The Thistle Archive

Dundee’s second holiday fixture came off Carolina Port yesterday when Partick Thistle were the visitors. There was a fair attendance of spectators. The Thistle started the game, but a foul against them not far from goal prevented any chance they had of scoring. The pressing was then done by the homesters, most conspicuous among whom were Vail and Thomson. The visitors had a look-in occasionally, but the magnificent defence presented by Dundee kept the Carolina men safe. Nevertheless a good spell of pressing was put in by Partick, who at times looked dangerous. Thomson then came away with a fine run on the right, and Currie could only clear at the expense of a corner. This, however, gave no decisive advantage, and little Campbell on the right tried dribbling. Play continued in midfield for a time, ruling fairly even, but at last the brilliant left-winger of the visitors gave a clever pass to Paul, who with a swift shot beat Barrett. Partick continued to press, but despite their combined efforts no further scoring took place, and at half-time the scores stood as follows:- Partick Thistle, 1 goal; Dundee, 0. Dundee were the first to appear after a lengthy interval, and immediately took up the running. Their progress, however, was stopped by Stewart and Currie, who all through the game combined with Proudfoot in constituting a capable defence. Great dash and determination were now infused into the game by the ground eleven, some clever shots coming in from the right wing. The Western men then began to assume an aggressive air, but the attack was withstood by the Dundee in a capable fashion. As in the first 45, play was often of a give-and-take nature, although the major part of the hostilities was done by the Thistle forwards, who took long drives at goal. The whole front line were working well together, while the half-back trio were steady, this enabling Paul to score another goal ten minutes from the opening of the second period, while another came from the foot of Bryce fifteen minutes after. Dundee strove hard to reduce this unexpected margin of three goals, but the vigour of Partick's attack was if anything increased. The homesters were outplayed at almost every point, though Vail experienced decidedly hard lines. Holiday form, In fact, charactertised all Dundee's efforts, and the game ended in a meritorious win for the Thistle by 3 goals to nil. The visitors were a superior team all through and fully deserved their win. The Dundee backs were the best part of an otherwise shaky eleven, the forwards showing up miserably, while between the sticks veteran Barrett was “fluky”.

Dundee Courier, Friday, 3rd January, 1896

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