Firhill for Thrills: Glasgow's Great Unpredictables.

Glasgow. A city where two clubs dominate the footballing scene and have both achieved huge amounts within the domestic game. Rangers have 54 top flight League titles. Celtic have 46. Both have achieved a success on the European stage as well, Celtic winning the European Cup and Rangers the Cup winners Cup, and both have appeared in European finals within the last 15 years. Even Queens Park, a club who now play in the bottom tier of Scottish football have achieved a degree of success in the early days of the game, winning 10 Scottish Cups.

But what of Glasgow's other team - Partick Thistle. A single Scottish cup win in the 1920's, and the most glorious day in the clubs history in 1971 when they defeated Celtic 4-1 to lift the Scottish League Cup. That being said the club has certainly seen more difficult days than memorable ones, being the first Scottish club to really face financial Armageddon back in 1998 before the "Save the Jags" campaign and since then spending the majority of it's days floating around the second or third tier of Scottish football. But no more. Having been promoted after a tough title race in the 2012-13 season, they managed to stay up by the skin of their teeth in their first season up. Now it's time to kick on, and be the success that Thistle's long suffering fans have waited for.

With a talented young squad, a loyal fan base and a sense of optimism around the club there is no doubt that Thistle could go on a be a huge success. Let's make it so.

In their first season up, as with most clubs, the aim was survival and nothing more. Staying in the division was all that mattered. And that was achieved, just. But now, the board have decided it's time to be ambitious and are now expecting the side to reach the top six of the Scottish Prempiership and secure that top six finish.



This would be a huge achievement for the club - even finishing sixth would be the best finish since the 1980/81 season! Nevertheless, you have to be ambitious if you want to achieve your goals and I feel the squad is up to the challenge. The board also want us as a minimum to reach the semi final of the Scottish Cup, which would be the first since 2002,

Onto the squad, and there are some areas which I feel need addressed and strengthened if we are to achieve our aims this season.

Goalkeeperscott Fox and Paul Gallacher are my two senior goalkeepers, with Ryan Scully (who is on loan at Dunfermline for the season), Scott Basalaj and Marc Waters in the Under 20's able to provide cover in case of an emergency. This is probably one of the weakest area of my squad, and the one which I am hoping to add a player to most quickly as a good keeper can save a huge deal of points throughout the season. With Gallacher aging and Fox looking like he might not be good enough for where we want to be, I'll need to look for other options.


Defence: One of the stronger areas of my team, Balatoni, Frans and Seaborne give me 3 very good options for centre back, while O'Donnell and McMillan (who can also fill in at left back if needs be) provide two good right backs to give me 3 of my 4 defensive positions filled. Left back is the one real problem area in the back line, and the one that'll need to be looked into, as Booth and Keenan aren't yet, and potentially never will be ready for the higher reaches of the Scottish game. Liam Lindsay, who'll be spending the season at Airdrieonians in the League 1, is one to watch for the future with real potential to be a really good player for the club. The rest aren't up to too much, I'll look to ship Ben Richards-Everton off somewhere either as a full transfer or on loan as he isn't and never will be good enough for the team.


Midfield: Central Midfield is another strong area of my team, with Bannigan, Fraser and Osman all very good options in there to start, and Craigen and Welsh more than capable of providing cover and depth to the squad. In the attacking midfield role, Ryan Stevenson will be my main man, with Higginbotham or Elliott playing right wing and Lawless taking the left wing. Elliot is a good option to have as he can cover both wings, as well as a couple of other positions and as such he'll be used all over the place. I'm going to try and bring in a bit of extra cover for the attacking trio of positions as I want to send McDaid out on loan to try and improve him as I don't think he'll get sufficient game time here, alongside Wilson who I think could be a useful option in the future.


Forwards: With only two established strikers in the squad in the forms of Kris Doolan and Lyle Taylor, it is a position in which I lack any real depth and that is something I'll certainly be looking to bring in. Those two do give me two different style of striker which is handy for tailoring my game plan, but with a real lack of any genuine prospects in the youth team, I'll need to have a look at getting at least one up and coming striker in, and maybe a more experienced one as well for the season ahead.


So that's the squad I've inherited, and while I'll be looking to add a couple of players to it, that will be the basis for my success or failure this season. With a fairly solid spine to the team, we should be capable of achieving our ambitions this year, but you never know in football. Anyway, now that's dealt with, onto the season itself!

Next Update: Pre-Season and Signings

When joining a new club, the first thing to have a look at and deal with is not, in my opinion, the squad but rather the backroom staff who are the key, in my opinion, to building a successful club. With that in mind, I evaluated the staff that had been at the club and found that rather than keep a lot of them, a better option would be to bring in a large number of new faces. It was due to this that Joe McLaughlin was brought in to be my assistant manager, probably the most important role within the club outwith myself as manager. On the coaching front, I brought in Arthur Albiston, Joe Corrigan, John Clayton and Ross Preston. Finally, with a real dearth of quality scouts at the club, a role which is crucial in obviously identifying and looking at new talent for the playing squad, I decided to employ the services of Paul Montgomery, Ian Storey-Moore and George Rooney. With, what I hope will be, a very solid backroom staff in place (for the time being at least), it was time to move on and address some of the issues with the squad I'd inherited.

With all of that taken care of for the season, it was time to address the playing squad. This proved to be slightly more problematic than I had hoped, as the players I could afford in the positions I had identified weren't good enough to improve my squad, and the ones who could improve my squad weren't within my budget and consequently I couldn't afford. Therefore, I resorted to bringing in just two players, one for the first team immediately and one whom I hope can grow into a really useful player to have around Firhill.

First up, is my signing for the first team, and that comes in the form of 32 year old Estonian Joel Lindpere. He joins the club after spells in his native Estonia alongside Bulgaria, Norway, The USA and most recently in the Czech top flight with Banik Ostrava. A highly experienced international with real technical ability, I'm hoping that he can be a good player on the park but also help off it with the development of some of my younger players. He joins on a 2 year deal.

Next up was one for the future, and that comes in the form of 21 year old Frenchman Pierre Saintot. After being released by ESTAC Troyes in his homeland, he has come to Firhill hoping to rebuild his career. It is a strategy that has worked for quite a few current and former Thistle stars, all of whom join after their release from supposedly bigger clubs and flourish in the famous red and yellow. He is a young striker, with a good touch and finishing and a wee touch of pace, but he is certainly a raw player and needs a lot of work before he'll be up to the standard required by the club. He has signed a 4 year deal, which shows that he certainly has the potential to make the difference in the future.

In terms of players departing the squad, despite strong interest in a few of my key players such as Doolan and O'Donnell, there were no permanent departures from the club. The only outward transfers were Keenan and McDaid, both of whom have gone on six month loan deals, to Ayr and Airdrieonians respectively. A good move all round, as they are unlikely to get into my team as things stand but I certainly want them to be getting some game time at this stage in their development.

There may be a few more ins and outs as the transfer window still has 3 weeks to go, but unless any real gems present themselves or there's a "can't say no to" kind of offer I wouldn't expect to see too much in this window.



The Pre-season friendlies went largely to script, I beat the teams I should be beating, lost to the ones I should be losing to and had a hard fought draw against a Crewe side I would imagine are of a similar standard to myself. These games are mainly just to get a bit of match fitness anyway, and the results aren't important but we seem to have a slight issue scoring goals. Here's hoping we can rectify that when it actually counts!

That's it and I leave you on the eve of the season beginning, with a tough ask away to Celtic. Coming up this month are...



A tough start against Celtic and tough end against Aberdeen, but all the other games look very winnable from the outset, with us facing both of the newly promoted sides as well as Ross County who finished just 2 points ahead of us at the end of last season. Here we go!

We started the month, and season, with the toughest tie in any given season - going away to Parkhead to face Celtic. But we were handed a glorious opportunity to get off to the best possible start when Nir Biton fouled Freddie Frans in the box, and a penalty was awarded. Kris Doolan stepped up and made no mistake from the spot to send us into the lead just 7 minutes into the game! Things almost got better in the 12th minute when a break on the counter presented a chance to Higginbotham, but he fired over the bar. We were to rue that when a corner was headed out to Mubarak Wakaso and he fired in a long range shot to make it 1-1 after 14 minutes. Doolan again found the back of the net after 26 minutes, but this time the linesman's flag came to Celtic's rescue. There was no such rescue for them 10 minutes later, when Doolan again provided the finishing touch and we were 2-1 up and in dreamland. Balatoni then got in on the act, as Celtic struggled to clear a corner and he added a third! 3-1 away to Celtic going into half time is an almost ideal scenario for any visiting side, in what has become a famous ground for its atmosphere and partisan support. The second half started poorly, and our lead was halved to 3-2 when Leigh Griffiths struck inside a minute of the restart. The match, however, petered out for a while at this point, which it had to at some point after a higely eventful first half, before Ryan Stevenson struck in our fourth to restore the 2 goal lead! It didn't last, as Celtic immediately got one back through a Scepovic penalty and it looked to be 4-4 before another goal was chalked off, this time for Anthony Stokes. We managed to see out the rest of the game thankfully and record a huge win, and pick up 3 massive points to start the season.

An uneventful first half was the next thing for us in our first home match, against Ross County. Frans had the only meaningful chance for either side but his effort was blocked and sent wide. After the half, however, we grabbed the initiative and took the lead through a great wee Higginboitham goal. Saintot managed to get a goal on his debut for the club to wrap up the points and make it 2 out of 2.

We were brought back down to earth with defeat against Dundee, in a game we could have won had we taken our chances but we simply didn't and in the end a single David Clarkson goal was enough to condemn us to defeat in our first trip to Tayside.

Following this, we managed to agree a deal with Stenhousemuir for them to become a feeder club. Plying their trade in the League 1, the third tier of Scottish football, they are an ideal candidate to allow me to loan some of my young stars to develop them and aid their development into first team regulars. Pierre Saintot will be the first one to make this trip, leaving for two months to get some regular game time.

Next up, we got back to league action at Firhill, this time for the visit of Hamilton Accies. Lindpere got his first for the club to put us in the lead after just 2 minutes, before we squandered a handful of chances to extend that lead. Following this, we could have no complaints when Accies equalised on the stroke of half time. However, in the second half, Steven Lawless, making his first appearance of the season managed to give us the lead back, and we made sure of the 3 points late on when Lyle Taylor's drilled cross was met by Stevenson for his second of the season.

Our game against Ayr United in the League Cup was as routine as they come, with goals from Taylor and Booth seeing us very safely into the next round of the competition without getting out of first gear.

We ended the month against Aberdeen, one of the strongest teams in the league, and once again our lead came through a Kris Doolan penalty kick in the early stages of the match. After this we were very much the second best team on the day, but somehow manage to survive a series of chances and half chances for the hosts, and saw the result out to get the 3 points, even despite Abdul Osman's late red card.

All of that means that we sit 3rd in the table at the end of August, tied on points with 1st and 2nd. A very encouraging start to the campaign, and if we are able to keep it up we'll have a very successful season.

On the back of a cracking opening month, we had to contend with both the transfer window closing, and taking a rest from competitive action with the international break. Deadline day saw just one player leave the club, as Kallum Higginbotham left to Brighton for an initial 125k, with clauses which could see it rise to over 200k. Was reluctant to see him go, but he wanted away and I feel I have good cover in his position anyway.

We got back to action later in the month against Inverness Caley, and Kris Doolan hat trick, including two penalties, saw us comfortable 3-0 winners over our Highland guests. A very good win against a decent side. We were unable to follow it up with another 3 points as we failed to defeat St Mirren at home, where we definitely had the better of the play, but were unable to make it count in what turend into a pretty dull 0-0 draw.

Next up was our double header with Kilmarnock, starting off with League Cup action. While the league cup is looked down on in some countries and quarters as being unimportant, in a country which has been historically dominated by two teams to the extent which Scotland has, the League Cup provides a twice annual chance at glory for the other clubs. It was a real shame, therefore, that I was knocked out by Kilmarnock, losing 3-1 in a game that we really didn't show up for.

We rounded out the month with another match against Killie, this time in the league and this time we were on the right end of the result, triumphing 1-0, thanks to a Christie Elliott goal. That result meant that we had lost just one of our first 8 in the league, a truly great run of form from ourselves. It also letf us sitting top of the league going into October...

The month started with a confident performance against Motherwell, with goals from Kris Doolan and Steven Lawless giving us a 3-0 lead before James Vincent pulled one back for the Lanarkshire side. And so our march continued, and it was Dundee United, themselves struggling and with a manager (coincidentally also a former Thistle manager) under pressure, whom we faced next. It was a shock therefore, to see them go into half time with a 2-0 lead. However, we then rallied after the break and soon found ourselves level, and then ahead! We were pegged back once more to 3-3, before in the dying minutes of the game, Stevie Lawless struck to give us a crucial win.

We ended the month by drawing with St Johnstone with Callum Booth's freekick saving a point after we'd fallen behind. These dropped points meant that we came off top place in the league, but still being in second place after 3 months of the season was much more than I expected at this stage.

The month began with a solid win against Hamilton. a goal from Doolan gave us the lead, before Bannigan doubled the lead late on. Hamilton pulled one back to make it a shaky end to the game but in the end we managed to see it through to the end. Next up was a very hard fought win against St Mirren, falling behind to a Callum Ball goal before Joel Lindpere brought us level. David Wilson scored his first goal for the club with 9 minutes left to secure a valuable 3 points for the club.

Our first real, real disappointment of the season came at home against Aberdeen, as we were unable to score for only the second time all season and our first loss in 10 league matches. The loss saw us pulled closer to Aberdeen, in third, and away from Celtic who are now clear of us at the top of the league. We followed this up, however, with a much improved performance in our Scottish Cup opener. We fell behind due to a bizarre own goal by Danny Seaborne, but in the end we were simply much superior to Motherwell and ran out very comfortable 6-1 winners. Next up in our cup run is Falkirk, a club playing in the Scottish Championship - the second tier.

On the back of this, we have slipped back a bit from Celtic, but we still sit second in the table which up to this point is a remarkable achievement. If you'd offered me this at the start of the season, I'd have absolutely taken it so to be in this position is a great achievement. We are also 8 points clear of Aberdeen in third which gives us a fair bit of room to work with, and allows us to slip up to some degree should that happen