1st Aug 1998 East Fife 3 Partick Thistle 2 (League Cup 1st Round)

matches:1998-99: ← 05game 0607 →

Match Information

			Stevie Kirk		Tommy Bryce			38y, 6m, 5d
					Kenny Arthur; Tommy Bryce
					Stevie Ross; Mark Donaghy
John Cusick (2-1, 36 mins); Ronnie Coyle (2-2, 79 mins); Stevie Kirk (2-3, 95 mins)					Martin Lauchlan (1-0, 13 mins); Alan Morgan (2-0, 19 mins)
Richard Gibb					David Kennedy
Dave Fisher (Gordon Brown, HT); Barrie Moffat (Phil Gartshore, 76 mins); John Cusick (Stevie Kirk, 102 mins)					Sammy Johnston (Tommy Callaghan, 90 mins); Willie Callaghan (Robert Dunn, 98 mins); Tommy Bryce (Mark Donaghy, 119 mins)
			Willie McCulloch		Kenny Arthur			19y, 7m, 25d
			Gibby Allan		David Kennedy			31y, 9m, 25d
			John Cusick		Scott McArthur			30y, 5m, 4d
			George Johnston		Willie Jamieson			35y, 3m, 5d
			Jason Strathdee		Alan Archibald			20y, 7m, 19d
			Ronnie Coyle		Graham Connell			23y, 9m, 1d
			Dickie Gibb		Martin Lauchlan			17y, 10m, 0d
			Dave Fisher		Tommy Bryce			38y, 6m, 5d
			Kenny Munro		Willie Callaghan			31y, 4m, 9d
			John Martin		Alan Morgan			23y, 7m, 22d
			Barrie Moffat		Sammy Johnston			31y, 3m, 19d
								27y, 7m, 26d
			Phil Gartshore		Robert Dunn			19y, 1m, 4d
			Stevie Kirk		Tommy Callaghan			28y, 11m, 4d
			Gordon Brown		Mark Donaghy			25y, 11m, 3d

Match Report

TTA report

AET. Thistle were coasting when Lauchlan scored from a Morgan cross (13) and when Morgan took a Johnston pass (19). Callaghan should have made it 3-0 (28). The Fifers deservedly scored (36). Bryce's 25-yarder hit the post, a 20-yarder made it 2-2 (79) and more slack defending led to the winner (95). Thrown away.

Media report

03-Aug-1998, The Scotsman

THISTLE STRUCK DOWN BY METHIL MADNESS. CONSIGNED to a season among the also-rans of Scottish football for the first time in living memory, Partick made the sojourn to dishevelled Methil at possibly the lowest ebb in their history. They left feeling a whole lot worse. Yet it had all started so brightly for them. The home goal was shamelessly ransacked in the early stages as the visitors, looking resplendent in white shirts, set about their task with gusto. Martin Lauchlan headed the opener after just 12 minutes, before Alan Morgan burst through a wall of defenders to add a second. That, you thought, was that, but Partick are never home and dry. Being a Thistle fan should carry a government health warning, because what followed was total capitulation. Failure to translate desire into fulfilment undid them. The East Fife midfielder, John Cusick, chipped home in the 36th minute to sow the first seeds of doubt in the Thistle camp. Partick won the League Cup in 1971 when they battered four goals past a Celtic side that included Kenny Dalglish and Dixie Deans. But the memories of Alan Rough rampaging around Hampden Park with his prominent perm and trophy in hand are fading fast.

It was the veteran Ronnie Coyle, making his East Fife debut, who turned the match when he hammered a shot from 25 yards past Kenny Arthur. That took the tie into extra-time, and there was only going to be one outcome. The home side's player/manager, Steve Kirk, was the man to administer the last rites when he deftly plucked a Coyle pass from the air before turning to ram a right-foot shot past Arthur. The home side where ecstatic after 120 minutes and now face Motherwell in the second round on Saturday.

But for Thistle there was only widespread depression. Manager Tommy Bryce said: “We were overconfident, and once we got two in front we thought it was just going to happen for us, but we have learned a hard lesson. That result must have opened a few players' eyes and I think the players have been given a timely lesson that it's not going to be easy in this division,” he admitted. On this evidence, it certainly will not.

Scrapbook

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PTFC Match Programme, 22nd August, 1998

Stats Watch

● Martin Lauchlan scores his first goal for Thistle.

● Thistle's 53rd League Cup campaign begins and ends on the same day, for the eighth time.

ongoing sequences:

● 30 consecutive competitive appearances for Alan Archibald, 18th Oct 1997 to date, a new personal best. (Longest run since: Jimmy Boyle - 39 games, 2nd Aug 1997 to 9th May 1998. Club-record: Johnny Jackson - 313 games, 28th Aug 1926 to 25th Mar 1933.)

Stats Watch adheres to our stated definitions of League, League Max, Major Competitive, Competitive or All Games. Where there is no written qualification, you should presume that the Stat in question is compiled from the All Games criteria.

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