - as Thistle dominated the first half with some tremendous one-touch football and silky passing, right throughout the team. Paul Paton's growing confidence was reflected in the diminutive right-back (gasp!) jumping for headers and shouting for the ball, and rewarded with some nice crosses from the wing into the box. Likewise Kevin McKinlay on the left, deputising once again for the crocked Twaddle, bombed up and down the flanks, exchanging touches with Donnelly and Harkins.
Meanwhile Liam Buchananananan up front looks like he's never been away - his pace and ability mean he's going to be bloody hard to keep hold of this January.
But we have a huge problem at Thistle. No, two huge problems. We can't kill off teams. And we get murdered by sides who like physical play.
Throw us up against side that like to pass and move, as John Barnes once rapped, and we shine. It's one of the reasons we looked decent against Rangers in the cup two months ago - let us knock the ball about, and McCall's skill-based game comes to the fore. But we lack physical presence anywhere except in defence. Harkins is our tallest midfielder, but is a lanky streak of nothing and has more than once bottled out of a tackle where he should have put the foot in. Rowson has a bit of bulk behind him, but our wingers, Donnelly, McKeown, Chaplain, Liam and loan Ranger Stevie Lennon would struggle to outweigh Rey Mysterio Jr, let alone a towering monster like Dave McKay.
And that's what's causing us problems this season. Because as soon as we get an edge in a game, Thistle get battered and beaten, outmuscled to the ball on too many occasions. We've got the guile, we've got the moves, but we just don't have the presence on the park. And in as competitive a league as this one, that physicality is a criticality.
While I get a chance - what's with the Lions fans giving it yahoo with the 'in your Glasgow slums' ditty. For any club in their perilous position to be making jibes about poverty is either supreme irony or just asking for a fall.
No, Livvy have no money to pay the bills, but they do have Callum Elliot, a lumbering, lurching, cheating giant against Thistle's liliputian side. His continual diving and the odd forearm smash here or there came back to haunt him, and perhaps unfairly. In no way was it a penalty after his best Greg Louganis impersonation, but he did deserve a free kick for being felled later on - and instead got a warning from the lacklustre ref.
Meanwhile, Livvy boasted Ant McPartland among their line-up. With McPartland on Livvy duty and Donnelly in the Thistle ranks, I'm A Celebrity must have had the b-team presenters out last night.
But three home wins out of three from our ridiculously screwed-up fixture calendar is a fantastic result, especially when you see just how tight this league is shaping up to be. And since we don't have another home game for a whole month, the tough test comes mid-week when the SFL, in it's infinite wisdom, has Thistle heading north to Dingwall, in winter, for a 7.30pm kick-off.
Utter genius from our league paymasters, obviously.
]]>Now, I know I congratulated the Queens support last weekend for bringing the noise with them, but for an official representative of the club to criticise its fans, on the back of a losing streak the width of the river Kelvin, shows everything that remains wrong about the hierarchy at the club.
That said, the perfect response came firing back at said moaner yesterday, as the Clyde fans - in good voice early on - found themselves outsung by Section 7. The childrens end. Yes, the sight of our young support outsqueeking the Gypsie hoards in the Viagra stand only adds to a perfect day.
]]> This was a tidy, if unspectacular, performance from the Jags today, but after - through ridiculous circumstance - missing every derby clash this calendar year, I'll take any victory I can get.And let's get this out the way first. Sorry to sound like a broken record but... Gary Harkins. Seriously now, what's going on? With every week his presence in the first team becomes more and more frustrating. When he breaks on a run forward I despair, knowing that its not the opposition that will disrupt the move, it'll be himself, tripping up over his own feet.
There's nothing worse than a player who ends up beating himself.
On the other hand, Paul Paton continues to impress. Against the Gypsies, he was full of energy and turned in a solid defensive shift, even running the full width of the pitch to pull of an inch-perfect slide tackle when the rest of the defence were standing off.
And, as our ever more enthusiastic stadium announcer took delight in pointing out, what a joy to be able to say for the first time in nine months that Liam Buchanan had scored. Liam's looked great since his return, and he could have had a couple more today but for bad luck.
What's becoming clear is that, when we tick, we look great, and that McCall's efforts at bringing in arguably untried, inexperienced young talent from the lower leagues is reaping dividends. Skipper Ian Maxwell is, I'm sure, the oldest member of the team and provides a steadying hand in the back line along the younger Paton, McKinlay, and Kinniburgh.
The latter's inexperience occasionally shows but he's proved an able deputy for Simon Storey, though he put a moment of fear through the fans when he half-assed a passback and Tuffey thankfully slid in to the rescue.
Clyde under Bomber Brown have turned out to be a brutal, thuggish side - far worse than Queens' physical approach last week - that play in a manner best described as 'smashmouth', most perfectly demonstrated in a sickening tackle on Simon Donnelly that nearly dumped his kneecaps in the Main Stand. They, thankfully, got what they deserved from the match - hee haw. Defeat at Firhill left them at the bottom of Division One, and long may they stay there to rot.
Annoyingly, we've now got a bit of momentum behind us that will have to be derailed by a week off - the Ross County game being rescheduled because of the latter's Alba Cup commitments, leaving us a trip to Dingwall on a Wednesday night in November. Who the hell came up with that idea?
But with Livingston coming, Thistle must keep the momentum going if we're going to be a credible threat in the Division going into 2009.
]]>Jamie McQuilken take a bow.
]]> I'm not quite sure why I dislike McQuilken so much. Perhaps it's his bruising, thuggish demeanour, or his petulant little temper tantrums whenever something doesn't go his way. Or perhaps it's his spiteful, cowardly method of clearing the ball when it's going for a throw-in, by booting it straight at the first person in the crowd he sees.That aside, two-nil really wasn't a fair reflection of the game. Queens' play in the early stages of the second half merited at least a goal, while Thistle's continuing inability to get a goal from our strikers remains a worry. But at the same time, I'm not convinced McKinlay's goal-that-wasn't genuinely was offside.
This was a win we desperately needed, if only to bring some confidence back to a side which has been on shaky ground in recent weeks. And there were some encouraging signs on display at Firhill, where sadly the crowd took longer to warm up than the players.
MoM honours went, according to the match sponsor, to Liam Buchananananan, but I'd probably have picked Paul Paton. He's still occasionally guilty of needing two touches to control a ball when one will do, but he played with a drive and swagger yesterday that showed why McCall made the right move bringing him in. His crossing into the box and across goal from the right hand channel was a real danger, and his drive and vision going forward impressed. There's the makings of a great player there for Thistle, if he's given time and coaching to strengthen his game.
McKinlay proved an able deputy for Twaddle at left back, as part of a scratch-built defence exposed by injuries and suspensions. They weren't helped by a midfield with a tendency to go missing more often than not. Rowson's form fluctuates from sublime to ridiculous, while Gary Harkins continues to frustrate - nowhere more illustrated than against Queens, where time and time again he overcooked his run or missed the obvious man, and contriving to give the ball away as a result.
Queens look a good side, albeit a very physical one, but also a petulant one - McQuilkin's behaviour I've already touched on, but Craig Barr's playacting and Thomson's attempt to unscrew Liam Buchananananan's head were also particularly unsporting. And it's sad to highlight those, because going forward they were a damned impressive, slick and creative team which looked fitter and faster than our lot to the ball. Steven Dobbie especially caught the eye with his neat play for Queens.
Kudos too to the Queens fans, who came in good numbers and even better voice to provide an almost constant chorus of support from the Viagra Stand. Given how slow Thistle fans have been of late to get behind the side - unless the TV cameras are there, interestingly - it's always embarrassing to hear a chorus of 'shall we sing a song for you?'
Ultimately though, we merited a win, and god knows we need it. With the bi-annual visit of the Gypsies in a week's time, Thistle need to get back to form, especially given how insanely tight this league's becoming. I genuinely fancy the title race to go to the wire, and there's little doubt Queen of the South will be in the reckoning at that point. So this was essential.
Right, one down, Bring on the travellers.
]]>Coincidence? Possibly. But when it comes to football I'm a big believer in superstition. And before the Rangers TV match, where we the Ignis logo first appeared on the fabled Red and Yellow, we had a WLD record of 9-2-1 and were playing fantastic football by Thistle's standards.. Since then we've gone 0-5-1 and look like a tired, overwrought bunch of clodhoppers.
Ignis, incidentally, for the Latin scholars among you, means fire or spark. And since we started carrying their logo the spark has most definitely gone from this team.
The Saturday work commitment curse struck again to deny me a trip to the hellspawned trip to McDiarmid, home of so many tedious games (anyone remember that godawful Sky match a decade or so ago)? But reading the report and the reaction among the Jags support it's clear something's gone from this team.
And more worrying, there's calls among the support for Ian McCall's head.
Now, admittedly we're miles away from doing a Spurs, but there's an urgent need for a turnaround at the club as soon as possible. We've got tricky home clashes with Queens - who look very impressive this season - and the gypsies in the next fortnight, both of which are matches we can ill afford to lose. And should we find ourselves on the wrong end of a doing from either of them, I suspect the catcalls and boos are only going to get louder.