The Thistle Archive

Media report

A quick survey at the start revealed that the most serious holes were in the visitors defence. Looking to pick up 50-50 offside decisions, Alan Dinnie and Steven Welsh left their colleague Nicky Walker dangerously exposed, allowing Motherwell strikers Dougie Arnott and Alex Burns to push through and intimidate the masked man. Walker, though, is a stand-up sort of guy and looked unlikely to be forced into the sort of fluffs that were multiplying alarmingly in front of him.

Determined as the home side were, the fates seemed to have different plans. Their agent on earth was referee Ian Taylor, who gifted the visitors a series of hair's-breadth decisions. By the half-hour, Motherwell looked not so much demoralised as intensely frustrated. The same fates decreed that Mr. Taylor had perhaps overplayed his hand, or more exactly his hamstring. Repairs were called for and the experienced Bobby Orr took over for the second half. A dismaying afternoon for Alex McLeish was crowned only when substitute Davies, having contributed nothing to the proceedings, contrived to get his name in the papers by stamping on Thistle's Stephen Docherty.

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